Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham: A History and Guide, Arranged AlphabeticallyHarman, Thomas T.
History
Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham: A History and Guide, Arranged Alphabetically
Harman, Thomas T.
Birmingham (England) -- History -- Dictionaries
Alfred Wagstaffe, of Nechell's Green, kicked his wile for pawning his
shirt, on October 25, 1879. She died a week after, and he was sent to
penal servitude for ten years.
An Irishman, named John Gateley, was shot on Saturday, December 5, 1880,
in a beerhouse at Solihull, by a country man who got away; the murdered
man had been connected with the Irish Land League.
Mrs. Ellen Jackson, a widow, 34 years of age, through poverty and
despondency, poisoned herself and two children, aged seven and nine, on
Sunday, November 27, 1881. One child recovered.
Frederick Serman, at the Four Dwellings, near Saltley, Nov. 22, 1883,
shot Angelina Yanwood, and poisoned himself, because the woman would not
live longer with him "to be clemmed."
James Lloyd, Jan. 6, 1884, stabbed his wife Martha, because she had not
met him the previous afternoon. She died four days after, and he was
sentenced to death, but reprieved.
Mrs. Palmer and Mrs. Stewart were shot by Henry Kimberley at the White
Hart, Paradise Street, Dec. 28, 1884. Mrs. Palmer died, and Kimberley
was hung at Winson Green, March 17, 1885.
James Davis, policeman, while on his beat at Alvechurch, was murdered
Feb. 28, 1885, by Moses Shrimpton, a Birmingham poacher and thief.
Elizabeth Bunting, a girl of 16, was murdered at Handsworth, April 20,
1885, by her uncle, Thomas Boulton.
~Museums.~--No place in England ought to have a better collection of
coins and medals, but there is no Numismatic Museum in Birmingham. Few
towns can show such a list of patentees and inventors, but we have no
Patent Museum wherein to preserve the outcome of their ideas. Though the
town's very name cannot be traced through the mists of dim antiquity,
the most ancient thing we can show is the Old Crown public-house. Romans
and Normans, Britons and Saxons, have all trod the same ground as
ourselves, but we preserve no relics of them. Though we have supplied
the whole earth with firearms, it was left to Mr. Marshall, of Leeds, to
gather together a Gun Museum. Fortunately the Guardians of the Proof
House were liberal and, buying the collection for £1,550, made many
valuable additions to it, and after exhibiting it for a time at 5,
Newhall Street, presented it to the town in August, 1876. There is a
curious miscellany of articles on exhibition at Aston Hall, which some
may call a "Museum," and a few cases of birds, sundry stuffed animals,
&c., but we must wait until the Art Gallery now in course of erection,
is finished before the Midland Metropolis can boast of owning a real
Museum. At various times, some rich examples of industrial art have been
exhibited in the temporary Art Gallery adjoining the Midland Institute,
and now, in one of the rooms of the Free Library, there are sufficient
to form the nucleus of a good Museum. We may, therefore, hope that, in
time, we _shall_ have a collection that we may be proud of. Mr. Joseph
Chamberlain (April 26, 1875) gave £1,000 to purchase objects of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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