Sadly, domestic violence in the 1890’s was just as, if not more rife than it is today. All too often whilst researching Blantyre stories, I’ve encountered stories where women unfortunately suffered at the hands of drunken or abusive men, quite often their husbands. Such abuse may have had connections to the hardships of the era, but that in itself never being an outright excuse for deliberate cruelty.
In this next article however, things were reversed, a reminder than men also can suffer from abuse too. We don’t know the full facts or background leading up this incident which took place in 1894, but the reporters did make some observations of the time:
On Monday 13th August 1894, just before noon at their home at Miller Street, Dixon’s Rows, Stonefield, Blantyre a husband and wife were getting ready to have lunch. The woman was Mary Tracy or Mary McC (surname hidden on Blantyre Project). It was said the woman had been in a ‘doubtful’ state of mind for some time and that morning she would carry out an assault, resulting in her arrest.
As her husband sat down to eat breakfast, Mary it was alleged went behind him and dealt him a severe, sudden blow to the head with a heavy, iron poker. Her husband fell from the seat to the ground, significantly injured. Police later arrived.
That Thursday, in court, but she was so agitated, that Dr Louden was sent for. He did not see her to be in a fit state to be examined in court and suggested she was not in a sane frame of mind. The judge, wishing the case to move forward there and then remitted that Mary McC should be sent to prison and the case of what happened looked at a later date. Mary did go to prison that day and unknown for how long.
Not presuming what had happened, we don’t know what the husband had said or did, if anything, or what kind of character he had. We also don’t know Mary’s situation, what she was going through or indeed what her own mental health was like. It is known that in August 1894, half of Blantyre was semi starving, the long coal strike having kicked in and food on the table for over 3,000 people was a scarcity, with lack of miner’s wages causing mass hardship, hunger and further deepened levels of poverty.
Today, help is at hand for such incidents. Men suffering from domestic abuse can call Men’s Advice Line on 0808 8010 327 (Monday to Friday 10am to 8pm), or visit the webchat at Men’s Advice Line (Wednesday 10am to 11.30am and 2.30pm to 4pm) for non-judgemental information and support.
AI Imagines and illustrates this story.
