James Wharam

4

Edward Barker on 15th April 2022

On December 1, 1855 James Wharam killed his brother Jeremiah at Clayton West. Jeremiah and James Wharam were first cousins to my 3 x great grandmother Damaris Barker (nee Wharam). The tragedy was well documented in news papers such as the Huddersfield Chronicle and Huddersfield & Holmfirth Examiner at the time, and more recently in Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths around Huddersfield by Vivien Teasdale and‘Ye Olde Townships’ Skelmanthorpe, Clayton West & District, by Chris Heath. Jeremiah Wharam was a stuff presser at Joseph Norton and Sons, aged 36. His younger brother James aged 29 was a dyer at the same firm. It was reported at the inquest that Jeremiah had left the Commercial Inn, run by Thomas Farrington, in the company of Charles Horsfall. They passed James in the yard who said, after they passed, ‘go home old shoddy’, to his brother. Jeremiah responded with ‘that’s a word enough to turn back for’ and went quickly back to his brother and began to fight. On being separated, James made off but Jeremiah dropped to the floor, his final words being ‘I am struck in many places’. He never spoke again and was carried home. The coroner found 10 knife wounds though death had been caused by two stab wounds to the heart. James was arrested the next day by Clayton West Constable John Bedford and Superintendent George Shipley of Scissett. The brothers had been quarrelling for a number of months, though no explanation for their quarrel came forth at the time. The inquest found a verdict of ‘wilful murder’ which was entered as the cause of death on Jeremiah’s death certificate. James was then taken to York for the Christmas Assizes where all the evidence was heard again on Dec 8th, and where he was found guilty, not of murder, but manslaughter, and therefore sentenced to be transported for life. James was transported on the Clara, sailing from London on March 19, 1857 arriving Freemantle on July 3, 1857. I understand that he died in Perth, Western Australia of liver failure aged 42 on Feb 2, 1868. (Visit convictcentral.com) I felt compelled to see if I could trace any family that the two lads may have left as a result of the tragedy. I found that they both left wives and children. Jeremiah had married Sarah Ann Copley in Barnsley on May 27, 1849. They had three children, Elizabeth baptised at High Hoyland on May 1, 1852, Ann baptised at High Hoyland on July 16, 1854, and William baptised December 16, 1855 at High Hoyland, just twelve days after his father’s burial at the same church. Sarah remarried a widower Charles Lodge, some years older that herself at High Hoyland on February 23, 1861. The 1861 Census would indicate that Jeremiah’s children took their stepfather’s sir name. Interestingly, it would appear that Jeremiah also had a child out of wedlock to Elizabeth Akeroyd in 1841. Thomas Akeroyd gave Jeremiah Wharam as his father when he married in 1870. Elizabeth Akeroyd never married, having another boy, Watson, to a Charles King in 1855. James Wharam had married Ann Robinson at High Hoyland on August 15, 1848. They had four children, Elizabeth baptised April 29, 1849, Titus baptised April 8, 1850, Clara baptised June 4, 1854, all at High Hoyland, and James Hark born Q4, 1855. Ann never remarried, describing herself as a Widow in the 1861 census. Ann had at least two, maybe three children in the coming years. Emily baptised the same day as James Hark, Jan 1, 1860, and Henry born Q2, 1862. Ann also possibly had another daughter Ada baptised at High Hoyland April 2 1871. Somewhat poignantly, it is worth noting that both wives had babies only a few months old when the tragedy occurred, and it could have been of no comfort for James to realise that the transport that was to take him away from these shores for ever was named the Clara, the same name as his youngest daughter.