When the story of a murder reveals an earlier tragedy and a family that made good

Now the murder of PC Cock in 1876, and the subsequent arrest and conviction of one of the Habron brothers is well known and was recently the subject of a new book.*

Brookfield House, Chorlton,  circa 1900, home to the Deakin family in 1881

And more so because of the timely confession of the real murderer who was a criminal with a long track record of burglaries and violence.

PC Cock was interred in the churchyard by Chorlton Green where there is still a memorial to him, the real murderer  was hung and Mr Habron after his release fell out of history.

What intrigued me and set me off on one, was a request from Brian Robertson who runs an excellent facebook site. **

Brian was interested in Francis Deakin who employed Frank and William Habron.

Brookfield House, 2015

The Deakin family were well known to me.

They had been market gardeners way back into the 19th century and in the middle decades they lived in Martledge which was one of the three hamlets of Chorlton –cum-Hardy.

In the 1840s they farmed 3½ acres when Mr Deakin’s father was murdered in a beer shop in Chorlton in 1847. ***

The family received much sympathy and financial help not least because Mrs Habron was left with a large family of young children.

The family appear to have survived the tragedy and prospered. By 1881 Francis Deakin was farming 36 acres and employing 16 men and 3 boys and lived at Brookfield which still survives and is the house in Chorlton Park opposite Hough End Hall. ****

In that same year Mr Deakin farmed land near Hough End hall and so I suspect it might well be that the land was around Brookfield House in what is now the park.

The land around Brookfield House, 1854

But in 1876 at the time of PC Cook’s murder the rate books have him down as farming near the old Church which must be somewhere near Chorlton Green close to the Bowling Green pub on what was Lloyd land and also on High Lane just past Stockton Road and maybe all that was left of Row Acre which was a sizable plot of land which was farmed by various Egerton tenants and originally stretched from roughly Cross Road down to Acres Road between Beech Road and High Lane.

The OS for 1894 shows that it had shrunk to a stretch from what is now Chequers Road to Cross Road.

Interestingly there is a reference to Francis speculating in building plots in the 1880s and the rate books show that he owned at least one property in Chorlton.

Brookfield House, 2014

For me what makes the story just that bit more interesting is that it revealed more about the Deakin family, provided me with another resident for Brookfield House and offered a possible place for where the Habron brother’s worked.

That said Brian added that   “there seems to be some confusion over where the land that the Deakin’s worked was though. One newspaper report clearly suggests that access to it was from a triangular piece of land opposite the spot where PC Cook was murdered.”

This might put it over the border and alas at present I don’t have access to the rate books covering that area.

But it is entirely consistent with land holdings in Chorlton during the 19th century, with many farmers and market gardeners renting plots over the whole township and beyond into Withington and Stretford.

So there you have it.

Pictures; Brookfield House circa 1900 from the Lloyd Collection, and in 2015 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the area around the house in 1854 from 1854 OS for Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk

* The Murder of Chorlton’s ‘Little Bobby’ ………… Who killed Constable Cock? by Angela Buckley* https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/the-murder-of-chorltons-little-bobby.html

** Greater Manchester History, Architecture, Faces and Places

***The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012

****Looking for the story of Brookfield House on the edge of Chorlton Park, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/looking-for-story-of-brookfield-house.html

John Henry Proctor Leresche Q.C. …. another story from Tony Goulding

The above-named lawyer was the man who defended the Habron brothers when they were put on trial for the murder of P.C. Cock at the Manchester Assize Court on the 27th November, 1876. 

Manchester Assize Courts, 1868

His efforts were partially successful, in that one of the two brothers, John, was acquitted and although the jury did find his younger brother, William, guilty they did make a recommendation for mercy.

Mr. J.H.P. Leresche was born in Hulme Street, Salford but christened in, his mother’s home town, Leeds, Yorkshire (West Riding) in 1823. His parents were Samuel Leresche, a partner in a cotton manufacturing and calico printing company of 28, Cannon Street, Manchester, and his wife Jane (née Sunderland). When his father died, at just 37-years-old, on the 9th January, 1830 his mother supported her young family (John Henry Proctor had, at least, 3 younger brothers Charles Samuel, Edmund Sunderland (1) and Alfred) by running the Manchester and Salford Advertiser and Wheeler’s Manchester Chronicle Newspapers(2). She re-married a twice-widowed Manchester yarn merchant, Gerard Cowell, at St. John’s Church, Deansgate, Manchester on the 1st June, 1848. 

 As a child the future defending counsel of John and William Habron attended Manchester Grammar School. On leaving, he went to study for a legal career at The Middle Temple in London enrolling there on the 26th January, 1844; qualifying and being “called to the bar” almost exactly three years later on the 29th January, 1847.  After completing his studies, Mr. Leresche moved back to Lancashire, settling initially in Standish near Wigan where, for a short time, he had an interest in a colliery and coal merchants' enterprise. This company did not prosper and the partnership was dissolved on the 1st March, 1855. Debts due to this and other similar ventures led in February, 1857 to his appearance before the “Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors”

While residing in Standish he married the first of his three wives, Ellen Margaret Fitz-Adam the only daughter of Adam Fitz-Adam, a deceased Recorder of Wigan, at St. Wilfred’s Church in the town on the 24th May, 1854. The marriage was, sadly, a very brief one as less than a year later Ellen Margaret died on the 10th April, 1855. John Henry Proctor’s second marriage was to Anne Prior on the 24th June, 1857 at St. Bride’s Church. Liverpool. There were five children born to this marriage: Gerard Sunderland (b. 1859), Henry Proctor (b. 1861), Edmund Prior (b. 1863), Alfred Herbert (b.1865) and Ellen Fitzadam (b. 1867).

The second Mrs. Leresche died on the 24th May 1876 and John Henry Proctor married his third wife Annie Mather, daughter of mechanical engineer Colin Mather of Willow Bank, Lower Broughton, Salford at St. John’s Church, Higher Broughton on the 29th April, 1880. Although then entering his seventh decade this union provided Mr. Leresche with two more sons; Guy (b. 1881) and Percy Vere (b. 1883). 

The family home was on Broughton Lane, Salford, in the 1871 census they were recorded at 80 with Mr. Leresche’s mother, Jane Cowell, residing next door at 82. The censuses of 1881 and 1891 both record the family living at 174, Broughton Lane. His chambers were located at 2, St. James’s Square, Manchester next door to the prosecuting counsel in the P.C. Cock murder trial, Mr. William Housman Higgin Q.C.

St. James’s Square, Manchester

John Henry Proctor Leresche spent the majority of his career as a practicing barrister, however in January, 1886 he was appointed as the stipendiary magistrate of Manchester, taking up his duties at the Strangeways  Police Court on Tuesday 12th January. Prior to this appointment he had for some years served as an assistant Recorder or Manchester. 

Mr. J.H.P. Leresche died at his home, Limefield, Broughton Lane, Salford, in the evening of Monday the 5th March, 1894. His estate was assessed for probate at £13,799 -7s - 9d. (today’s value = £1, 252, 261) Part of his estate comprised of an interest in a number of properties one of which was The Ducie Hotel a lavish 22-bedroom hotel on Oxford Road, Manchester. There is a link to Chorlton-cum-Hardy in that the architects of The Ducie Hotel were Pennington and Bridgen one of whose first projects was the designs for the new St. Clement’s Church (1861-6).

The children from Mr. Leresche’s second two marriages led interesting lives with varying levels of success which may produce a follow-up piece. However, as there is a link to a recent story on this Blog, I will finish by writing of the two youngest children. They were both young enough to see service during the First World War. Percy Vere, who had trained as a mechanical engineer joined the Royal Army Service Corps and ended the hostilities with the rank of Captain and an O.B.E. in recognition of his service. After being de-mobilised he returned to his career in farming firstly in Honiton, Devon then later at Kendal, Westmoreland. Guy Leresche, an officer in the regiment’s cadet force, was a Lieutenant serving with the 19th Battalion, Manchester Regiment, from its formation in 1914. As such he was part of the attack of the 23rd July, 1916 on Guillemont, during the Battle of the Somme. His battalion suffered terrible casualties, which was the subject of a post on this Blog on 11th July, 2022. Guy was one of the luckier ones, in that he was captured and became a prisoner of war. Following the Armistice, he remained in the army having been promoted to Captain. Resigning his commission in 1921, in civilian life he returned to his profession as an architect.

Pictures: -  The Manchester Assize Court, Kell Brothers, 1868 m 55717 and St. James’s Square, Manchester, m 04530 - Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Archives, and Information, Manchester City Council, http://manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Notes: -

1) Edmund Sunderland died of consumption just after his 19th birthday in 1844. He was interred in the Cheetham Hill Wesleyan Cemetery, Manchester on the 16th May, 1844.

2) As a young man, John Henry Proctor would occasionally contribute articles for publication by his mother.

The Murder of Chorlton’s ‘Little Bobby’ ………… Who killed Constable Cock? by Angela Buckley*

Like many who live in Chorlton I knew something of the murder of PC Cock in 1876.

Cover of Who Killed Constable Cock? 2017

It was a crime that shook the township and was covered in some detail by the national newspapers.

But I always wanted to know more and in particular to dispel some of the myths about the event.

And so I was pleased when Angela  got in touch today to tell me that her new book on the crime was about to be published, and of course I couldn’t resist asking her to introduce the story for the blog.*

She kindly also allowed me to use two of the illustrations, and so that just leaves me to hand over to Angela.

“At midnight on Tuesday 1 August 1876, PC Nicholas Cock was on duty in Chorlton. It was a dry and cloudy evening, with little moonlight, and the police officer was approaching the junction of Manchester Road, Upper Chorlton Road and Seymour Grove, known as West Point.

As he walked along the wide footpath overhung with trees towards the ‘Jutting Stone’, which marked the limit of his beat, he was joined by two more men: PC James Beanland, and law student John Massey Simpson, who was on his way home after a night out.

The three men exchanged pleasantries before Simpson left. When he was 150 yards away, he heard two loud shots ring out in the night. The student turned around to see flashes of light behind him in the pitch dark. Hearing screams of, ‘Oh, murder, murder; I’m shot, I’m shot’, Simpson rushed back to the junction, to find PC Cock slumped on the pavement near the garden wall of the large house, also known as West Point (it later became The Seymour Hotel).

PC Cock, 1876

Even in the dim light, he could see the unmistakable stain of blood spreading across the police officer's chest: Nicholas Cock had been shot.

PC Beanland blew his whistle and soon more officers arrived on the scene. They quickly hailed two passing night soil men, who took Cock in their cart to a doctor’s surgery. By 1 am, Cock was settled on Dr Dill’s sofa, where the doctor tried to revive him with brandy and water.

Ten minutes later the semi-conscious police officer died - the bullet had passed through his ribs into his spinal column, causing a massive haemorrhage.

Shortly before PC Cock's death, Superintendent James Bent, of the Manchester Division of Lancashire Constabulary, had arrived, after receiving the news of the shooting just after midnight. The experienced officer knew instantly who had committed this terrible crime: ‘I suspected these men from the first.’

Bent's prime suspects were the Habron brothers, three Irish labourers who lived close to the spot where PC Cock had been shot.  John, 24, Frank, 22 and William aged 18, were all employed in the nursery gardens of Francis Deakin, at Firs Farm, where they lived in an outhouse in the grounds. The brothers had crossed the path of PC Cock many times and threatened him, especially when he interfered with their drinking in the Royal Oak and the Lloyds Hotel.

The murder scene, 1876

As soon as he heard about the incident, Superintendent Bent instructed his men to surround the small brick building, where the brothers were alleged to be. After the officer's death, Bent joined his colleagues at Deakin’s nursery and arrested all three Habron brothers.

A painstaking investigation led by Superintendent Bent followed. There were plenty of clues: sets of footprints that matched the suspects' muddy boots, percussion caps found in their clothing and a bullet discovered at the scene. Superintendent Bent would stop at nothing to bring PC Cock's killer to justice, despite the contradictory evidence of key eye witnesses, shifting alibis and a mystery man spotted at the crime scene. This led to an extraordinary case featuring a controversial detective, a startling revelation and a grave miscarriage of justice.

PC Nicholas Cock was just 21 years old when he was killed.

He was born in Cornwall, in 1856 and, like his father, he worked in a copper mine. When he lost his job, due to the widespread closure of the mines, he moved first to Durham, and then to Manchester.

He joined the Lancashire Constabulary at the end of 1875, and was stationed in Chorlton. After his murder, the local press described him as ‘a very active officer, punctual in the discharge of his duties.’ Locally he was known affectionately as the ‘Little Bobby’ and was buried in the churchyard on Chorlton Green.”

And the rest is as they all to be read in Who Killed Constable Cock? by Angela Buckley is now available for pre-order on Amazon

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; courtesy of Angela Buckley

*Angela Buckley, http://www.angelabuckleywriter.com/

** Who Killed Constable Cock? by Angela Buckley is now available for pre-order on Amazon