Death and Diaspora : Part Eight

In April 1855, the Wertheim’s were verging on poverty. Samuel, feeling neglected by his mother who had been in constant attendance of her ill children, had left him essentially to the discipline of his father, who was always out on the streets working. Samuel decided to turn to the other side of the law.

Aged just 14, one spring evening just before closing, bootmaker Mr Clarke was out the back of his shop polishing shoes. Samuel, and another lad, John Clements, seized the opportunity to sneak into the shop and steal a pair of boots. Once they had done this, they proceeded to a street stall where a woman was selling food. The boys bought some food but conned the woman into believing they had no money, and so they left the boots with her until they returned. They never did return, and on hearing the boots had been stolen the following week, the woman decided to go to the police. Samuel and John were charged with robbery.

Samuel, was sentenced to six months hard labour, and he was also whipped. He caused a great deal of disappointment amongst his parents, who punished him in their own way. He must have had a few nights without supper!

But Samuel did not stop there. When he was allowed to go free into the arms of his mother, his mind was already transfixed on his next move. In June 1856, he saw a woman walking alone by Temple Meads train station, and after a struggle with her, the teenager stole her purse, which was on her person. He then fled the scene. However, the woman identified the fifteen year old Samuel and he was detained by police, who charged him in late July. Samuel was acquitted in November. He had escaped justice, and this gave him thirst to steal again, and again, and again. His confidence had soared.

Soared so much in fact, that over the course of the next decade, Samuel would appear in court twice, and his crimes were reported in the Bristol Mercury as he was arrested for almost every one of them. Some he was acquitted of and on one occasion he was charged with stealing a piece of meat from the butcher. For this particular crime, he spent four years in prison, from 1857 to 1861, being released just before the census that year, and only days after his twentieth birthday. Yet, his biggest crime was yet to come. In 1866 Samuel plotted his defining crime. He would frequent the Seven Stars pub in Bristol, and plot with his friends exactly what and when this crime would be. They came to the conclusion that they would break into the slaughterhouse nearby, and steal some pork, which Samuel would hide in his house. “My father is a Jew” he would say. “He won’t eat the pork, nobody will suspect it’s there”. So, after the robbery took place in October 1866, the pork was hidden in the Wertheim household, with Moses and Caroline blissfully unaware. Samuel presumably hid it in the cellar, as the stench would have been noticed had it been hidden in the living quarters of the house. But Samuel did get caught, and on being caught cases were reopened of unsolved burglaries in the area. Samuel was tried for both crimes and found guilty. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, to be served in Kent. His father was so disgusted with this act of crime and offence to his religion, that he banished Samuel from ever entering into his house again. Samuel appears alone and miserable in the 1871 census, in Gillingham prison, Kent. What is odd about this, is that Samuel seems to think he is married!

Samuel’s antics had repercussions for the entire family. Moses felt hurt, cheated, and very disappointed in his own son. He moved the family from Temple to another area of the Bristol city, Bedminster. He became a Jeweller here and life was interestingly different once the move had been made. He saw his daughters marry too. Rebecca had married a Cooper named William Bartholomew Gidley, and they continued to live with Moses and Caroline. Louisa had married a man named Frederick Brandt, but remains a mystery, as she completely disappears! And Amelia, although she too was banished by her father for insensitivities towards his faith, was also banished. She fled to Wales and married a grocer turned businessman, Frederick Naylor.

Interesting it is therefore, that Samuel chose Wales as his new home. When he was released due to good behaviour in summer 1871, he fled west, going back to Bristol and, when he discovered his parents no longer occupied the house where he was banished from, carried on and seems to have cut them off. He had intended on going back, but they were nowhere to be seen. So he kept on going…right until he reached the Welsh border, and he crossed that too. He could be anybody he wanted to be, and he did exactly that. He looked for work as a Boiler Maker, and then a certain young woman seems to have caught his eye…