Morpathia: The latest article about the Morpeth Dispensary - a fatal accident and trouble at the bank

There were nine candidates to succeed him from Abridge (Essex), Broughty Ferry, Chester, Denbigh Hospital, Lewisham, Wesley College (Taunton), London, and unstated. Also the temporary locum, William Ross. Two were disqualified, one of them for being married.

It is clear that both the Committee of Management and the Medical Committee were displeased at the early and sudden departure of Dr Rannie.

They resolved that the chosen candidate should serve at least a year and should be paid quarterly so that if he left between quarterly payments without leave, all salary due after the last quarterly payment should be forfeit.

Mr Ross was proposed, along with Mr Frederick Erskine Paton of Broughty Ferry. The latter was elected by six votes to four to commence on May 1, 1883 – 140 years ago this month.

Meanwhile, the town council, faced with a severe outbreak of scarlet fever in Morpeth, sought the advice of Dr Clarkson, the Medical Officer of Health. Based on the Dispensary’s books, Dr Clarkson told them that scarlet fever was scattered across the town.

None of the cases were malignant, but there had nevertheless been several deaths. He recommended closing the schools for an extra week because fevers spread more through the schools than anything else. He had already had the schools disinfected and recommended limewashing the walls.

The Mayor said they only had jurisdiction over the Borough Schools, but they would ask the masters and mistresses of the Church of England, Catholic, Presbyterian and private schools to close as well.

The Committee of the Dispensary made arrangements for the arrival of the new House Surgeon. The account of Mr G. Garry for 3/6 for repairs was ordered to be paid and “That 3 Dish Covers, Tin Pot and Brush be allowed for the use of the Dispensary”.

They, too, were concerned about the epidemic and set up a committee to consider “the best means of providing a place of isolation for infectious cases in connection with the Dispensary”.

On June 10, however, their attention was distracted by the death of the Hon. Treasurer, Mr Robert Wilkinson, the Agent – i.e. manager – of the Morpeth branch of Messrs. Woods & Co.’s Bank.

Mr Wilkinson was a borough councillor, a former mayor, and in all respects a highly respected man. As a bank agent he was treasurer to a number of local organisations, including the Board of Guardians.

He was also the quartermaster of the Morpeth Company of the Northumberland Hussars. He died after falling from his horse eight days earlier in Longhorsley, where he was recruiting gentlemen into the Hussars.

The bank’s inspector, a Mr Price, took charge of the branch. Mr Wilkinson’s brother called on him soon after and produced a private notebook of the late manager, showing that there were things in the branch accounts that he was not happy with.

On the 16th, Mr Price spoke with George Jeffrey, the chief (and only) clerk at the Morpeth branch.

Jeffrey, who had a good character in the town – he was a member of the four-and-twenty, clerk to the Local Board of Health and to the Morpeth magistrates – voluntarily confessed to embezzling nearly £1,600 from the bank. The amount was later ascertained to be slightly higher.

Jeffrey was charged on three counts, all of which he admitted. One of them was conspiring with Robert Wilkinson, deceased, to commit the frauds. At the assizes, as reported by the Morpeth Herald, a Mr Strachan, appearing on behalf of the representatives of the late manager, said:

“Mr Wilkinson could not have been cognisant of what took place, because the prisoner himself … admitted having received the whole of the money. It was not to be believed surely that Mr. Wilkinson ... would have any earthly motive to enter into a conspiracy with the prisoner for the purpose of the prisoner putting the money into his own pocket.

“Mr Wilkinson was put in as manager in order that his personal influence might attract business to the bank, and the prisoner was put in as bookkeeper, as Mr Wilkinson was known not to be a good businessman. The experienced auditor of the bank was not able to detect the falsification by the prisoner ...”

Mr Strachan appealed to the late manager’s private notebook: “That book spoke as from the grave in vindication of Mr Wilkinson’s memory, and on behalf of his friends, he did ask his lordship to look at the entry in the book ... and it was really the friends of Mr Wilkinson who put the bank authorities on their guard by putting Mr Wilkinson’s books into their hands.”

The case casts an interesting light on banking practices of those days. Each account holder had a pass book, which in effect was the account.

The bank kept its own records, but all it sent to the customer was a document issued half-yearly, called the circular, which only showed the balance.

Jeffrey had a personal account with the bank, which he was not permitted to overdraw, but he did overdraw it and concealed the fact by making false transfers of money from the accounts of four big customers, one being Colonel J.P.O. Mitford, then reversing them before the circular went out.

He and Mr Wilkinson were the only staff at the Morpeth branch. The latter sensed that something was wrong but, trusting his clerk completely, could not fathom what it was.

The Dispensary did not lose any money, but the Morpeth Guardians had a different kind of problem. As their treasurer, Mr Wilkinson had opened an account in the name of “Morpeth Union; R. Wilkinson, Treasurer”, of which he appears to have kept the passbook himself.

Even before he died, George Brumell, the Clerk to the Guardians, had queried the balance as stated in the latest circular, which was £1,769 18s 5d less than it should have been. Mr Wilkinson excused himself at the time by saying he had been ill and so had not been able to bring the account up to date.

A committee of the Guardians concluded that, while they believed the balance shown in the circular belonged to the Union, their claim to redress for the remainder did not lie against the bank, but against Mr Wilkinson’s estate.

An acute member of the public, signing himself ‘A.R.O.M.’, wrote to the Herald to point out that they could not have it both ways. If the bank’s customer was the Union, then they were entitled to the whole amount from the bank, but if the customer was Mr Wilkinson personally, then all of his creditors had an equal claim on the balance as stated in the circular.

Messrs. Woods’s new agent was duly elected Hon. Treasurer of the Dispensary and on October 13, 1883, the Herald reported that “Mr D.W. Greenwood, treasurer to the Morpeth Dispensary, begs to acknowledge with thanks, receipt of a donation of £5 to the funds of that Institution, from Colonel J.P. Osbaldeston Mitford.”

Victorian Dispensary and The Origins of Morpeth, by Roger Hawkins, are available at Newgate News and the Old Herald Office in Morpeth, or from Amazon.