A tale of radical politics versus corruption

The starting point was a report in the local paper from February 1850 about the grisly death of Charterhouse resident John Jackson.  It said that he was "formerly notorious Radical as a Radical bookseller" and "a linguist, and a man of considerable literary knowledge".  Clearly Jackson was an interesting man and warranted further investigation.

There are newspaper references to John "Radical" Jackson as early as the 1830s - his "stern republicanism" was referred to in a letter to the Hull Advertiser published on August 5, 1836.  In 1833 he was jailed for non-payment of taxes, and he was in prison again in 1841.  Perhaps this radical trouble-maker was involved with the most prominent local radical of the time, publisher James Acland.  Marianne Gilchrist discovered, with a trawl of Acland's Hull Portfolio; or, Memoirs and Correspondence of James Acland  of 1831, that Jackson was indeed an associate of Acland, often writing letters for Acland to publish, and that both men took an interest in the Charterhouse.
One letter in particular stands out.  Here is an extract:

 “There is a widow placed in the Charter-House here in the name of Bamford, whose husband, it is said, bequeathed her a well-furnished house and six hundred pounds besides, in money. It will naturally be asked what extraordinary merits this widow possessed, which procured her this comfortable situation. I do not suppose, nor will I insinuate, that this scandalous perversion of those funds, which ought to be regarded as sacred and belonging exclusively to the poor, was occasioned by any personal merits of hers. Well then, who or what was her husband? Aye, now we come to the clue of the business.  Her husband was a barber, and shaved well I dare say. He was also employed by the worshipful Corporation of Mayor and Aldermen, to carry before them some bundle or other, in their procession to Church.  High merits these, no doubt! But we must add to them that of being tax-gatherer.” ….

He goes on to explain that Bamford worked for the Aldermen William Hall and Christopher Bolton and when Jackson’s wife was pregnant and seriously ill he turned up with a constable to “execute a warrant of distress” for a debt of £20, months after it had been proved to be an illegal demand.

These are serious allegations, but they are all true.  Sarah Bamford is on our register, admitted to the Charterhouse in 1824 aged 56.  She is one of the batch of residents who were already there when the register was started in about 1836, following an investigation into corruption by the new local council.  Like many of those admitted in the period, she was too young to be eligible.  She was born Sarah Long and married Robert Bamford on 8 November 1798.  Robert was a hairdresser, and 9 years younger than his wife.  
More of Jackson's details prove correct.  Robert Bamford shows up on a record in 1816 as a tax collector; and the 1823 directory lists him as mace-bearer, giving his address as 6, Broadley Square.  He died in August 1823, and an entry in the Prerogative and Exchequer Court of York Index in February 1824 indicates that he left enough money to make a will necessary.  His widow Sarah was admitted to the Charterhouse in the same year, despite the fact that she was not eligible according to the rules governing the foundation.  She was too young and could not be said to be poor.
This had become the norm from the latter part of the 18th century.  Aldermen took it in turns to nominate someone to a vacancy and used the opportunity to reward retired employees or repay favours.  One of the Aldermen raised concerns in 1823, but it was left to "radicals" like Acland and Jackson to publicise the extent of the corruption.  In 1833 Thomas White (if that was, in fact, his real name) published a pamphlet with a full list of the residents and their circumstances; and in 1836 an inquiry verified White's list.  The new Corporation tried to reform the process of filling vacancies, but old habits died hard.
We may wonder why someone who had a house and a legacy would want a single room and meagre allowance in an almshouse.  We know that some people collected the allowance but didn't live in the room, a practice which took a long time to eradicate.  Some may well have rented out their own house while living in the subsidised accommodation.  
The final irony in this story is that in 1844 John Jackson was himself, with his wife Alice, awarded a place in the Charterhouse.  Sarah Bamford was still there.  One can only speculate how the two of them got on.  In 1850 John died a horrific death in his room.  It seems that he had set the bed alight; it and the curtains were on fire and John was in his chair with all his clothes burned away, as if he had staggered from the burning bed.  He died a few hours later.  His wife, Alice, who had been away at the time, was evicted - normal practice at the time.  Sarah Bamford outlived the man who had "outed" her; she died in 1859.