Expressing opinions of your neighbours is an almost global activity, taken to extremes with the skimmington, shivari or charivari in which neighbours make considerable noise on pots and pans, force the victims to demean themselves, and humiliate and shame a member of the community. Modern readers of Thomas Hardy’s 1884 novel The Mayor of Casterbridge will have read the description of a Dorset skimmington.

In the summer of 1897 a Lancashire married couple – Edward and Lucy Yates – who lived at 201 Watery Lane, Sutton near St Helens were victims. Over two hundred people surrounded their home, burning effigies of the pair. Edward was a factory worker, his wife “a coloured woman” “kept a small shop”. They had six children. He had failed to keep up maintenance payments, and so was sent to prison. The details are the subject of Sutton Beauty and Heritage post, 17 October 2019. It does not note Lucy’s colour, which is mentioned in the Liverpool Weekly Courier of 4 September 1897, page 7 in its report of their appearance at the St Helens police court. The Liverpool Daily Post of 9 May has some details too, as does its issue of 29 May (page 7). The crowd and burning effigies are mentioned in the Liverpool Daily Post of 12 June, page 7.

As with other skimmingtons, the suggestion that Lucy Yates, separated from her husband, had got involved with a local man motivated the crowd.

The impact on the children remains uncertain.

This page was brought to the attention of historian/genealogist Kathy Chater who examined census returns and advised the following, from which we now know Lucy Yates was born in Britain.

Lucy was born Lucy Daniels in Leigh (between Manchester and Wigan) in 1849, Edward was four years older and also Lancashire born. They married in Leigh in 1875 and had three children by 1881; rising to seven children according to the 1891 census. In 1891 the Yateses were living at 218 Watery Lane in Prescot and their family is listed as
Betsey, 15, who was a general servant (dom)
Minnie, scholar
Samuel, 10, b. Sutton, Lancs, scholar.
George, 7, b. Sutton, Lancs, scholar.
Lucy, 5, b. Sutton, Lancs, scholar.
Granville L.,3 , b. Sutton, Lancs.
Benjamin , 4mo, b. Sutton, Lancs.
They also had a boarder.

Lucy’s father George Daniels had been born in the West Indies around 1822 and worked as a slater. His daughter Lucy was a domestic servant in 1871. The 1881 census (which has America as his birth place) records him living next door to Edward and Lucy. No evidence of the shop has been uncovered.