1856 – A Female in Male Attire in Longton
A group of boys playing pitch and toss
In 1856 Julia Ann Lilly was arrested by police in Longton and brought before a magistrate. Her “offence” consisted of playing a game of “pitch and toss” with boys in the street while wearing male attire. The story of her appearance in court when she was just sixteen years old was reported in newspapers locally and nationally. In this post we explore a compelling story of Julia’s troubled life as a woman that preferred to dress as a man.
Appearances in Court
Staffordshire Advertiser 29th March 1856
Julia would have been 16 years old when she was arrested and brought before a magistrate for the “rather unfeminine charge of playing at pitch and toss” on the streets of Longton while dressed in “male attire”.
The game of “pitch and toss” , also known as pitching pennies, is a gambling game where players throw coins at a wall or mark. It is famously mentioned by Rudyard Kipling in his Poem “If” written circa 1895
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
The poem is about Victorian era notions of masculinity and after a series of “If” statements like the above it concludes with the words “And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!”
Despite its immense popularity among the male working classes, “Pitch and Toss” was classified as an illegal gambling activity during this period. However, there is no mention in the news report of any of the other boys who were taking part appearing in court, it is all about the outrage of Julia dressed in male attire engaged in a masculine pursuit.
We can see from the above news clip that Julia appeared in court dressed in male attire which caused a great deal of comment and consternation as did the revelation that she was also a smoker. Her mode of dress and behaviour were considered sufficiently remarkable to appear not only in local press but also in news reports throughout the UK including the Dover Telegraph, Wiltshire and Gloucester Standard, Derby Mercury, Kentish Gazette, Peoples Paper (London), the Poole and Dorset Herald and around a dozen others.
As Julia was unable to pay the fine she was sent to prison for one month. We might ponder that had she been dressed as a man in performance on stage this would have been considered “entertaining” but to be dressed as a male in public while gambling was just not acceptable to the social code of the period.
It would not have helped her cause that the Lilly family already had a reputation for being on the wrong side of the law. Her mother had been in court the year before…
Staffordshire Advertiser 3rd February 1855
The daughter of the prisoner dressed as a boy may be Julia though Mary did also have other young daughters so we cannot be sure. However, in the years that follow there are further news clippings about Julia in male attire that leave no doubt about her preference to dress in male clothes.
The Staffordshire Sentinel and Commercial and General Advertiser 17th January 1857
Just a year after her appearance in court for the “offence” of wearing male attire while playing pitch and toss Julia is in trouble again. This time she has assaulted a police officer who is taking her sister Mary Ann from court to the lock ups. Julia is first taken to be a “rough looking man” and she gives a false name of Joe Blake, but following her arrest she is identified as Julia Ann Lilly. We can only guess at the embarrassment of a policeman who has been punched in the face by a seventeen year old young woman. It is reported that Julia is in the habit of working as a man on brick and coal banks in the neighbourhood.
Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 21st June 1867
In 1867 we find Julia is on another charge of wearing male attire in a public place. The article begins by describing Julia as a healthy good looking girl of nineteen years of age though she would in fact have been twenty seven at this time. The article reports that Julia said she has worn male attire for a period of ten years and that she “preferred it infinitely to the garments of womanhood”.
The article goes on to describe that although she had suffered a month in prison in the Potteries for her strange predilection she was resolved to wear none other than men’s clothes. Julia protests “were there not numbers of girls in Wigan and the neighbourhood dressed in men’s clothes as well as she and why were they not interfered with”.
Julia says that she is on her way from the Potteries to Liverpool, with a view of ‘getting away to sea’ and that if she is not successful she will retrace her steps, back to Staffordshire. In conclusion the court finds no reason to convict her but only discharges her on condition of leaving the town immediately.
Julia’s Life Story
Marriage Record of John Lilly and Mary Kerrigan.
Julia’s parents were John Lilly and Mary Kerrigan, who married on the 10th April 1826 at St Martins in Birmingham. Later census records tell us that they were both born in Ireland. It is likely that John has travelled to England in search of work. Maybe Mary came with him or perhaps they met after they had arrived.
Birth Record of Julia Ann Lilly
Julia was born in September 1839 to parents John and Mary. They lived in Gallimores Bank, Lane End.
The 1841 census records Julia as two years old living with her family In Gallimores Bank. She has three sisters, Jane aged 14, Mary Ann aged 13, and Catherine aged 9; she also has two brothers, George aged 7 and Thomas aged 4. Her father John is working as a labourer and her two eldest sisters, Jane and Mary Ann are both working in the Pottery industry.
Father John and mother Mary are noted on this census record as having been born in Ireland. Irish immigration to Britain had accelerated after 1818, when the first steam packet service linked Belfast to Glasgow. Settlement in Britain was shaped by job opportunities, drawing migrants to port cities and industrial centres. However, Irish immigrants faced widespread hostility and prejudice, many lived in overcrowded slums and were often scapegoated for social and economic problems.
An old map of Longton showing Gallimores bank just right of centre.
“Around this time Many Irish were living in Longton on Gallimore’s Bank & Newbold Square. Between these two communities ran Chancery lane, often known as ‘Irish row’” (quoted from M. Breeze – “Central Longton in 1851” W.E.A. 1976). The map above shows that the area was dominated by the pottery industry, Irish immigrants had a reputation for being good hard working manual labourers. In our modern times the slums and industry have gone and the area is now occupied by the Bennett Shopping Precinct.
The Death Record of John Lilly
In September of 1848 Julia’s father John sadly died of a “seizure of the heart” aged just 50 years old. The family was still living in Gallimores Bank, Lane End at this time.
The 1851 census records that the family was now living in Furnace Road and Mary is a widow working as an “Umbrella Dealer”. Thomas is now aged 14 and is working as a Potters Mould carrier, George aged 17 is living as a lodger next door and is also in employment. Before Julia’s father had died there had been three more children, Margaret now aged 7, Agnes aged 5 and John aged 4, who along with Julia now aged 11 are all dependent on the income of their mother and their older brothers Thomas and George. Julia’s older sisters Jane, Mary Ann and Catherine are all living elsewhere, Jane is married; Mary Ann and Catherine are lodging in the same street.
Life must have been very hard in the years that followed John’s death. It is perhaps unsurprising that Mary became involved in petty crime while struggling to make ends meet. Julia’s elder sister Mary Ann also turned to crime and had several court appearances and terms in jail.
In the 1861 census Julia is living in Stone with her brother John who despite being aged only 15 is listed as the head of the household working as an agricultural labourer. Julia is aged 22 but has no occupation listed. Her sisters Agnes and Mary Ann are also living here.
The following year Julia gave birth to a child. She named her Mary Ann but no father is listed on the birth or baptism records. By the time of the 1891 census Julia is living in Wolverhampton with her daughter Mary Ann, who is now married to Henry Mason, a bricklayer.
Backtracking to 1871 we find Julia at a “house for fallen women” in Cardiff. How she ended up there and whether Mary Ann was with her is unknown but it does point to a troubled period in her life. Perhaps Julia headed to the coast again hoping to travel overseas as she once had before.
For further details of Julia in later life and a fuller account of the other family members take a look at this post about Julia Ann Lilly on LGBT Midlands
We have recounted Julia’s court appearances above. None of these cases relate to any crime other than that of appearing in male attire – and of course giving that policeman a whack in the face when Mary Ann is taken off to prison.
Why is Julia Ann Lilly Included in Our Local LGBT+ History?
When researching LGBT+ histories in the distant past we must take care not to attribute modern identities to a period when people lived very different lives. However, there is no doubt that Julia Ann Lilly preferred to dress as a man and this was how she presented for a good part of her life. I can find no record that she ever married though she must have had at least one male partner as she had a child. We can reasonably speculate that she might have had a gender non conforming LGBT+ identity if she had lived in our modern era.
Grateful Acknowledgements
The story of Julia Ann Lilly was presented by Kat Boon as part of Potboiler Theatre’s Gay Stoke project. Many thanks to Kat for providing me with the inspiration to investigate further.
During the course of my research into Julia Ann Lilly’s life I found that the excellent website “LGBT Midlands – Queer History across the Midlands” already had a comprehensive page about her family history. I am grateful for several insights and inspirations that I found here and recommend the page for further reading. lgbtstaffs.wordpress.com/2022/10/20/julia-ann-lily/
Copyright Notice
The newspaper cuttings and records featured here have been compiled from various archives by this post’s author, Andrew Colclough, as part of his personal research into local LGBT+ history. Material has been shared here by Andrew Colclough on the basis of fair personal/non commercial use.
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