Before the prison system was more extensively developed, late in the nineteenth century, there was a widespread method of using lock-ups in villages and towns, together with Houses of Correction. It has to be recalled that the rural police force in the middle years of the Victorian period was still only partially structured and streamlined. For all these reasons, there was a reliance on a House of Correction in most areas (such as one in Kirton Lindsey) and on small lockups, often the room by the local constable’s own house, as was the case in a village like Hibaldstow.
With this in mind, it is not surprising that there were escapes, and the tales of these desperate adventures and journeys often read like fiction. This is the case with a hardened and sly criminal called Joseph Ralph. In 1854 he was given a sentence of twenty years’ transportation for a burglary offence. From that point his life reads like a tale from a Dick Turpin romantic adventure.
Ralph was an imposing figure. When the local paper printed the escape notice concerning the escape of the thief from Lincoln, it was pointed out that he was under sentence for transportation for twenty-five years, and that he was around thirty years old, quite short, and had ‘a full round face, flesh colour, small mouth, and rather small blue eyes. He had a small mole under one eye, and light brown hair ‘with a tendency to curl’. When last seen he was dressed in dark grey trousers and a prison waistcoat, and he even had silk bootlaces. A reward was offered.
Nevertheless, to some law officers, there was nothing romantic about this violent man. The first vanishing act on record is his escape from Lincoln Castle – a remarkable feat. He used the familiar trick of arranging his bed so that a ‘sleeper’ appeared to be lying in it when inspected, and then found a way out under the eyes of the officers. The man has to be commended for inventiveness and daring here. But he immediately resumed his nasty ways and robbed a house to steal silver. In Barton he was tracked down and taken captive, but only after a desperate struggle involving a knife-fight. He was collared at the ferry, about to go across to Hessle, by constables Jubb and Clayton. Even with some help from a man called Sam Godfrey, he still put up a fight. In the struggle, Ralph opened a clasp knife and gave Godfrey a severe gash on the thigh, and he caught constable Jubb on the wrist. Clearly, he was there to take a ferry and move well away from the North Lincolnshire in which he was well known to the establishment.
The Lincolnshire Times reported that Ralph was very talkative and loved to brag about his thieving. He talked about several burglaries done around the Barton area. In fact, on the day of his capture, a great deal of his booty from these exploits was found on his person. The fact is, he may well have escaped the capture in Barton if it had not been for Clayton, who was a powerfully-built man and resolute in the extreme. He wanted his man and he kept hold of him.