Shawclough & Healey October 2019

cheques. He was accused of fraudulently
obtaining subscriptions and adjusting figures
on several cheques. This scenario was
widely publicised and must have brought
great shame to the family. The Common
Sergeant in passing sentence, said that while
he had no doubt that Mackenzie was the
ringleader of a very extensive scheme
of forgery, the prisoner’s connection with
him must have made him aware that the
man was a criminal of an almost desperate
character. He was found guilty and
sentenced to 4 year penal servitude at
Parkhurst prison on the Isle of White.
Arthur, had done his best to support Percy
through his problems but was unable to
maintain the required funding and needless
to say the financial impact hit the
Greenbooth mill heavily.
Both Arthur and his wife Florence had been
very active supporters of St Paul’s and
Bagslate Wesleyan Chapel. Most of the
social life of the day was centred around
church and family and the Hutchinson’s
fully embraced this way of life. Despite
having enjoyed enormous wealth and
privilege, Arthur does not appear to be in
the least ostentatious. In 1911, despite
having left Greenbooth and now living in
Maida Vale, Arthur sends a letter and a
donation to St Pauls for a fund raising that
was taking place at the time. He makes the
remark ‘My impaired means prohibit my
doing what I would like but I have pleasure
in enclosing you a small donation, and if the
negotiations I now have on for disposing
of Greenbooth and thus freeing myself of
a most serious liability bear fruit I will be
pleased to materially increase it.’
Club function he makes a very telling
remark. Talking of the club and its players
he says, ‘I am somewhat rather old
fashioned and sometimes thought there
were too many ‘matches’ and too few games’
he goes on to say that his preference was
for friendly games and stressed that they
had been fortunate in having so many local
players who had stood by the club instead of
pursuing their fortunes elsewhere’.
Somewhat of an analogy of how the
brothers had led their lives, Arthur
remaining steadfast whilst Percy needed
to seek his fortune elsewhere. Percy’s
wayward lifestyle was to have massive
implications for Arthur and indeed for
Greenbooth itself.
We can only surmise that Percy receiving
a guilty verdict took its toll on Arthur and
contributed heavily to his own financial
downfall. Arthur died only a year after
Percy’s verdict at the age of 52. A listing in
the Annals of Rochdale in 1912 under
‘Published Wills’ records his estate of
£38,160 gross and £4,511 net, a very clear
indication of the level of debt and weight of
the burden he had carried. Percy went on
to live in Dorset, married his second wife
Ellen Jane Read in 1925 and died in 1928
at the age of 75.
To be Continued…
Val Corns
valcorns@hotmail.co.uk
Photographs courtesy of Touchstones
His remarks demonstrate the sheer weight
of the financial burden he carries and yet
despite all this he still feels duty bound to
make his contribution to the fund for St
Pauls. Whilst presiding at a Norden Cricket
36
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