The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-23 00:00:00

REGISTER! REGISTER!! REGISTER!!!

Parties having changed their residences since last July,
should immediately inform the collector of their reripectire
districts of their present residences, so that they may be
correctly placed upon the register, now about to be made
out.

Parties neglecting to give the required information to
the coil( dors, have only themselves to blame, if impro-
perly registered.

SINGULAR FREAK OF TWO YOUNG WOMEN
FROM HULL, AND THEIR DISCOVERY IN
LIVERPOOL, IN SAILORS' ATTIRE; FOR THE
PURPOSE OF GOING TO SEA.

Yesterday, much interest and curiosity were excited at
the Parish-office, in Fenwick-street, in this town, by the
discovery that two fine young, and apparently respectable
female servants, latterly from Hull, and in neat sailors'
clothing, had been endeavouring to be engaged in the
mercantile marine, and afterwards in the royal navy. As,
in the latter service, a personal examination by a surgeon,
of candidates, is required, this ordeal, before it was
carried beyond the stripping off of their garments, was the
means of inducing one of them, from a feeling of modesty,
to reveal their sex : andl they were: accordingly sent to
the Parish-office, so that they might be redeemed from
their rash intention of going to sea. (which they most
strenuously prosecuted,) and sent back to their friends.
Both are good looking, bouncing lasses, and both were
dressed in round blue jackets and vests ; one wearing
white twowsers and the other blue, each with a sailor s
handkerchief, hat, &c., in the neatest style. Their hair
was cut short, and they appeared like two sprightly
youths bent upon making their fortunes by crossing the
high seas, and delichted with the prospects of the
hazardous line of life they had chosen.

Our reporter was politely introduced to both of them,
in a room at the Parish-office, and found the younger of
the two the more communicative, though she declined to
account for the extraordinary resolution they had taken,
which, however, there is some reason to suppose, origi-
nated in a freak, or, quite as probably. a love affair.
From what we could learn from their own lips, and
especially from the younger, the following is their
history :—They are both the dauahters of small farmers,
and both the parents of each are still living. The younger
girl said her name was Caroline Sarah Abbey, and she
was seventeen and a half years of age. Her companion,
named Harriet Palmer, was one year older. Caroline
was a native of Yorkshire, and, at the age of thirteen,
went to service, at Appleton. She then went into the
service of a gentleman in the same county, where she re-
mained for two years. She had met that gentlematf to-
day (yesterday), in Liverpool, and be did not recognise
her in her sailor's attire, though he looked sharply at
her. She then went to service at a gentleman's house in
Sheffield, and was there three years. She afterwards
went to London, to the Temperance Commercial Hotel,
in Well-street, where she acted as housemaid. for a year.
sod a hntlia ---Sho-thraxevirot To rum,- to the Blue Bell Inn,
in the Market-place, where she was employed as bar-
maid. The other girl, Harriet, was head cook at the
same establishment. They became acquainted, and made
up their minds to go to sea. They acted as tonseurs in
cutting off the long portion of each other's hair. The
girl Harriet was horn at Barton, in Lincolnsh,re. She
stated that she had, in her younger days, milked many a
more of cows. She went to service at twelve years of
age; was three years at lier first place at Barton, and
afterwards two years at Barrow ; thence back to Barrow,
and from that place to the Blue Bell, at Hull, where she
acted as cook for eight months.

A month after, Caroline came to the house ; she (the
last) suggested going to sea. Both gave notice to leave,
but Caroline's was not entertained, and she left without
her wages, in company with the other. They purchased
their sailor's clothes in Hull, and when dressed in them,
were not recognised even at their lodgings. Their female
apparel they wrapped up and sent home to their mothers.
They paid their fares by rail to Manchester, when, their
money becoming short, they walked from that town, to
this, stopping at Warrington during the night, and arrived
here on Friday. On Saturday, they went together to
several shipping offices, and also to the Sailors' Home, to
obtain berths in a vessel. Promises were made to ship
them in merchant vessels, and they stated their belief
fiat they would have got away, but that a young man
persuaded them to go on board of a man-of-war, and they
applied at the naval office. (They had on the previous
night slept at a lodging-house, in a hed by themselves,
and in this room also slept two sailors, but their sex was
not discovered. Caroline went to the Prince's Dock on
Saturday, and a captain would have taken her on board,
but as he would not also take Harriet, the agreement did
not come off, as they would not part.)
_ _

The commander at the naval office said they were fine
strapping lads. A young man had offered himself at the
same time, and they were all three sent for physical ex-
amination to Mr. Craig, surgeon. The young man was
examined first in a room by himself. The two girls were
then called in, and required to strip. They both took off
their jackets, but being pressed to go farther in the pro-
cess of disnuding, they confessed their sex. Caroline
had assumed the name of "Tom Jackson," and the other
of " Harry King," and it appeared they used these names
col 'latently throughout,—for on questioning them, they
called each other " he," and " Tom" and " Harry." They
went back to the Sailors' Home; but some intimation of
their sex having got abroad, they were looked after by
Mr. Rowland, of the Parish-office (in the absence of Mr.
Gray), and brought to the Parish-oifi,:e. They both
stated that had not a second doctor (or young man) been
brought in, they would have passed inspection by the
first, and obtained their desire of being enrolled in the
navy, for which they appeared to be exceedingly Unlined,
though, on being reasoned with, they said that, being
found out, they would relinquish their adventure. They
were seen at the Parish-office by several gentlemen from
'Change, who had heard of the circumstance. Harriet is
the eldest of six children by the same parents, Caroline
out of a family of thirteen brothers and sisters. The
latter said she had been most kindly treated by a lady of
Yorkshire, who had sent her to school, and that she could
write, draw, play the piano, &c. She also referred to the
great kindness of a brother-in-law.
It was finally determined at the Parish-office, that they
should both (as they appeared to be respectable) be com-
fortably domiciled last nicht at the house of Mr. Row-
land, and that they should be provided with female attire,
and sent home to their parents by railway this day. The
probability is, that their sweethearts had gone, or pur-
posed going to sea, and that they had gone off in seamen's
guise in quest of them.

PRESENTATION.—On Tuesday last, which was the
concluding day of the examination of the young females
instructed the Girls' School of the Mechanics' Institu-
tion. (Blackburne House,) the pupils presented to their
highly-esteemed teacher, Miss Jones, a valuable gold
chain, as a token of the esteem and respect which they
entertain for her, from her untiring exertions and atten-
tion to their mental improvement and general welfare.
DEATH BY DROWNING.—On Sunday morning the
body of a man named John Wilding, aged about twenty,
was found near Beacon's Gutter, on the north shore. The

deceased bad gone into the water to bathe, and getting out
of his depth he was drowned. When the tide retired the
body was left on the strand. The deceased was a servant
in the stable% of the brewery belonging to Mr. George
Wright, in Union-street ; and a fellow servant, William
Ashcroft was with him at the water's edge when deceased

went in, but having gone away did not witness the a cci-
dent. The body was found by another person.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOLS' ANNIVFIRSARY.—
The anniversary meeting of the schools connected with
the Established Church will be h.id on Thursday next,
the 25th instant. The sermon will be preached by the
Rev. Dr. Peile, High Master of Repton School. It must
be highly gratifying to all true friends of the Church of
England to remark the increase in the number of children
recei ing the inestimable benefits of a sound scriptural
eddc4tion in the principles of our national Church. Nor is
the orca.ion one H call forth the sympathies of the Friends
of the School alone, hut also of all those who are true
lovers of their country. For from the education imparted to
the children, we may have good ground to hope that they will
grow up honest, peaceable, and industrious members of
society. We therefore trust that on such an interesting
occasion, the attendance will prove bow deeply the com-
munity at large is interested in the advancement of Scrip-
tural education, and that the collection will be such as to
enable the managers of the various schools to extend and
advance tbe great object in which they are engaged.