Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne is one of the finest streets in Britain and was the proudest achievement of its builder, Richard Grainger. But it was also where his son was humiliated. Thomas Charles Grainger was given a damn good thrashing with a horsewhip on the street in 1872 by James Jobling – who is pictured here – for disrespecting a woman.
Thomas lived a comfortable life from the proceeds of the Grainger Estate, he’d inherited the huge portfolio of properties that his late father had built in Newcastle during the first half of the nineteenth century. He was a 49-year old unmarried man of leisure and shared a large house on Ellison Place with his two servants. James Jobling’s father was a well-known lawyer, so the incident caused a sensation in Newcastle.
The name of the disrespected woman was withheld when the case came to court, as was the nature of Grainger’s insult to her. Whatever was said, it was sufficient for Jobling to confront Grainger and threaten to horsewhip him; he promised he’d do it on Grey Street. Grainger laughed this off, and said he’d give Jobling “a good licking” if he tried. That was four days before Jobling carried out his threat.
Grainger was in the News Room at the Central Exchange on Grey Street on the evening of November 16th 1872, a building that is now the Central Arcade. At 6.15pm he received an anonymous note telling him to go across the road to the Royal Exchange Hotel, where a clothing shop called End is now. He went immediately to the hotel, feeling his way with the point of his umbrella due to his feeble eyesight.
As he reached the entrance James Jobling crept up behind him and Grainger received a heavy blow above the eye followed by another that knocked his hat off, producing a large amount of blood. A constable was quickly on the scene and apprehended the attacker, who was heard to say, “I told you I would horsewhip you, and now I have done it.”
Grainger was taken to the infirmary where he was patched up and sent home with some opium to ease the pain, while Jobling was taken into custody and charged with assault. The mugshot featured in this post was taken, and is currently in the collection of Tyne & Wear Museums. The case was heard by the magistrates court shortly afterwards who deemed it serious enough for a full trial, which took place in January of the following year and was reported in newspapers across the country.
Jobling’s lawyers painted Grainger as a drunkard who habitually carried a bottle of whiskey in his pocket and he was asked repeatedly by them if he’d been sober on the night in question. They also stated that Jobling on the other hand was a gentleman, who would suffer a jail sentence more acutely than someone from the lower ranks of life.
The judge told Jobling that he’d have understood if he’d punched Grainger when the insult was made, but instead this was a calculated and premeditated assault. He did not consider this to be fair and honourable conduct and jailed him for one month, but without hard labour, which was presumably deemed to be beneath a man of his social standing.
Horsewhipping wasn’t an unusual means of settling a matter of honour among gentlemen in nineteenth century Newcastle. In fact, it happened more than once on Grey Street. The Newcastle Journal’s offices were a couple of doors up from the Royal Exchange Hotel, a group of men from Sunderland forced their way into the editor’s office and thrashed him, having taken offence at something he’d published in his newspaper.