Jane Cakebread (1827/1828 – 17 December 1898) was a 19th-century British homeless woman who gained notoriety for her frequent arrests for public "
drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ...
". According to official records, Cakebread appeared in police court 277 times for her behaviour in public.
She was believed to have set a record for number of court appearances,
as well as number of newspaper paragraphs devoted to a woman during the
reign of Queen Victoria, besides the queen herself.
By the time of her death, she had achieved international notoriety, as both ''The London Telegraph'' and ''The New York Times'' claimed in her obituary that she had been "convicted 281 times".
Cakebread had
mental illness,
alcohol intoxication,
cirrhosis of the liver
Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...
, and
visual impairment
Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment†...
.
She lived the final three years of her life at
Claybury Asylum in London, where she was placed under
medical observation
Medical observation is a medical service aimed at continued care of selected patients, usually for a period of 6 to 24 (sometimes more) hours, to determine their need for inpatient admission. This service is usually provided in emergency departme ...
.
Her tragic case focused public attention on the ineffectiveness of the policy of dealing with drunkenness through short-term imprisonment.
[ ] She is often credited for inspiring the
Inebriates Act of 1898, and other legislation.
Early life and family
Jane Cakebread was born in
Sawbridgeworth in the English county of
Hertfordshire in 1827 or 1828.
Her father was a carter and carpenter from
Clavering, Essex
Clavering is a village and also a parish in north-west Essex in England. It is about from Cambridge and from Southend-on-Sea. The name 'Clavering' means 'place where clover grows'.
Location and local area
Clavering is situated 20 miles (32&n ...
; her mother was from Sawbridgeworth.
The Cakebreads were a family of five sons and three daughters.
She was the eldest daughter of Susan and James Cakebread to survive to adulthood.
Her family was poor.
According to Dr. Robert Armstrong-Jones, there was no record of mental illness or
alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...
in her immediate family.
She received some education,
and is said to have been "clearly intelligent and articulate",
with "a capital memory" for certain parts of the Bible.
She had a brother living in the countryside whom she once stayed with for six months, when missionary Thomas Holmes was trying to get her off the streets of London.
Career
Cakebread herself said that she had worked as "a single-handed
parlour maid".
As of 1851, she was a domestic servant in
Newport, Essex
Newport is a large village in Essex near Saffron Walden. The village has a population of over 2,000, measured at 2,352 at the 2011 census.
Located approximately 41 miles (66 kilometres) north of London, the village is situated amongst the a ...
.
In 1861, she was employed by Charles Friend Hardy, who worked at the London Stock Exchange, and lived in
Stoke Newington,
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire.
The term ''nor ...
.
She probably stopped working to support herself by the time she was forty.
The 1871 census reported that she was unemployed and lodging in
Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...
.
By 1881, the census found her in a prison cell at the
Upper Street
Upper Street is the main street of the Islington district of inner north London, and carries the A1 road. It begins at the junction of the A1 and Liverpool Road, continuing on from Islington High Street which runs from the crossroads at Penton ...
police station in
Islington.
According to Holmes, one of her employers left her an inheritance of £100, which had been her "undoing" and caused her to stop working.
Until the end of her life, she had
delusions of grandeur
Grandiose delusions (GD), also known as delusions of grandeur or expansive delusions, are a subtype of delusion that occur in patients with a wide range of psychiatric diseases, including two-thirds of patients in manic state of bipolar disorde ...
,
constantly repeating that she was a member of the "high nobility of
Bishop Stortford" and entitled to a fortune.
Taking great pride in her belief that she was "a lady of high character",
she was never idle, but showed no interest in earning a living.
Street life
![Jane Cakebread by Phil May 1863-1903](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Jane_Cakebread_by_Phil_May_1863-1903.jpg)
At some point, Jane Cakebread started living on the streets, possibly after she had squandered her windfall or had been robbed.
This led to her first appearances in London
police courts charged with being "
drunk and disorderly
Public intoxication, also known as "drunk and disorderly" and "drunk in public", is a summary offense in some countries rated to public cases or displays of drunkenness. Public intoxication laws vary widely by jurisdiction, but usually require an ...
".
For more than fifteen years, Cakebread was a familiar figure on Worship Street,
Clerkenwell, and in the
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire.
The term ''nor ...
police courts.
Homeless and penniless, she was arrested frequently, and her life became an endless cycle from police court to prison, from prison to the streets, and then back to court.
A recent biographical account states that she appeared in court 277 times,
while her widely cited obituary claimed that she had been "convicted" 281 times.
Medical lobbyists and moral reformers during this period drew attention to the case of Jane Cakebread to show that legislation in the 1870s and 1880s had failed to help the "poor, mainly female, inebriates" who appeared before the courts often, and "represented a growing public scandal."
Homelessness
In the weeks when Cakebread was out of jail, she stayed outdoors all day and night, unless Holmes was able to find shelter for her.
Toward the end of her life, he struggled to find anyone willing to take her in, regardless of how much he was willing to pay.
During the
great frost of 1895, for nine weeks, Cakebread slept outdoors using a bed made from a bundle of sticks, and she washed in the icy
River Lea.
She was "defiant" about the cold weather, and liked to say, "Ladies always wash in cold water."
She was completely sober during this time.
"Miss Cakebread", as she called herself,
or "Jane", was regularly baited by boys in the street.
She had memorised chapters of the Bible, including one from the
Book of Job concerning the uncertainty of human life,
which she often recited when quarrels broke out.
Her prized possessions were three brown-paper parcels which she carried at all times, containing ten years' worth of clothing which Holmes had given to her.
She took very good care of her teeth, using brick dust which she ground up herself as "tooth-powder".
Alcohol usage
Despite her reputation as an "inebriate" who was constantly drinking, in reality, Jane Cakebread was classified as a "periodic drinker".
She drank alcohol only in small quantities.
She went for long stretches of time without liquor; she craved it only intermittently and sometimes refused it.
She did, however, have an extreme reaction to small quantities of alcohol, and was given drinks by people who knew her who wanted to "hear her talk and see the fireworks".
The sale and procurement of liquor for "habitual drunkards" and "drunken people" was made illegal after Cakebread's death, when the Licensing Act of 1902 was enacted by
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
.
Interactions with the police and magistrate
Cakebread willingly gave herself up to police custody on a regular basis.
She frequently chased after the police for protection,
or to take her into custody,
and they would often flee when they saw her coming.
Some even bribed her to leave them alone.
When she was unsuccessful, she would lie down and scream "Murder!" and "Police!" The police would then have no choice but to arrest her. Once arrested, she would refuse to move until she was strapped into an
ambulance
An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport.
Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...
, which she called a "perambulator".
According to Holmes, Jane Cakebread's appearances in court were a highlight in her life.
She reveled in the attention she received, and the notoriety that it gave her.
In contrast to other women who ended up in the dock, Cakebread took an active interest in the proceedings, and would comment on them loudly "to the amusement and the occasional embarrassment of the court."
Holmes wrote:
To hear the hum of amused wonder and scarcely suppressed laughter when 'No. 12, Jane Cakebread, your worship,' was announced by the gaoler was the very breath of life, and proved ample compensation for the discomfort of the cells... When before the magistrate, she was always at her best, and the knowledge that she was sure to be the cause of many paragraphs next day seemed to brace her up for a special effort; and oh the dear delight if she could but make the majesty of the law to unbend, and cause a smile to appear on the magistrate's face! For that smile she would cheerfully 'do' her month. 'Mr. Holmes,' she has said to me many times, 'did you see me make the magistrate laugh?' And in the cells she would hug herself, and fall to her hymns and prayers with rare enjoyment.
On one occasion, the judge discharged her, because she looked well rested, and she was ushered out of court without a chance to speak. Disappointed, the next day, Cakebread made sure the police had more evidence to present on her behalf, so she could interrupt proceedings and have her turn to speak.
Cakebread was frequently imprisoned at
Millbank Prison
Millbank Prison or Millbank Penitentiary was a prison in Millbank, Westminster, London, originally constructed as the National Penitentiary, and which for part of its history served as a holding facility for convicted prisoners before they were t ...
, up to 1890. When Millbank closed, females were received into
Holloway Prison
HM Prison Holloway was a closed category prison for adult women and young offenders in Holloway, London, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was the largest women's prison in western Europe, until its closure in 2016.
Histor ...
.
On at least one occasion, she spent one month at Cambridge Gaol.
Newspaper coverage
Jane Cakebread's "courtroom antics" were covered regularly in the police-court columns of newspapers such as ''
The Morning Chronicle
''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It ...
'', ''
The Pall Mall Gazette
''The Pall Mall Gazette'' was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, '' The Globe'' merged into ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', which itself was absorbed in ...
'', ''
Lloyd's Weekly'', and ''
The Illustrated Police News''.
In the late 1880s, articles about her also appeared in ''
The Morning Post
''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''.
History
The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...
'', ''
Reynolds's'', ''
The Leeds Mercury
The ''Leeds Mercury'' was a newspaper published in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was published from 1718 to 1755 and again from 1767. Initially it consisted of 12 pages and cost three halfpennies. In 1794 it had a circulation of about 3,00 ...
'', and even ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
.'' The ''
Daily Chronicle
The 'Daily Chronicle' was a British newspaper that was published from 1872 to 1930 when it merged with the '' Daily News'' to become the ''News Chronicle''.
Foundation
The ''Daily Chronicle'' was developed by Edward Lloyd out of a local newspap ...
'' gave "special attention" to her case, and also commissioned the famous sketch of Jane Cakebread by caricaturist
Phil May.
She was happy to be "reported" and she enjoyed being known to local police officers.
She enjoyed reading news stories about herself being "reported"
and this was frequent. She was considered notorious and she had the skill of supplying comments that journalists would quote in their coverage.
Interventions
Lady Henry Somerset
Lady Henry Somerset
Isabella Caroline Somerset, Lady Henry Somerset (née Somers-Cocks; 3 August 1851 – 12 March 1921), styled Lady Isabella Somers-Cocks from 5 October 1852 to 6 February 1872, was a British philanthropist, temperance leader and campaigner for w ...
opened the
Duxhurst Industrial Farm Colony
Duxhurst Industrial Farm Colony (1922, Lady Henry Somerset Homes; 1923, Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein , Princess Marie Louise Village for Gentlefolk) was a British voluntary in-patient residential treatment center, residential i ...
,
Reigate
Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...
in 1895 to
rehabilitate alcoholics as part of the
temperance movement
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...
.
She brought Cakebread there to dry out, but Cakebread complained she was "buried alive". At the same time, she wrote letters about living in a beautiful country cottage, where the birds sang, the trees gave a shade, and the breeze blew.
Lady Henry found the recidivist alcoholic to be quarrelsome and spiteful and sent her back to London after three months,
despite the negative press coverage for her farm colony that Cakebread's ejection produced. Cakebread returned to sleeping on
Stamford Hill
Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about 5.5 miles north-east of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a sub-district of Hackney, the major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the ...
, begging and being inebriated.
Friendship with Thomas Holmes
She was befriended by
Thomas Holmes, who was employed by the police courts as their missionary – "a forerunner of the modern probation officer".
Their friendship lasted for half a century, and has been described as "a kind of love story, a moving account of a professional relationship that became a strange friendship."
At one point, Cakebread proposed marriage to Holmes, who said that "she bestowed her affections on me".
Holmes himself wrote:
Fifty years I stood by and stood up for Jane Cakebread, and we became inseparably connected. She abused me right royally and her power of invective was superb. When she was not in prison she haunted my house and annoyed my neighbours.
Cakebread promised Holmes that he could inherit the fortune she never had.
Holmes said that when he gave her a change of clothing, she "patronised" him "most graciously".
Cakebread took advantage of the attempts by philanthropists to improve her lifestyle.
Claybury Asylum
When she was arrested on 21 January 1896, she was remanded to
Holloway Sanatorium, where she was declared
insane.
On 31 January 1896, Cakebread, stated to be 62, but whose real age was older, was admitted into
Claybury Asylum from the
Hackney Workhouse, having been previously in Holloway Prison.
At Claybury she was studied by
Robert Armstrong-Jones
Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones, (born Robert Jones; 2 December 1857 – 30 January 1943) was a Welsh physician and psychiatrist.
Biography
He was born in Ynyscynhaearn, Caernarvonshire, the son of a Congregational minister. He was educated at ...
. While nominally a servant, she was in reality a vagrant who had not been self-supporting for at least 30 years.
Her appearance was striking; her manner was at times gracious and condescending.
She was a difficult inmate. She constantly wanted reassurance and would try to impress the doctors by arranging her hair and decorating herself with lace and ribbons trying to gain attention from anyone. She thought herself "a lady" entitled to money, and would pretend to be in charge while at the same time complaining that she was abused by the nurses. Alcohol had affected her memory and she considered herself religious.
Death and legacy
Cakebread died at Claybury Asylum, 17 December 1898,
of heart failure,
edema and
cirrhosis
Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue rep ...
of the liver and kidneys.
The
Inebriates Act 1898, which called for inebriates to be sent to reformatories rather than prison, was due to her and similar cases.
[ ] For instance, the ''
British Medical Journal'' highlighted both the large number of times Cakebread had appeared before the courts and an incident where she was jailed for a month for disturbing the peace on the same day as she had been released from a month's imprisonment to support calls for "the involuntary internment of inebriates" in order to "protect the community and the wretched victims themselves from the domination of a disease which so effaces womanhood". The Inebriates Act 1898 was mainly focused on women, and they represented more than 90 percent of the people sent to reformatories for drunkenness.
In 1904 her previous doctor, Robert Armstrong-Jones, published "The Psychology of Jane Cakebread" in the ''
Journal of Mental Science''.
The 1924 edition of the ''Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem: Volume Two'' includes her notorious case and photograph noting how her record led to a change in the law which had previously just sent inebriates to prison.
Notes
References
External links
Jane Cakebreadat
ODNB
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cakebread, Jane
1830 births
1898 deaths
Alcohol abuse in the United Kingdom
19th-century English women
People from Hertfordshire (before 1965)
English people with disabilities