X William Ellis and John GOODDear Roberta (if I may be so bold)Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning William you would besurprised how many enquires we get from people whonever say please or thank you, but first I have topoint out a few things. Sadly we do not have aphotograph as police officers from the 1860's wererarely photographed. We have very littleinformation on William and to explain the reasonswhy. Further I will outline what we have regardingJohn which again is very little.The Cheshire Constabulary was formed in April1857; there are many thousands of records, theseare held by the Cheshire Record Office, Chester. Ias a retired Police officer and voluntary PoliceMuseum Researcher am slowly extracting theserecords. Cheshire Police Officer Enrolment Recordsare held under Reference CJP7 Volumes 1-5. Thesefive volumes are very large and in poor condition,run from 1857- 22 March 1913; the informationwhich you seek would therefore be recorded inVolume 1. Volume 1 in the early stages containsvery little personal information regarding theofficer, and it was not until the middle of the1860's they started to recorded the officers ageand place of birth, thankfully the Census Returnshave helped. I should also point here at the sametime as the Cheshire Constabulary was running theChester City Police, had been running since 1833,this force was totally independent until 1947,only then did it become part of the CheshireConstabulary.I say all this because I want to try and reassureyou that what I give you is as it appears in therespective volumes. However if you so wish, youcan of course have the records confirmed by theChester Records Office Archivist. But it would beremiss of me if I did not point out that TheRecord Office will charge you a minimum of £27 persearch per volume; therefore your total bill wouldconsiderable bearing in mind they would count Johnand William as separate enquiries so please beaware.If you also read the history of the CheshireConstabulary "To the Best of Our Skill andKnowledge" which is on the Museum Web Site, underthe drop down menu marked 'History' within thisbook is also information on Chester City Police. Ifeel certain that a useful picture can be obtainedof life in the force at the time there was littledifference between a County, Borough or Cityforce. My own opinion is that discipline wasdraconian and those who strayed outside the rule'swere fined way above what they earned ordismissed. Also the restrictions on their privatelife, an officer was not allowed to drink on oroff duty even in his own home.Cheshire Constabulary Information. PoliceConstable William Ellis Good is only recorded asbeing born circa 1839; it does not show his placeof birth, however I note from the 1861 Census forWharton it gives his place of birth as Ireland! Hejoined on Monday 3rd October 1859 and resignedTuesday 22nd October 1861 (it being the 148th yearanniversary tomorrow) having served a total of 2years 19 days. He was first posted to NorthwichDivision, but on the 7th November 1859 was postedWharton, (the Town then was then split into twoWharton and Over), Wharton being approximately 7miles from Northwich Town. And this is all itsates in this record.I have also checked what are known as GeneralOrders, these start in 1857 and run to the presentday, they are basically the everyday running ofthe force William is not mention in any of theyears, 1859, 1860 and 1861.From my own enquires he was resident in GravelLane, Wharton. Gravel Lane no longer exists andhas been renamed Station Road. He married his 1stwife Harriet Hamlet of Over during the 1st quarterof 1861, they were married at Wharton ChristChurch.If you take a moment and visithttp://www.picturecheshire.org.uk/ this site hasnumerous pictures of both Over, Wharton and indeedChester. Please remember that Gravel Lane may onlybe referred to as Station Road.If you also look athttp://maps.cheshire.gov.uk/tithemaps/LargeMap.aspx?srch=&singleplot=&hlt=&hlp=&e=365674&n=366115&scale=0.5&tabL=L2&tabR=R1 and find the maps for'OVER' and look at the OS c1875 map on the leftside of the page. Look for the name High Street,which is in the centre of the town, scroll thepage to the left and follow the High Street toWinsford Bridge, right into Market Street there onthe left side you will see marked police station,further to the right is Gravel Lane. It does takea little getting used to. There is also a greatdeal of written information on both Winsford(Over/Wharton) and Chester.To explain at little about Chester City PoliceRecords, these are also held at the Record Officein Chester (CJP20/7/1). Unfortunately when ChesterCity became part of Cheshire Constabulary (1947)only one volume containing the enrolment of PoliceOfficers into Chester came with them this datesbetween 1836 and 1939, but again contains verylittle personal information and in the case ofWilliam it shows, Sergeant 221 William Good, borncirca 1838 Bolton Lancashire, joined the ChesterCity Police on Wednesday 1st May 1867 and Retiredto pension on Friday 26th August 1892, havingserved 25 years, 3 months and 25 days. His recordalso shows that he served 4 years 6 months withthe Metropolitan Police. If we take the date heleft Cheshire Constabulary i.e. 22nd October 1861and the day he joined Chester City this amounts to5 years, 6 months and 7 days given that it stateshe served four and half years in the MetropolitanPolice we are approximately 1 year missing betweenhim leaving Cheshire and Returning, I hope I haveworked that out correctly. Again further enquiriesshow that he married his second wife Sarah Mason2nd quarter 1869 at St. Mary's Church, Chester.William died 5th December 1919, aged 81 years atChester. Sadly this is all the information I haveon William.With regard to John we have him recorded asSergeant 290 John Good, born December 1843, againno place of birth is given but the 1881 Censusshows he was born in Ireland and resident with hiswife Elizabeth at 77 Brook Street, Chester andrecorded as a Police Inspector. The 1891 Censusshows him resident at 53 Cornwall Street, Chesteras a retired Police Constable. In other words hisPolice record does not show he ever held the rankof Inspector. He joined Chester City Police onMonday 22nd June 1874 and was dismissed from theforce on Thursday 1st May 1890, having served atotal of 15 years 10 months and 8 days. The onlyother thing significant is that he served 10 years6 months with the 33rd of Foot Regiment (Duke ofWellingtons Regiment), I am assuming that this wasimmediately or just before joining Chester Cityand why I cannot find him on the 1871 Census. Withregard to his dismissal I can only hazard a guesshere and return to my previous comments regardingdraconian discipline, as I compiled the policerecords over the past 5 years what shows more thananything else is drunkenness, and not manyofficers have a clean record regarding this. I amnot saying he was dismissed for drunkenness I amsaying drunkenness was prevalent within the force.Assuming he was an Inspector when dismissed hisrank alone would have kept him free from dismissalfor a number of years, even for the most seriousof offences, but like everything else one has todraw a line under it and I don't think we willever know.To conclude, also within the records of ChesterCity Police is a further officer named PC224 LukeFrancis Good, who joined 19th September 1867,resigned 14th December 1868, re-appointed 15thApril 1876 and resigned again 11th March 1878. Hisyear of birth is recorded as November 1841, butagain no area is given. A very quick look onAncestry does show a Luke Francis Good was born inBolton, Lancashire. I am wondering if he may havealso been a brother?I am truly sorry I have not been able to assistyou in any great detail but can I ask you when youget a moment would you send a quick mail so I canmark of your enquiry as completed. If you have anyfurther questions please don't hesitate to contactme. Jim Talbot. Trustee and Researcher, CheshireMuseum of Policing.