Jane Cakebread

Jane Cakebread was born in Sawbridgeworth in the English county of Hertfordshire in 1827 or 1828. Her family was poor. According to Dr. Robert Armstrong-Jones, there was no record of mental illness or alcoholism 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 police court 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". 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 ==

At some point, Jane Cakebread started living on the streets, possibly after she had squandered her windfall or had been robbed. 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. 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, 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, up to 1890. When Millbank closed, females were received into Holloway Prison. 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 Pall Mall Gazette, ''Lloyd's Weekly, and The Illustrated Police News. In the late 1880s, articles about her also appeared in The Morning Post, Reynolds's, The Leeds Mercury, and even The Times. The Daily Chronicle'' 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 opened the Duxhurst Industrial Farm Colony, Reigate in 1895 to rehabilitate alcoholics as part of the temperance movement. 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, Cakebread returned to sleeping on Stamford Hill, begging and being inebriated. – "a forerunner of the modern probation officer". 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. 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, The Inebriates Act 1898 was mainly focused on women, and they represented more than 90 percent of the people sent to reformatories for drunkenness. 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==