George Moss was Beadle and Sexton at Holy Trinity from 1850 to 1861 and he and his family were closely connected with the church throughout the latter half of the 19th century, as documented in some detail by Jenny, here.
His duties as Sexton involved bell-ringing which he evidently carried out with some vigour and enthusiasm - see here!
Perhaps the most intriguing detail to emerge of George's long and varied life is that in 1972 he committed his mother-in-law, Mary Chaundly, who was living with him at the time, to the Liverpool Road Workhouse! Whilst some of us might secretly sympathise with this treatment of a mother-in-law it does seem somewhat extreme, by any standards, especially given that George was at that time a "Relieving Officer" responsible for "taking charge of poor or insane persons not otherwise cared for"! A more charitable explanation may be that Victorian Workhouses were not exclusively places of Dickensian misery and hardship but may also have offered facilities much like the care homes of today. There is indeed some evidence to suggest that the Islington Workhouse was better than most and the Workhouse Infirmary where Mary Chaundry eventually died in 1875 may have been not so bad after all. Does anyone have any insights into this question?
