Colchester historian Patrick Denney takes the reader on a sinister journey from the religious persecutions of Queen Mary’s time to the twentieth century, meeting villains, cutthroats, arsonists, and lunatics along the way.
Based on original research, this fascinating chronicle will prove to be a valuable—if gruesome—addition to the historical record of this town that dates back to Roman times, as well as a compelling read for fans of true crime stories.
Colchester historian Patrick Denney takes the reader on a sinister journey from the religious persecutions of Queen Mary’s time to the twentieth century, meeting villains, cutthroats, arsonists, and lunatics along the way.
Based on original research, this fascinating chronicle will prove to be a valuable—if gruesome—addition to the historical record of this town that dates back to Roman times, as well as a compelling read for fans of true crime stories.
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Overview
Colchester historian Patrick Denney takes the reader on a sinister journey from the religious persecutions of Queen Mary’s time to the twentieth century, meeting villains, cutthroats, arsonists, and lunatics along the way.
Based on original research, this fascinating chronicle will prove to be a valuable—if gruesome—addition to the historical record of this town that dates back to Roman times, as well as a compelling read for fans of true crime stories.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783408238 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pen & Sword Books Limited |
| Publication date: | 02/20/2019 |
| Series: | Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 176 |
| Sales rank: | 841,368 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Hanged, Drawn and Quartered 1557
... another one of the bailiffs ... dragged him back to the sled andproceeded to hack off his head with a blunt cleaver ...
The process of hanging, drawing and quartering was the ultimate punishment in English law for men found guilty of High Treason – women were instead burnt at the stake. This was surely one of the most brutal forms of execution ever invented and was used by Edward I (Longshanks) as a means of dispatching William Wallace of Scotland in 1305.
The full sentence required that the individual be drawn upon a hurdle (similar to a piece of wooden fencing) to the place of execution and then hanged by the neck in the normal way (ie without a drop) so as to ensure that the neck was not broken. Whilst still alive the prisoner's body would then be taken down and his private parts cut off and his stomach slit open. His intestines and heart were then removed and burnt before his eyes (one, of course, would hope that by this time the poor individual was either already dead or had lapsed into a state of unconsciousness!). Next, his head would be cut off and his body divided into four quarters. Finally, the dismembered body parts would be parboiled to prevent them from rotting too quickly and then displayed in a prominent place (the head on a pole) as a warning to like-minded others.
Such was the punishment meted out to a Colchester preacher and tailor named George Eagles (nicknamed Trudgeover or Trudgeover-the-world) in 1557. George had been caught up in the anti-Protestant fervour which had been sweeping the country following the accession to the throne of the Catholic Queen Mary Tudor. This was indeed a terrible time for those of the Protestant faith as she set about trying to restore the country to Catholic Rome. First to be disposed were the Protestant bishops, including the likes of Latimer and Ridley who were both burnt at the stake, followed by the restoration of Popish rites and imagery in the churches, before finally embarking upon a fanatical crusade of religious persecution against anyone who refused to accept the teachings and doctrines of the Roman Church. During a three year period from 1555 – 1557 more than 300 Protestants nationwide were burnt at the stake – including over seventy from Essex.
Colchester at this time was a medium-sized community with a population of about 5,000. Most of the inhabitants lived in cramped conditions within the confines of the old town wall, although the ancient borough extended well beyond these limits. The town was well known for its cloth-making industry and, almost equally so, for its religious tolerance – particularly with regard to non-conformity. The townsfolk had readily accepted the principles of reform during the reign of Mary's father, Henry, but now their allegiance was once again to be put to the test with her own accession, and demands for a reversal to Catholicism. The majority, of course, when faced with serious persecution, or even the threat of death, quickly recanted their new found beliefs and returned to their former Catholic ways, but some of the more steadfast supporters of the Reformation stood their ground and refused to be intimidated. From the authorities' standpoint they were regarded as rebels and needed to be brought into line. By 1555 the problem locally had intensified and the town was being described as 'a harbourer of heretics' and 'full of rebels.'
George Eagles was one of that number, but unlike the majority of rebels to Catholicism, who were condemned as heretics, he alone was indicted for treason simply because he had prayed that God would 'turn Queen Mary's heart, or take her away.' This had been construed as an attack on the Queen herself and wishing her personal harm. In reality, of course, he had simply been praying for her own reformation from what he considered to be an apostasy from true Christian worship.
As to what happened next, and in particular the events which led up to his capture and subsequent trial and execution, we must refer to the writings of John Foxe, one of the great Protestant propagandists of the period and the author of the well-known Book of Christian Martyrs. According to Foxe, George Eagles had begun his preaching work during the reign of Edward VI, and by the time of the Marian persecutions had become a seasoned preacher and a great encouragement to others. Little is known of his origins other than that he was a man of little formal learning and a tailor by profession. He was, however, obviously inspired with the gift of preaching and travelled widely seeking to spread his gospel message (hence his nickname Trudgeover-the-world) before finally seeking some form of refuge in and around the district of Colchester. Here he managed to keep one step ahead of the authorities, stealthily preaching by day and remaining hidden by night, often sleeping rough in the various woods and heaths which surrounded the town, breaking cover only in times of necessity.
At length, a determined effort was made by the authorities to apprehend him and bring him to justice. A reward of £20 (about £5,000 in today's money) was offered as an enticement for his capture – dead or alive. And with so many 'spies' now seeking him out he was finally spotted, purely by chance, whilst attending a fair on Magdalen Green. Although he managed to give his pursuers the slip, he was followed by a large mob who almost succeeded in catching him. However, in an attempt to throw them off the scent George had managed to conceal himself in a cornfield and had remained there quietly hidden until he was sure that his enemies had given up the chase. However, one crafty individual had decided to remain behind and, after climbing a tall tree, kept a silent watch over the area to see whether their quarry would reveal his hiding place. After some time had elapsed, and when the crowd had apparently dispersed, Eagles felt it was safe to emerge from his hiding place only to be spotted by this lone pursuer who quickly descended from the tree and apprehended him.
George was taken into Colchester where he was imprisoned for four days before being sent to Chelmsford, and then on to London where he was brought before the Bishop and other churchmen. He was finally returned to Chelmsford to appear before the sessions where he was indicted and accused of treason, on the grounds that he had been responsible for gathering together companies of men and women contrary to the laws pertaining to acts of sedition. At length he was brought to trial where he attempted to defend himself and made a full declaration of his religion and faith before the judges. However, the charge of treason was upheld and his trial began as follows:
George Eagles, thou are indicted by the name of George Eagles, otherwise Trudgeover-the-world, for that thou didst on such a day make thy prayer that God should turn Queen Mary's heart or else take her away.
He denied that he prayed that God should take her away, but confessed to praying that God would turn her heart in his prayer.
He was thus condemned as a traitor, although on the basis of religion. With the trial over he was carried to the Crown Inn in Chelmsford, where a few individuals there tried to get him to confess that he had offended the Queen, and to ask for her forgiveness. In the process of time he was tied up, and with just a psalm book in his hand, was laid upon a hurdle and drawn to the place of his execution. When they arrived at the gallows they proceeded to hang him. After he had been hanging for just a short while the rope was cut by one of the bailiffs and he fell to the ground whilst still alive. At this time another one of the bailiffs, a man named William Swallow, dragged him back to the sled and proceeded to hack off his head with a blunt cleaver (similar to that which might be used in any ordinary household), hitting his neck and chin several times in the process. He then opened him up and plucked out his heart and intestines. The body was then divided into four parts and his bowels burnt. During all of this time – whilst still conscious at any rate – the poor man had remained steadfast, calling upon his Saviour to the end.
His dismembered body parts were then conveyed to the home of the said William Swallow where they were laid upon the fish stalls outside his house, until a horse could be got ready to carry his quarters to their final destinations – one to Colchester, and the others to Harwich, Chelmsford and St Rouses. The quarter which was sent to Colchester was probably put on display in the market place outside the Moot Hall and would, no doubt, have served as a grisly deterrent to others who were of the Protestant persuasion. His head was kept in Chelmsford where it was fixed to a pole at the Market Cross until such time as it was blown down by the wind. After lying in the street for several days, being kicked about in the dirt, it was finally buried in the churchyard during the hours of darkness.
By way of a postscript to this sorry affair it might be of interest to know that this medieval form of punishment remained on the statute books until as late as 1870, although the last recorded act of actually hanging, drawing and quartering somebody took place in 1782. In 1798, and on three further occasions during the nineteenth century, the sentence was only partially completed – ie the victims were hanged and beheaded, but not quartered. Also, with regard to the precise meaning of the words 'hanged, drawn and quartered', there is still some confusion among historians as to what was meant by the term – 'drawn'. For example, did it refer to the process of drawing the sled to the place of execution, or to the act of drawing out the intestines after hanging? Some commentators, for instance, believe that the correct wording of the sentence should in fact be 'Drawn, Hanged and Quartered', emphasising that it refers to the mode of conveyance to the place of execution. One would assume, however, that where the word 'drawn' is placed after the word 'hanged', then it would seemingly refer to the act of disembowelment.
Finally, one can only presume that our forebears must have been made of much sterner stuff than their modern counterparts. For example, can you imagine one of our own local court officials calmly stepping into the breach and proceeding to disembowel somebody, and then to hack off their head and cut their body into pieces.
CHAPTER 2A Deadly Secret 1788
What really happened ... will perhaps never be known.
How good are you at keeping a secret? In particular, the kind of secret that could possibly land you in serious trouble, should the truth ever be known. Well such was the dilemma facing a Colchester man named Charles Williams who as an eighteen-year-old in January 1788, had been party to a vicious act of violence which had resulted in the loss of a man's life. Amazingly, he had managed to keep his deadly secret safe from family and friends for over thirty years without revealing so much as a hint as to his involvement in the terrible crime. Finally, however, and as he was approaching the age of fifty, he decided to unburden himself of his guilt and blurted out the truth of the matter to a drinking companion in a local bar. Whether this had been because his conscience had been pricking him as he moved towards old age, or whether the strain of forever being on guard lest he might let something slip in a moment of weakness, had finally proved too much for him, we will never know. It could even, of course, have simply been an act of bravado or a desire to impress his friend. But this simple confession, made at a time when he had probably swallowed one too many, was to result in one of the most talked about cases in the town during the early 1820s. The result was that thirty-five years after the crime had been committed, Charles Williams was arrested on suspicion of murder and brought before a Judge and Jury at the Essex Lent Assize to face the justice of the law.
The victim of the crime, which was committed back in January 1788, was a man named Daniel Holt, a fifty-five-year -old miller from Lexden. Mr Holt had apparently gone off to work at the mill one morning as usual but then failed to return home in the evening as expected. Even so, his family and friends were not unduly troubled as he was in the habit of working late, and perhaps he had even decided to go for a drink after work. He was apparently well-known in the area and would often meet up with friends and acquaintances in the various inns and taverns of the town. Even when he failed to show up for work the following morning nobody was overly concerned - perhaps he had been drinking heavily the night before and was sleeping it off somewhere. However, when he had failed to make an appearance that evening, and then was still missing on the third day, his family and friends finally began to get worried and reported him missing. They searched for him throughout the district but could find no trace of him – that is until two weeks later when a man's body was hauled out of the River Colne by a fisherman in the parish of East Donyland. The body, which was later identified as being that of Daniel Holt, was examined by surgeons from the hospital and although seen to contain some injuries to the head, which may have been caused subsequent to the body entering the water, no evidence was found to suggest foul play, and the coroner's jury had returned a verdict of Accidental Death.
And there the matter was laid to rest and for the most part soon forgotten – that is until once again it became the centre of local gossip and rumour some thirty years later. By this time, of course, about half of the population that was living at the time of the tragedy had passed away and the event was, at best, a distant memory in the minds of those still living. However, for one particular person the events surrounding Mr Holt's death were still crystal clear, despite the passage of time. This person was Charles Williams, the man who was now standing in the dock accused of his murder. And the only reason why Williams was in this perilous position was due to his own confession, when he admitted being involved in the crime, to a drinking acquaintance named William Lester. Mr Lester, of course, was now the principal witness for the prosecution in the proceedings and went on to relate to the court the circumstances of the evening when the prisoner first spoke of his involvement in Mr Holt's murder:
I have known the prisoner for twenty years. We lived about half a mile apart and we have never quarrelled. I remember seeing him in the Fleece Tap [a small room at the rear of the main Fleece Hotel in Head Street] one night a few years ago. It was between six and seven in the evening and I was sitting drinking some porter [dark brown bitter beer] when he came in and sat down beside me. He later asked me if I remembered old Mr Holt who had been found dead in the river all those years ago. When I said that I did not, he told me that he had been killed at the Blue Pig [a pub in Head Street] and that he had been there at the time and had helped another man commit the murder. He told me that Holt had been drinking in the Blue Pig one night in 1788 and that he had later gone outside and sat sleeping on the steps of Mr Smythies' house next door [currently Woolworth's]. At about twelve o'clock he said that he and a man named Roger Munsey had gone up to him and that Munsey had hit him over the head with a crow bar and killed him. They then put him in a sack and hid him in the cellar of the Blue Pig [the cellar door apparently led directly onto the street]. They then got some sawdust to cover the blood on the ground and tried to wash away the blood which had spilled onto the steps. He never told me what became of the body after that, but we were both sober at the time of the conversation.
Head Street, looking towards North Hill, c. 1890. The Blue Pig public house would have been somewhere opposite the tall building seen about half way along on the left side of the street which until recently was the town's main post office, and is now converted into a multiplex cinema. Jess Jephcott
And that was really the extent of the case for the prosecution. An alleged confession that was made some three years previously and then never spoken of again. It was going to be difficult to secure a conviction without further evidence. Lester had apparently been sworn to secrecy by Williams and had managed to keep details of the conversation to himself for several weeks afterwards. When further questioned by the court he said that after about three or four weeks he had decided to tell his wife about the conversation, and that he had also spoken of the matter with Mr Hill, the landlord of the Fleece Tap. Apparently, the matter had been playing on his mind and he had been having difficulty in sleeping at nights. He said that this all took place about three years ago and that he had never spoken of it again since being brought before Mr Abel, one of the Justices at Colchester, a few weeks previously. Apparently, the rumour mill had been working overtime with details of the prisoner's supposed involvement in the murder being spoken of in all the bars and taverns of the town. At length, the prisoner decided to make an official complaint to the Town Clerk's Office, stating that his character had been scandalised about the town by Lester, and requested that a summons be brought against him in order that he might clear his name. When questioned, Lester explained that he had not been responsible for spreading any rumours about Charles Williams, and adding that he would never have mentioned anything about what Williams had said to him had it not been for the situation that he currently found himself in, and being questioned by the justices. Of course, Lester could well have been speaking the truth. The rumours of William's confession to the crime could have been stirred up, or perpetuated, by Lester's wife, or even the landlord of the Fleece Tap whom Lester had also taken into his confidence. It is also possible that Williams himself had made more than one confession of his guilt to others whom he had met during his various travels.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in & Around Colchester"
by .
Copyright © 2005 Patrick Denney.
Excerpted by permission of Pen and Sword Books Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
FOUL DEEDS AND SUSPICIOUS DEATHS Series,
Title Page,
Dedication,
Copyright Page,
Acknowledgements,
Introduction,
CHAPTER 1 - Hanged, Drawn and Quartered 1557,
CHAPTER 2 - A Deadly Secret 1788,
CHAPTER 3 - Highway Robbery at Manwood Hill 1789,
CHAPTER 4 - The Murder of Thomas Patrick 1827,
CHAPTER 5 - A Tale of Murder at Wix c.1840,
CHAPTER 6 - Who Killed John Harding? 1870,
CHAPTER 7 - A Curious Case of Stabbing at Brightlingsea 1871,
CHAPTER 8 - The Fordham Double Murder 1875,
CHAPTER 9 - Killed by a Raging Bull 1875,
CHAPTER 10 - A Shocking Case of Burning 1886,
CHAPTER 11 - Drowning at Middle Mill 1887,
CHAPTER 12 - Tragedy at Wakes Colne 1888,
CHAPTER 13 - A Moment of Madness 1891,
CHAPTER 14 - The Colchester Fire Murder 1893,
CHAPTER 15 - Death in a Sandpit 1926,
CHAPTER 16 - The Riddle of the Fingringhoe Skeleton 1939,
Index,