by Peter Moore
2 Solar eclipse in Worcestershire, mentioned in Worcester Herald, 14 June 1806.
3 Day by which rents were due to Lord Foley, Galton papers, BCA MS3101/A/B/5/4.
4 ‘peep-shows, toy-stands, waxworks …’ Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge and ‘a schoolboy let loose from school …’, G. Hazlitt, New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal Vol. X.
5 Information about Worcestershire’s fairs from W. Pitt, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Worcester with Observations on its Means of Improvement.
CHAPTER 1
1 Descriptions of Worcester. Its ‘forty or fifty master glovers’ T.C. Tuberville, Worcestershire in the Nineteenth Century and ‘a fine and flourishing city’, from Robert Southey, Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella.
2 Pen sketch of Oddingley, ‘most beautiful… one combination of noble hills …’, from W. Pitt, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Worcester, while the name of fields across the parish come from the tithe survey, Agreement for the Commutation of Tithes in Oddingley, 16 January 1838, WRO.
3 Statistics regarding the fluctuations in the price of wheat in 1805 come from T.C. Tuberville, WNC.
4 Wasps in London parks, Morning Chronicle, 21 September 1805.
5 Gunfire on the northern French coast, Worcester Herald, 17 August 1805.
6 The woodcut of Parker features in Broadsheet on the Oddingley Murders by W. Wright of Birmingham, WRO ref. X705.627, BA/5312/1.
7 ‘… tossing up a penny piece’, Thomas Alsop, CFP.
8 Biographical details about Parker’s childhood from T. Eaton, The Trial of Thomas Clewes, and about Charles Howard from Gordon Goodwin, Dictionary of National Biography.
9 ‘… an occasional visitor can pick up but few’ and Worcestershire’s provincialisms, W. Pitt, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Worcester. The Worcestershire accent is perhaps best displayed in the writing of local author Fred Archer whose many works on rural life in the nearby Vale of Evesham beautifully capture local dialogue.
10 ‘… to pass through the artificial boundaries of a parish …’, Adam Smith quoted in Asa Briggs How They Lived.
11 Details of Parker’s first years in the parish come from the Oddingley parish records, WRO ref. b850, BA/4038.
12 ‘At Worcester I became acquainted with a clergyman …’, A. Richards, The Extraordinary Adventures of Benjamin Sanders, Button Maker of Bromsgrove.
13 Anecdotes of Parker’s popularity among the labouring classes in Oddingley, from John Chellingworth in E. Lees, TWM, William Chance and William Colley, CFP.
14 Details of the nationwide split between the Church and King enthusiasts, and Painites or Jacobins comes from Roger Wells, Insurrection: The British Experience 1795–1803.
15 ‘I believe that revolution inevitably must come’, Robert Southey, quoted in Mike Jay, The Unfortunate Colonel Despard.
16 England’s last view of Nelson as he disappears into the sea fog by the Needles, taken from Tom Pocock, Horatio Nelson.
17 ‘… a genteel-dressed man’, Highwayman’s attack on John Hilcox, Worcester Herald, 2 April 1805.
18 An account of the ‘extraordinary and interesting discovery’ of the robber’s den in Trench Wood comes from Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 3 October 1805.
19 ‘… inherited all the romantic terrors of the ancient chase’, Theodore Galton, Madeleine de S. Pol.
20 ‘We trust we shall shortly have to publish their apprehension’, Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 3 October 1805.
CHAPTER 2
1 Details of Elizabeth Fowler’s daily routine are drawn from Elizabeth Jones, CFP.
2 Details of the storm on 9 January and the spring-time weather from Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 16 & 23 January 1806, Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, 7 April 1806 & Morning Chronicle, 1 May 1806.
3 Physical observations of Captain Evans taken from Mary Sherwood, Sequel to the Oddingley Murders; Mary Sherwood, The Oddingley Murders; E. Lees, TWM & Theodore Galton, Madeleine de S. Pol.
4 A good brief account of the history of Oddingley parish and its connections with the Foley family is to be had in the Victoria County History, A History of the County of Worcester. The legend about Odd and Dingley appears in ‘Oh! Dingley, Dingley, spare my breath’, E. Lees, TWM and names of local woods – Bow Wood, Thrul Wood, Oakley Wood and Goose Hill Wood – all come from the tithe survey, Agreement for the Commutation of Tithes in Oddingley, 16 January 1838, WRO.
5 Physical description of Thomas Clewes comes from the Observer, 14 March 1830. Other supplementary details appear in E. Lees, TWM. His move to Netherwood Farm is charted in the Oddingley tax records, WRO ref. 206.2091, BA/4609.
6 On the etymology of Netherwood, John Noake, The Rambler in Worcestershire.
7 ‘a very cross one’, ‘Testimony of John Clewes’, Information and Examinations of Witnesses, ASSI 6/1/2.
8 ‘one who regarded the cottagers’, Theodore Galton, Madeleine de S. Pol.
9 ‘[I] was hung up half an hour or more’, E. Lees, TOM.
10 Physical descriptions of John Barnett come from Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 18 March 1830 and the Observer, 14 March 1830.
11 ‘The tenant farm system was well established …’, the voluminous records regarding tenants’ contracts for farms in Oddingley have survived and they chart the changing fortunes of farmers like Barnett, Clewes and Evans. All details are housed at BCA in the Galton Papers, MS3101/A/B/5/4.
12 Oliver Goldsmith quoted in Asa Briggs, How They Lived.
13 Account of the footpads’ attack on John Williams is from T.C. Tuberville, WNC & Worcester Herald, 12 April 1806.
14 Account of Elizabeth Fowler’s discovery of the shotgun, Elizabeth Jones, CFP.
15 Description of St James’ Church, John Noake, The Rambler in Worcestershire.
16 ‘Every parish officer thinks he has a right to make a round bill’, Francis Grose, quoted in Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century.
17 Details about tithe law, examples of moduses, compounding the tax and William Wilberforce’s claim that one clergyman had been forced to supplement his income with a job as a weaver are all taken from Eric Evans, A Contentious Tithe.
18 ‘The poor, in general, exclaim loudly against the dearness of provisions’, T.C. Tuberville, WNC.
19 ‘… corn, hay and all other things growing’, Glebe Terrier, WRO ref. 721.091, BA/2358.
20 Cost of wages data taken from the diary of Richard Miles, cited in W. Pitt, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Worcester with Observations on its Means of Improvement.
21 ‘Suckling Pig’, a ballad, taken from Malcolmson & Mastoris, The English Pig.
22 The tithe dispute, incidents in Oddingley, ‘Damn your blood!’, ‘Testimony of Thomas Lloyd’. CFP; George Parker’s legal expenses, Mary Parker, CFP; ‘… would give any man five Guineas who would shoot the parson’, William Colley, CFP & ‘… it was no harm to shoot such a fellow as that’, William Chance, CFP.
23 ‘No war, no Pitt, cheap bread’, Mike Jay, The Unfortunate Colonel Despard.
24 ‘Baby, baby, naughty baby’, ballad taken from Robert Harvey, War of Wars. A French version of this popular ballad is mentioned in Wellington Anecdotes: A collection of sayings or doings of the great Duke (1852), whereby Napoleon’s name was substituted for Wellington’s – ‘Hush your squalling, or it may be, Wellington will come this way’. If accurate, it’s a good example of how different factions could hijack ballads and use them for their own ends.
25 ‘All common men were thrilled by the sight …’, Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution 1789–1848.
26 ‘None of the family or servants ever frequented Oddingley Church …’, John Collins, CFP; ‘Barnett, Banks and Captain Evans always abused Mr. Parker …’, James White, CFP; ‘Take that or you shall not have any one!’, and account of the argument between John Barnett and Parker, Thomas Griffin, CFP.
27 ‘There is no more harm in
shooting him than a mad dog!’, John Perkins, CFP.
CHAPTER 3
This chapter, documenting the quarrel at the Plough in Tibberton, is predominantly drawn from the testimony of John Perkins as recorded in CFP, TWM and TTC.
1 ‘Perry is the liquor of this country’, Robert Southey, Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella. Other evidence in literature that Worcestershire perry was commonly sold as champagne to unwitting customers in London comes in chapter three of Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones.
2 Details of the Birmingham Toast from R. Dent, Old and New Birmingham.
3 ‘… a time when every newspaper poet’, The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1901.
4 ‘Thou hast some left-handed business …’, Walter Savage Landor, The Works of Walter Savage Landor, Vol. II.
5 ‘… with a kist [chest] or shelf full of Radical books …’, E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class.
6 ‘I dare say the person that left it will call for it’, Elizabeth Jones, CFP.
7 Physical description of Richard Heming comes from E. Lees, TWM and Worcester Herald, 28 June 1806.
CHAPTER 4
1 ‘The grasses, both natural and artificial …’, Morning Chronicle, 1 May 1806.
2 ‘… hideous, whitewashed, brick structure …’, Theodore Galton, Madeleine de S. Pol.
3 ‘Neither of us spoke’ and the account of the night-time disturbances at Oddingley Rectory, Mary Parker, CFP. Details about Mary Parker’s background come from Dr Gael Turnbull’s notes on the Oddingley murders, held at WRO ref. 899.1327, BA/12.133.
4 ‘the grand toy-shop of Europe’, Monthly Review, Vol. 40. Burke’s famous description of Birmingham is somewhat misleading. The ‘toys’ referred not to children’s toys but the infinitude of small items – buttons, buckles, brass candle sticks and so on – that were manufactured in the town. For a good account of Birmingham’s thriving toy industry and the great variety of different items that it produced, see Jenny Uglow, The Lunar Men.
5 Account of Sadler’s voyage from European Magazine and London review Vol. VIII/New Annual Register, 1785, New London Magazine Vol. IV 1785.
6 ‘Time was when these commons …’, Reverend Richard Warner, quoted in Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century.
7 ‘… tempest of war and confusion’ and ‘… in ire and chagrin …’, T.C. Tuberville, WNC.
8 ‘They were all highly pleased …’, diary entry for 30 November 1784, James Woodforde, The Diary of a Country Parson.
9 Account of Reverend Skinner’s battles with the residents of Camerton comes from John Skinner, The Journal of a Somerset Rector. News of his suicide – ‘On Friday morning, in a state of derangement …’ – is from the Bath Chronicle, 17 October 1839.
10 ‘Irritable, nervous, apprehensive …’, Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader. Virginia Woolf made the comparison between Woodforde and Skinner in Two Parsons – a beautiful meditation upon the act of diary-keeping and the waxing and waning of their respective fortunes.
11 ‘[it] leaves no man anything in this world …’, Cobbett’s Political Register Vol. IX, 5 April 1806.
12 James Gillray, ‘The Friend of the People & his Petty-New-Tax-Gatherer, Paying John Bull a visit’.
CHAPTER 5
1 The account of the farmer’s meeting at the Pigeon House and the subsequent chase through the meadows is taken from the testimony of Sarah Lloyd, CFP.
2 ‘Banks was the most violent …’, Gilbert Jones, CFP.
3 Examples of the mounting tensions in Oddingley throughout May and June come from the testimonies of Elizabeth Jones, Thomas Reed and Thomas Green, CFP.
4 ‘I will swear my life against them all …’ and the clashes between the Captain and Reverend Parker in Church Lane come from the testimony of Mary Parker, CFP, with some supplementary details from Papers Formerly in the Possession of the Reverend Reginald Pyndar, WRO ref. 899.38, BA/866.
5 Information about the formation of the Worcestershire Volunteers comes from The First Regular Worcestershire Regiment, Firm and Forester Vol. 5 no.1, and details concerning the British recruitment crisis in 1779 are from Edward Curtis, Organization of the British Army in the American Revolution.
6 Samuel Evans being gazetted an officer, reported in the London Gazette, 30 October 1779. His subsequent promotion to lieutenant was announced in the London Gazette, 3 May 1780.
7 There is a good account of the ‘torrid zone’ and the physical perils of travel to the West Indies during the late eighteenth century in Mike Jay, The Unfortunate Colonel Despard.
8 ‘Whatever his parentage …’, Mary Sherwood, Sequel to the Oddingley Murders.
9 ‘He attends every vestry meeting …’, Charles Dickens, Sketches By Boz.
10 ‘Damn Priestley’, detail of the Priestley Riots from R. Dent, Old and New Birmingham, a History of the Town and Its People.
11 Examples of the word ‘damn’ in use: ‘I am afraid that I …’, James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson; ‘Damn his eyes’, Lord Byron Don Juan, Canto the Seventh, XLVI; ‘Damned lawyers and judges’, Jonathan Swift, The Works of Jonathan Swift; ‘Damn you!’ Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist. There is an excellent overview of the cultural power of bad language throughout history, and also a good section on oaths, in Geoffrey Hughes, An Encyclopaedia of Swearing.
12 ‘… a brisk gay widow’, Clifford Morsley, News from the English Countryside 1750–1850.
13 ‘Hence he reached the church without observation …’, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge.
14 ‘Constitution: The Independence of Great Britain’, Mike Jay, The Unfortunate Colonel Despard.
15 ‘Take it in your right hand!’, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations.
CHAPTER 6
1 An overview of farming methods in the English countryside at the beginning of the nineteenth century can be found in J. Main, The Young Farmer’s Manuel. The account of Perkins on 24 June 1806 draws on this. The list of implements in his workshop derives from an inventory in W. Pitt, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Worcester with Observations on its Means of Improvement.
2 ‘Oh, he had got his dying dress on’ and information about Parker’s final service at St James’ Church, E. Lees, TWM.
3 Scenes from the aftermath of Parker’s murder are drawn from James Tustin, John Barnett, Thomas Langford, John Perkins, Elizabeth Perkins and Susan Surman and Thomas Alsop CFP; Thomas Giles and John Lench, Inq., with supplementary details from E. Lees, TOM.
4 ‘Six gentlemen upon the road …’, William Cowper, ‘The Diverting History of John Gilpin’, Poems of William Cowper.
5 ‘“Stop thief! Stop thief!”’ Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist.
6 ‘The town being alarmed’, J.M. Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England, 1660–1800.
7 ‘… the workhorse of everyday magistrate power …’, Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century.
8 Coaching timetables are from T. Eaton, A Concise History of Worcester and J. Tymbs, A Brief History of Worcester.
CHAPTER 7
1 An account of Thomas Green’s journey through Oddingley on 24 June and his visit to Church Farm, testimony of Thomas Green, CFP along with some supplementary facts from Anon., The Murdered Murderer or the Worcester Tragedy. Events at Netherwood Farm are described by Thomas Arden, TWM and William Chance CFP.
CHAPTER 8
1 Physical description of Heming – ‘round, ruddy face and thick hanging lantern jaw’ – from Worcester Herald, 2 August 1806.
2 ‘Heming looked very pale and confused’, Thomas Colwell, CFP. Other details of Colwell arriving at the rectory appear in E. Lees, TOM and John Perkins, CFP.
3 ‘… he seemed in a hurry and very much confused’, Richard Page, CFP. Additional information about Heming’s flight across Worcestershire that evening can be found in T. Eaton, TTC and the twenty minute claim comes from Anon., The Murdered Murderer or the Worcester Tragedy.
4 Information about H
eming’s movements in May and June 1806 are from E. Lees, TWM, John Perkins, Susan Surman and Joseph Colley, CFP.
5 The biographical sketch of Richard Heming has greatly benefitted from the work of Dr Gael Turnbull who researched Heming in detail during the 1970s and 1980s. Dr Turnbull’s notes and his typescript on the Oddingley Murders are kept at WRO ref. 899.1327, BA/12.133.
6 ‘… 6d a strike under the regular price …’, Mary Parker, CFP.
7 Anecdote of Heming illegally selling the poles comes from E. Lees, TTC and rumours about his second life as a thief are reported in E. Lees, TWM.
8 ‘Committed to our house of correction …’, Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 11 March 1801, and there are further signs of a deviant Richard Heming in other archives. On 8 March 1806 a Richard Heming appeared at the Lent Assize in Worcester charged with the theft of a copper pot, a cast iron saucepan, a pair of leggings, two towels, one duck and one drake. It’s difficult to resist the temptation that these may be the same men, but in reality it is unlikely that they are as no mention of this other incident was made in the wake of Heming’s disappearance.
9 ‘Tramping, begging, thieving …’, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations.
10 ‘Upon his tour’, Boswell’s description of Dr Johnson’s greatcoat, James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson.
11 An account of the constables calling at Heming’s Droitwich home on Midsummer night comes from Elizabeth Newbury, CFP.
12 ‘they made every enquiry…’, John Perkins, CFP.
CHAPTER 9
1 ‘Salt manufacture at Droitwich …’, T.C. Tuberville, WNC.
2 ‘and when in a large body’, Philosophical Magazine 1812.
3 ‘Brine boiling and salt making’, Household Words, 14 July 1855.
4 Information about Droitwich Canal comes from Joseph Priestley, Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals and Railways of Great Britain.
5 ‘six thousand loads of young pole wood …’ and the later Hugh Miller quote from Hugh Miller, First impressions of England and its People.
6 ‘If Worcester has a fashionable neighbour’, Household Words, 14 July 1855.
7 ‘At a Chamber Meeting’ and other information about Captain Evans’ time in Droitwich is drawn from the Droitwich magistrates’ records kept at WRO ref. XXX, BA/1006/485. There is also much relating to the Captain’s period of service in Droitwich in T. Eaton, TTC.