The Chelsea Strangler
Page 42
The diarist John Evelyn was one Commissioner for the Care and Treatment of Prisoners of War, while the others were Sir William Doyley, Sir Thomas Clifford and Colonel Bullen Reymes, a gentleman of the Privy Chamber and MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis (although he was never associated with the Treasury). The treasurer for the Commission was Captain George Cocke, who had a reputation for drunkenness and dishonest accounting.
Conditions in the gaol were said to have been grim, with a number of prisoners dying from malnutrition, poor medical care and eventually the plague. The warden was Mr Tooker, who allowed some of the prisoners out to work, to earn money for their keep. John Spring was one such inmate. He does not sound Dutch, but perhaps he was a merchant sailor caught on the wrong side. Regardless, he seems to have been trusted not to escape and start fighting again.
Not everyone was pleased to see the College used for non-religious purposes, and several men stepped forward to stake claims on it. One was the rector, Wilkinson, who was a bit of a character. He is said to have stolen books from College patrons, and was reviled by contemporaries as ‘a man of very scandalous report’. Another claimant was John Sutcliffe, nephew of Dean Matthew Sutcliffe, the College’s instigator and major financer. Yet another was Andrew Cole (or Kole), a speculator who had been renting the place.
The College was intended to be a splendid affair, built around two courtyards akin to the grander Oxbridge colleges. In reality, probably little more than the first quad was ever completed. The Royal Society never did move in, and later plans to turn the place into a market garden, an observatory and a glass factory came to nothing. The grounds were eventually sold back to the Crown, and became the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the Chelsea Pensioners.
Records show that Commissioner Reymes had a serious dispute with the Strangeways family that lasted several years. The Strangeways included John; his son Giles, a noted smoker, drinker and enemy of dissidents, according to Parliamentary records; and his grandson Wadham.
Other people in The Chelsea Strangler were also real. The landlord of the Swan was Francis Smith, and Chelsea residents in the 1660s included Thomas Janaway the bell-founder, Curtis Akers, Richard Samm, Thomas Franklin, John and Eleanore Unckles, and James and Elizabeth (Lil) Collier. Richard Franklin was an Admiralty Proctor, known to the diarist Samuel Pepys (who never went to a party in Clarendon House in July 1665). Dr Parker died of the plague in London in 1665, after which his lodger, Mr Underhill, claimed that their house had been burgled.
The Earl of Clarendon did have a daughter named Frances, although she was younger than portrayed here. His other children included Henry, Lawrence, Anne, James and Edward, the last of whom died of smallpox in January 1665. He also had a cousin named Alan Brodrick, who was one of the Court’s most lively debauchees. Other colourful courtiers of the day include Sir Edward Hungerford, Henry Savile, Richard Newport, Thomas Greeting the musician, Lady Elizabeth Savage, and the King’s mistress, Lady Castlemaine, who was pregnant with her fifth child in the summer of 1665. Betty Becke was the Earl of Sandwich’s mistress.
The dissidents and regicides also existed. William Cawley and William Say signed Charles I’s death warrant; Sir John Lisle and John Dove did not sign, but still sat on the tribunal; Edward Dendy was the Court’s Sergeant at Arms; and Andrew Broughton and James Phelps helped to prepare the paperwork. All except Dove – who made a grovelling apology and was pardoned – fled to Switzerland at the Restoration, and all except Broughton (who died in 1687) were dead by the mid 1660s. Evan Price was a fiery Fifth Monarchist who was active shortly after the Restoration.
The King and his Court did decamp from White Hall when the plague grew serious. They went first to Syon House, and then to Hampton Court, where they arrived in July. As the disease showed no sign of abating, arrangements were made for a move to Salisbury in August. When Salisbury proved unsatisfactory, they descended on Oxford, where they commandeered university colleges for their living quarters.
The King liked to have his money to hand, so the Treasury was moved as well. It had been in White Hall, but followed him on his travels, which must have been a cause of concern for those whose task it was to mind it. Sir Philip Warwick was Senior (Parliamentary) Secretary to the Treasury from 1660 until 1667, and Francis Stephens was its Sergeant at Arms. Thomas Kipps, who was also the Earl of Clarendon’s Seal Bearer, held the post of Messenger of the Receipt.