Linda Stratmann - Gloucestershire Murders

Gloucestershire

M URDERS

Linda Stratmann

To Gail

First published in 2005 by Sutton Publishing Limited

Reprinted in 2013 by

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL 5 2 QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

Linda Stratmann, 2013

The right of Linda Stratmann to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 8453 2

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my very grateful thanks to everyone who has assisted me with my research for this book, including all those who helped to make my time in Gloucestershire an enjoyable and fruitful one.

As always, the staff in my old haunts of the British Library, Colindale Newspaper Library, the Family Record Centre and the National Archives were immensely helpful.

Special thanks must go to: Robert and Elaine Jewell of St Augustines Farm, Arlingham, for their enthusiasm and assistance with photographs; Keith and Ken Jones, West End Farm, Arlingham, for some delightful hospitality, and permission to photograph the scene of the crime; Sarah Manson of the Scribes Alcove website www.scribes-alcove.co.uk for advice about the location of Catgrove Wood; and Mrs Frances Penney of Newent. Our serendipitous meeting with Mrs Penney in the graveyard of Newent church was a happy moment which led to a fascinating afternoon that I shall always remember. Her contribution to my research was of immense value.

INTRODUCTION

G loucestershire is a county of enormous contrasts. Bisected by the great estuary of the Severn, it boasts rich farmlands, dramatic hills, peaceful villages of honeycoloured Cotswold stone, a legacy of silk and woollen mills, and the mines and quarries of the Forest of Dean. For many years Bristol was a part of the county, and its thriving trade and expanding population made it the second city in England.

Murder, too, can come in many guises: a moment of passion; a carefully executed plot; a pitched affray at the dead of night; and sometimes a murder that may have been no murder at all. Not all of the cases in this book have been solved, and many leave us with fascinating questions to engage our minds long after we first encounter them.

In my research I have made extensive use of contemporary documents, including trial transcripts, newspapers, the records of Assizes, the Metropolitan Police and Director of Public Prosecutions held in the National Archives, and family history archives. I especially appreciate the invaluable local knowledge provided by the friendly and welcoming people of Gloucestershire.

THE CAMPDEN WONDER

Chipping Campden, 16602

C hipping Campden is a small market town built of honey-coloured stone, lying on the edge of the Cotswold Hills. Many of its buildings date back to the fourteenth century, when the town first became of note through its connection with the wool trade. By the seventeenth century that trade was in decline, and the town settled into a more peaceful mode of life, only to be disturbed by a series of events at once dramatic, tragic and inexplicable.

The Manor of Campden was purchased in 1609 by Baptist Hicks, a Gloucestershire man who had amassed a great fortune through trade. A generous man, he built a row of substantial almshouses in 1612 and a market house in 1627. In 1613 he built himself a noble house near the church, the outside of which was reputed to have cost him 29,000, a sum equivalent to about 3.5 million today. There he ordered lights to be set up on dark nights for the benefit of travellers. In 1628 he was created Viscount Campden of Campden, but having no son to inherit his fortune and title, he procured a special licence by which all his honours and titles passed on his death in 1629 to the Noel family, Sir Edward Noel being the husband of his eldest daughter, Juliana. Edward Noel died in 1643 and the title passed to his son, Baptist Noel. The Hicks and Noel families were ardent Royalists during the Civil War, and the manor house served as a garrison for the Kings men. When they were forced to quit it, however, they were afraid that it would fall into the hands of the Parliamentarians, and rather than have this happen the house was deliberately burned to the ground. Only some outlying buildings survived, including the gateway, the stables, which were later converted into accommodation for Lady Juliana, and the East Banqueting Pavilion.

Memorial to Lord Edward and Lady Juliana Noel, St Jamess Church, Chipping Campden. (Authors collection)

It is probable that in 1660, when the extraordinary events that came to be known as the Campden Wonder started to unfold, Lady Juliana, who was then about 74 years of age, was not living in Campden but at the Noel family estates in Rutland. She still retained an interest in the Campden estate and employed a trusted steward, William Harrison, to collect the rents. In 1660 Harrison was about 70 years of age, and he had served the Noel family for fifty years. It is thought that he was then living in one of the remaining outbuildings of the estate, quite probably the East Banqueting Pavilion. Harrison, a respected man in the community, was a feoffee a governor of the Chipping Campden Grammar School, the accounts of which provide samples of his signature. Another feoffee was local magistrate Sir Thomas Overbury, whose uncle and namesake had come to an unfortunate end in the Tower of London in 1613. It is to Overburys account of the Campden Wonder, written many years after the events, that we are chiefly indebted for the story.

In 1660 the legal and political affairs of the country were in a state of turmoil. Richard Cromwell had ceased to act as Lord Protector in May 1659, and the judges he had appointed were no longer in office. New judges had been appointed by the Long Parliament, but after this was dissolved in March 1660 it was uncertain whether their decisions remained valid. Charles II was not declared lawful king until 8 May, and even after that the restoration of the monarchy was still in doubt until Charles arrived in London three weeks later. Although the Kings new parliament promised to pass an Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, pardoning offences committed during the conflict (apart, of course, from those connected with his fathers death), it was by no means certain that this would happen, and the matter was hotly debated for the next three months.

On the afternoon of Thursday 16 August 1660 William Harrison set out to walk from Campden to the village of Charringworth 2 miles away to collect the rents. He first collected 23 from Edward Plaisterer, then called at the house of William Curtis, but Curtis was out, and Harrison did not wait for him. Turning homewards, he stopped at the village of Ebrington, which was mid-way between Charringworth and Campden, where he paid a brief visit to the home of one of the villagers, called Daniel. After that he disappeared. Mrs Harrison, waiting at home for her husbands arrival, began to worry about him as the evening wore on, and between 8 and 9 p.m. sent her servant, John Perry, to look for his master. Neither man returned that night.