by Peter Moore
2 ‘The acquittal of Clewes …’, Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 18 March 1830.
3 Distinct precedents set by the Oddingley case, as taken from Carlos Flick, The Oddingley Murders:
That while the prosecution was not bound to call as a witness a person in office who may have exerted undue influence to get a confession from a suspect, it was fair for the defence to do so before the confession was introduced as evidence.
That if a promise of clemency was extended to a subject to get a confession and afterwards the promise was withdrawn and the suspect carefully warned that no mercy could be expected in return for a confession, then the suspect proceeded to confess, his statement was admissible as evidence.
That when a confession was read into the record during a trial it must be read in its entirety, including the names of people who might be thus incriminated; and,
That a confession must be taken as evidence in its entirety, including statements that were favourable to the accused, and that while a jury might not believe all the confession, it must have outside evidence to convict the accused of more than what was in the confession.
There is also an entry on REX vs. CLEWES in F.A. Carrington & J. Payne, Reports of Cases Argued and Ruled at Nisi Prius, in the Courts of King’s Bench and Common Pleas, and on the Circuit; from the Sittings after Trinity Term 1829, to the Sittings in Trinity Term, 1831.
4 Banks and Barnett’s defence, E. Lees, TOM and also W. Wills, Report of the Trial of Thomas Clewes.
5 ‘I thought it be George Banks’, Worcester Herald, 20 March 1830.
6 Reverend Clifton’s first letter to Robert Peel, Worcester 31 January 1830, HO 52/11/529–30.
7 ‘Capt. Evans (and we cannot refer to that man’s name without horror)’, Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 20 March 1830.
8 ‘Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent’, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Best of Sherlock Holmes.
9 ‘The fate of Heming is replete with instruction’, Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 18 March 1830.
EPILOGUE
1 ‘I am 75¼, I am probably near the end …’, WRO ref. 899.290, BA/3221, A Collection of documents formerly belonging to Rev. Sterry-Cooper.
2 A wonderful pictorial history of the Oddingley Murders has been produced by Paul Jones and features many of Reverend Sterry-Cooper’s black and white images alongside a number of contemporary photographs of scenes from the story, Paul Jones, The Oddingley Murders.
3 ‘Murder of clergyman planned by several villagers …’, W. Greenslade, Thomas Hardy’s ‘Facts’ Notebook.
4 ‘Elizabethan Period’, Decline of the English Murder, George Orwell, Essays.
5 ‘Perhaps no event in the catalogue of crime …’, PP.
Acknowledgements
This book has developed over a three year period in which I have accumulated many debts of gratitude. Firstly to two other students of the story, Gael Turnbull and Carlos Flick, who led new research during the 1980s and 90s. Credit must go to Carlos Flick for outlining the evidence against George Banks; and I am enormously grateful to Gael Turnbull – whose eclectic biography remembers him as a poet, doctor, performer and morris dancer – for his methodical, unpublished notes on the case, now kept at Worcester Records Office, which proved a valuable source on the shadowy lives of Captain Evans and Richard Heming.
For the permission to consult archives and republish images I would like to thank Worcester Records Office, the British Library, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Maritime Museum, the National Archives, the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, the Estate of Miss B.M. Beer, Reverend Canon J.H. Green of Tibberton and the Estate of Reverend Sterry Cooper. I am indebted to Dr Lisa Snook at Worcester Records Office for her help finding copyright holders and Andrew Mussell, archivist at the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, whose diligence produced not one but two portraits of Judge Joseph Littledale just at the point when I’d resigned myself to writing a faceless book. At IALS I am grateful to Laura Griffith who helped locate legal sources and, far away in Melbourne, I also want to thank Leanne McCredden who scanned and sent me a copy of Mary Sherwood’s long-lost pamphlet Sequel to the Oddingley Murders.
Damn His Blood began as part of an MA programme at City University and had it not been for that course this book would not have been written. For early words of wisdom and for guiding an unruly child along the mountain path I would like to thank Julie Wheelwright, Kate Summerscale, Sarah Bakewell and my fellow students. I was then lucky enough to meet Tom Williams, now of the Williams Agency, who saw the potential of this book and my warmest thanks go to him as well as the industrious team at Peters, Fraser and Dunlop: Juliet Mushens, Rowan Lawton, Laura Williams, Tim Binding and, most of all, my agent Annabel Merullo who has been an intelligent and intrepid counsel throughout.
At Chatto and Windus I’ve had the good fortune to work with so talented an editor as Juliet Brooke, and my thanks also to Becky Hardie, Clara Farmer, Fiona Murphy and the designers who have made the book so striking. Along the way I have received excellent advice on legal complexities from Professor Steve Uglow of the University of Kent. Dr Christopher Burke of St Thomas’ Hospital kindly (and swiftly) completed a modern-day analysis of Parker’s injuries and I reserve special thanks for my old friend Dr Christopher Prior of University College Dublin who read the manuscript and made several valuable suggestions on the historical background. Needless to say, any remaining mistakes are my own.
In Oddingley local sages Christine and Alan Hawker have consistently been generous with both their time and hospitality and I’m indebted to them for their discovery of Benjamin Sanders’ connection with George Parker. My thanks go to them and to Paul Jones in Droitwich whose knowledge of the story and eagerness to assist with photographs has been greatly appreciated. To Claire, my friends and family who’ve all assumed the role of literary midwives at various times, thank you. And to my father last of all, for all he has done, this book is for you.
Select Bibliography
Details of most primary sources, including archives, newspapers and commercial pamphlets, are dealt with in the notes section.
Primary Sources
Amphlett, John & Carlton Rea, The Botany of Worcestershire (Birmingham, Cornish Brothers Ltd, 1909)
Carrington, F.A. & J. Payne, Reports of Cases Argued and Ruled at Nisi Prius, in the Courts of King’s Bench and Common Pleas, and on the Circuit; from the Sittings after Trinity Term 1829, to the Sittings in Trinity Term, 1831 (London, 1831)
Dent, R.K., Old and New Birmingham, a History of the Town and its People (Birmingham, Houghton & Hammond, 1880)
Eaton, Thomas, A Concise History of Worcester, 3rd edition (Worcester, Eaton, 1829)
Florence, Ambrose, The Stranger’s Guide to the City and Cathedral of Worcester (Worcester, Lees, 1828)
Galton, Theodore Howard, Madeleine de S. Pol: A Glimpse of Worcestershire at the Dawn of the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, Burns & Oakes, 1881)
Green, V., The History and Antiquities of the City and Suburbs of Worcester (Worcester, Bulmer, 1796)
Gurney, J.B. & W., Trial of Richard Patch for the Wilful Murder of Isaac Blight at Rotherhithe on 23 September 1805 (London, Gurney, 1806)
Holden, Edith, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (London, Michael Joseph, 1906)
Lees, E., The Worcestershire Miscellany (Worcester, Lees, 1830)
Lees, E., The Worcestershire Miscellany, Supplement (Worcester, Lees, 1831)
Lewis, S., Worcestershire General and Commercial Directory, for 1820 (Worcester, J. Heming, 1820)
Main, J., The Young Farmer’s Manuel Showing the Practice and Principles of Agriculture as Applicable to Turnip Land-Farms in the South of England (London, Ridgeway, 1839)
Miller, Hugh, First Impressions of England and its People (New York, Boston, Gould & Lincoln, 1865)
Miller, Rev. George, The Parishes of the Diocese of Worcester (Oxford, Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, 1890)
Neale, Rev. Erskine, The Bishop’s
Daughter (London, W.H. Dalton, 1842)
Noake, John, The Rambler in Worcestershire, or stray notes on churches and congregations (London, Longman & Co., 1851)
Perronet Thompson, E., ‘The Oddingley Murders’, The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1901
Pitt, W., General View of the Agriculture of the County of Worcester with Observations on its Means of Improvement (London, Sherwood, Neely & Jones, 1813)
Robinson, W.M., The Magistrates’ Pocket Book – Or an epitome of the duties and practices of a Justice of the Peace (London, Hunter, 1825)
Skinner, John, The Journal of a Somerset Rector (Oxford, The Chaucer Press, 1971)
Southey, Robert, Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella (London, George Dearborn, 1836)
Stanton, G.K., Rambles and Researches among Worcestershire Churches (London, Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1884)
Stephens, Henry, The Book of the Farm: Detailing the labours of the farmer, farm-steward, ploughman, shepherd, hedger, farm-labourer, field-worker, and cattle-man (Edinburgh, William Blackwood, 1854)
Toone, W., The Magistrate’s Manual: Or a summary of the duties and powers of a justice of the peace (London, Butterworth & Son, 1818)
Tuberville, T.C., Worcestershire in the Nineteenth Century: A complete digest of facts occurring in the county since the commencement of the year 1800 (London, Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1852)
Tymbs, J., A Brief History of Worcester or ‘A Worcestershire Guide Improved’ with a description of the neighbouring towns, villages and seats that are most worthy of notice (Worcester, Tymbs, 1806)
Waldron, J., Metrical Tales and Other Pieces (London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1839)
Woodforde, James, The Diary of a Country Parson: The Reverend James Woodforde (London, Milford, 1926)
The Poetry and Varieties of Berrow’s Worcester Journal for the Year 1828 (Worcester, Tymbs, 1828)
Secondary Material
Ackroyd, M. et al., Advancing with the Army: Medicines, the Profession and Social Mobility in the British Isles 1790–1850 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006)
Archer, Fred, The Distant Scene (London, Coronet, 1967)
Barsley, Michael, The Left-Handed Book: An investigation into the Sinister History of Left Handedness (London, Souvenir P, 1966)
Beattie, J.M., Crime and the Courts in England, 1660–1800 (New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1986)
Bentley, David, English Criminal Justice in the Nineteenth Century (London, The Hambledon Press, 1998)
Briggs, Asa, How They Lived: An Anthology of Original Documents written between 1700 and 1815 (Blackwell, Oxford, 1969)
Clark, Peter, The English Alehouse 1200–1850 (London, Longman, 1983)
Curtis, Edward, Organization of the British Army in the American Revolution (New Haven, Yale Historical Publication, 1926)
Emsley, Clive, Crime and Society in England 1750–1900 (London, Longman, 1987)
Evans, Eric, A Contentious Tithe: The Tithe Problem and English Agriculture 1750–1850 (London, RKP, 1976)
Flanders, Judith, The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians revelled in Death and Detection and invented Modern Crime (London, HarperPress, 2011)
Flick, Carlos, The Oddingley Murders (Newark, University of Delaware Press, 1991)
Godfrey, Richard, James Gillray: The Art of Caricature (London, Tate Publishing, 2001)
Greenslade, W., Thomas Hardy’s ‘Facts’ Notebook: A Critical Edition (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2004)
Hammond, J.L. & Barbara, The Village Labourer (London, Longman, 1978)
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Hughes, Geoffrey, Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English (London, Penguin, 1998)
Hughes, Geoffrey, An Encyclopaedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World (London, Barnes & Noble, 2006)
Hurd, Douglas, Robert Peel (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007)
Hobsbawm, Eric, The Age of Revolution 1789–1848 (London, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1962)
James, P.D. & T.A. Critchley, The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811 (London, Faber, 1971)
Jay, Mike, The Atmosphere of Heaven: The unnatural experiments of Dr. Beddoes and his sons of genius (London, Yale University Press, 2009)
Jay, Mike, The Unfortunate Colonel Despard: The tragic true story of the last man condemned to be hung, drawn and quartered (London, Bantam Books, 2004)
Jones, Paul, The Oddingley Murders (London, Blurb, 2009)
Malcolmson, R. & S. Mastoris, The English Pig: A History (London, The Hambledon Press, 1998)
Morsley, Clifford, News from the English Countryside 1750–1850 (London, Harrap, 1979)
Pocock, Tom, Horatio Nelson (London, Bodley Head, 1987)
Porter, Roy, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (London, Penguin, 1991)
Richards, A., The Extraordinary Adventures of Benjamin Sanders, Button Maker of Bromsgrove (Bromsgrove, Bromsgrove Society, 1984)
Scott Daniel, David, Fifty Pounds for a Dead Parson (London, Jonathan Cape, 1961)
Smith, Michael, (ed. Peter Smith) The Church Courts: From Canon to Ecclesiastical Law 1680–1840 (Oxford, Edwin Mellen Press, 2006)
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Index
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Entries in italics indicate photographs or illustrations.
Allen, Richard 122, 123, 139, 164, 195, 212, 279
Alsop, Thomas 18, 98–9, 160
Aram, Eugene 2, 256, 257–8, 317
Arden, Thomas 38, 110–11, 227
bailiffs 34, 35, 64, 76, 129, 130, 131, 172, 186, 227, 231
ballads 258–60, 314
Banks, Catherine 35, 40, 41, 60, 110, 149, 185, 190, 241, 313
Banks, George 34, 35, 50, 85–6, 110, 129, 169; appearance 34; arrest of 236, 237, 238, 246, 285, 286; character 34; charged with Heming murder 251; Clewes confessions and 239, 240, 241, 242, 245, 287, 295–306; clover rick at Church Farm and 178, 179; damns Parker 53, 76, 87, 140; day of Parker murder 94, 111; death 308; Easter meeting and 55–6, 59, 60; Evans and 34, 35, 77, 85–6, 129, 172, 186–8, 189–90, 245, 304; family 34–5 see also under individual family member name; Heming inquest and 227, 232, 247, 248, 249; jail 260–1, 285, 286; Jones and 76; murder weapon, Parker’s and 60; Parker’s funeral, attends 154–5; Perkins and 59, 169; Pershore Fair, at 166; Pigeon House meeting 74, 75, 87, 94; press depictions of 253; released from jail 292; Sarah Lloyd and 74, 75, 87, 94; stands trial for Heming murder 265, 268, 269, 270–2, 273, 274, 285, 290–1; vestry meeting and 41
Banks, Henry 35, 55–6, 59, 60
Banks, Mary 34, 35, 40, 77, 126, 149, 172
Banks, Naomi R. Mary Cartwright 190
Barber, Thomas 77–8, 213–14, 216, 218, 278
Barneby, Richard 137–8, 139–40, 141, 147, 151, 196, 213, 216, 223, 314
Barnett, Mrs 103, 215
Barnett, John 3, 10, 39, 50, 64, 96, 116, 126, 134, 148, 1
72, 184; appearance 38; background 38–9; charged with Heming murder 251; Clewes confession and 241, 242, 243, 245, 246, 298, 299, 300; court cases and violent incidents involving Parker 19, 48, 49, 53, 246; damns Parker in Raven 77, 87, 140, 246; day of Parker’s murder 8, 97, 98, 99, 102, 104, 105, 110, 111, 137–9, 148–9, 247; death 307–8; Easter meeting and 55, 56; Heming inquest and 207, 216, 227, 247, 248, 249; indifference to Parker’s murder 98, 134–5, 138, 148, 160; jail 260; magistrates, summoned before meetings of 160–2, 163, 176; offers £50 for ‘a dead parson’ 77, 156, 246; overseer, election as 42; Park Farm and 182; Pigeon House meeting 74; Pyndar’s investigation into Parker murder and 160–2, 163, 167, 226; released from jail 292; Smith investigation and 204; stands trial for Heming murder 268, 269, 271, 272, 273, 274, 290, 291; throws weight behind search for Heming 160; tithe and 28, 53, 76; vestry meeting and 42, 43; ‘would give any man five Guineas who would shoot the parson’ 49, 156
Barnett, Thomas 39, 55, 56, 77
Barnett, William 42, 64, 184; Bromsgrove Fair 109, 137; character 136–7; Church Farm, acquires 171, 182; clover rick at Church Farm and 179; day of Parker’s murder 136–7; death 308; Evans and 132; Heming murder trial and 293; inquest into Heming death 247; parish constable 136, 137; Parker inquest and 136–7, 138, 140, 141, 145, 216; Smith investigation and 204, 207; Taylor and 175
Bath Chronicle 70
Berkeley, Captain Hubert 312, 314
Berrow’s Worcester Journal 44, 169, 171, 191, 232, 250; Clewes confession and 244, 245; depictions of Evans 255; discovery of Heming skeleton and 203, 217; Heming and 119, 151, 172; Heming murder trial and 262, 294–5, 307, 314; Parker inquest and 167; Parker murder and 119, 145, 151, 172; Richard Patch and 143; reports subterranean den in Trench Wood 30, 31
Birmingham 16, 26, 57, 86, 107, 187; industry in 65, 66, 69, 154; interest in Oddingley murders within 245, 257, 258; migration from Oddingley to 1, 66; reformist and dissenting movements in 69
Birmingham and Worcester Canal 36, 182, 191, 218, 312
Birmingham Journal 268–9, 270–1
Bishop’s Daughter, The (Neale) 177–8, 182, 188, 316–17
