Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in London's West End
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FOUL DEEDS AND SUSPICIOUS DEATHS Series
Wharncliffe’s Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths series explores, in detail, crimes of passion, brutal murders and foul misdemeanours from early modern times to the present day. Victorian street crime, mysterious death and modern murders tell tales where passion, jealousy and social deprivation brought unexpected violence to those involved. From unexplained death and suicide to murder and manslaughter, the books provide a fascinating insight into the lives of both victims and perpetrators as well as society as a whole.
Other titles in the series include:
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Birmingham, Nick Billingham
ISBN: 1-903425-96-4. £10.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Bolton, Glynis Cooper
ISBN: 1-903425-63-8. £9.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Colchester, Patrick Denney
ISBN: 1-903425-80-8. £10.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Coventry, David McGrory
ISBN: 1-903425-57-3. £ 9.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Derby, Kevin Turton
ISBN: 1-903425-76-x. £9.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in & around Durham, Maureen Anderson
ISBN: 1-903425-46-8. £9.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in London’s East End, Geoffrey Howse
ISBN: 1-903425-71-9. £10.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Hampstead, Holburn & St Pancras, Mark Aston
ISBN: 1-903425-94-8. £10.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Hull, David Goodman
ISBN: 1-903425-43-3. £9.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Leicester, Kevin Turton
ISBN: 1-903425-75-1. £10.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Manchester, Martin Baggoley
ISBN: 1-903425-65-4. £9.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Newcastle, Maureen Anderson
ISBN: 1-903425-34-4. £9.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Newport, Terry Underwood
ISBN: 1-903425-59-X. £9.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and Around Scunthorpe, Stephen Wade
ISBN: 1-903425-88-3. £9.99
More Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Wakefield, Kate Taylor
ISBN: 1-903425-48-4. £9.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in York, Keith Henson
ISBN: 1-903425-33-6. £9.99
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths on the Yorkshire Coast, Alan Whitworth
ISBN: 1-903425-01-8. £9.99
Please contact us via any of the methods below for more information or a catalogue.
WHARNCLIFFE BOOKS
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to a true Londoner
Tracy P Deller
Who loves the West End
First Published in Great Britain in 2006 by
Wharncliffe Books
an imprint of
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright © Geoffrey Howse 2006
ISBN: Paperback 1-84563-001-7
eISBN: 9781844682997
The right of Geoffrey Howse to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Foul Deeds and Murder through the Ages, 1236–1984
Chapter 2 Gunpowder, Treason and Plot, 1605
Chapter 3 Execution of Charles I, Whitehall, 1649
Chapter 4 Claude Duval, the Dashing Highwayman, 1670
Chapter 5 The Burning of Catherine Hayes, 1726
Chapter 6 Murdered by a Poet, 1727
Chapter 7 Killed in a Tiff over a Wig, 1735
Chapter 8 Shot by an Amorous Clergyman, 1779
Chapter 9 Assassination of the Prime Minister, 1812
Chapter 10 The Cato Street Conspiracy, 1820
Chapter 11 Murder at the Adelphi, 1897
Chapter 12 The Strange Disappearance of Victor Grayson, 1920
Chapter 13 Murder at the Savoy Hotel, 1923
Chapter 14 The Charing Cross Trunk Murder, 1927
Sources and Further Reading
A Map of the Parish of St Paul’s, Covent Garden from Stow’s Survey of 1755. Author’s collection
Introduction
London’s West End, as distinct from West London, which is quite different in all respects (West London being those relatively modern London Boroughs to the West of the metropolis, the West End being at the heart of it), is contained within a relatively small area. The West End is not as clearly defined as that part of London popularly referred to as the ‘Square Mile’, the City of London, which has remained London’s financial district since the ancient Roman city was founded over two thousand years ago. The West End is largely situated within the ‘other city’, the City of Westminster, founded a thousand years later. The City of Westminster grew around Westminster Abbey, founded by Edward the Confessor, Saint and English King, born c.1003, who reigned from 1042–66, and his palace of Westminster, now the Houses of Parliament. The West End of today lies largely within Westminster itself, and partly in the modern London Borough of Camden and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. As well as incorporating some of the most famous theatres, hotels, shopping streets and arcades in the world, the West End has been, for centuries, the place where the monarch and other members of the Royal Family, aristocratic, noble, wealthy, fashionable and famous, usually kept a London residence. The West End’s identity has always been jealously guarded to keep it special and to distinguish it from that part of London east of the Tower of London known as the East End, which has a very distinctive character and history, but not as those from the West End would have it, as important and distinguished as their own. Whereas the East End largely grew up along the River Thames and the eleven Tower Hamlets, over many centuries, dating principally from early Norman times, the West End’s development as a fashionable area of any significance can be roughly dated to the closing decades of the sixteenth century, when the area began to be developed on a large scale and theatres and other places of entertainment became an important feature. Despite the supposed gentility of
the West End, there has been a considerable amount of foul deeds perpetrated there, as you will see in the chapters that follow.
The West End consists of parts of the City of Westminster and includes Mayfair, Belgravia, parts of Victoria, Knightsbridge, Bayswater, Marylebone, Fitzrovia, Holborn and Bloomsbury, Strand, Piccadilly, St James’s, Adelphi, St Giles, St Martin’s, Soho and Covent Garden. Within these areas are other smaller districts which have their own individual characters. The present day Oxford Street, formerly known as Tyburn Road, could be said to bisect the West End but not quite in equal portions. It was along this thoroughfare that condemned prisoners were brought on their way to be executed at Tyburn, situated where Edgeware Road meets Oxford Street in the vicinity of Marble Arch.
Within the pages of this book you will find many references to Tyburn and to prisoners being drawn to their executions there. To clarify what drawing actually meant and to avoid confusion, here is a brief explanation. There were three kinds of drawing. In the vast majority of cases drawing means dragging to the place of execution, where hanging disemboweling and quartering followed. But drawing sometimes means dragging till the sufferer died of the mere dragging. In some cases drawing means tugging by horses in opposite directions till the sufferer was torn to pieces. Drawing in any of its forms appears to have been extremely unpleasant, and usually had only one outcome, death.
I have attempted to present as truthful and honest account as possible and wherever practicable have given my source information. I apologize unreservedly for any errors or omissions.
An early nineteenth century engraving of an execution outside Newgate Gaol. Author’s collection
Acknowledgements
Iris Ackroyd, Keith Atack, Vera Atack, Susan Barnes, Anna Blackburn, Joan Bostwick, Christine Boyce, Robert (Bob) Alan Dale, Kathleen Dale, Iris J Deller, Joanna C Murray Deller, Ricky S Deller, James Friend, John Goldfinch, Doris Hayes, Ann Howse, Doreen Howse, Kathleen Howse, Richard Huggett (1929–2000), Dr Hidayat Hussein, Tammy Jones, Brendan E McNally, John Marsh, Eleanor Nelder, Stanley Nelder, Dr Declan O’Reilly, Jackie Thomas, Julia Wiggett, Helen Vodden, Katie Vollens, Adam R Walker, Christine Walker, Darren J Walker, David Walker, Ivan P Walker, Paula L Walker, Suki B Walker, Dave Webster and Terry Webster of D Webster and son, Clifford Willoughby, Margaret Willoughby, Whittington Hospital social work team, the staff of the British Library, the staff of the British Library Newspaper Archive, Colindale, the staff of the Guildhall Library, the staff of the National Archive, Kew. I would particularly like to thank John D Murray who has assisted me over many years.
The Idle Apprentice executed at Tyburn, as depicted by William Hogarth (1697–1764) Author’s collection
CHAPTER 1
Foul Deeds and Murder through the Ages, 1236–1984
Tyburn Tree has its First Victims 1236
… he should hang so long as anything should be left whole of him.
In Tyburn Tree Its History And Annals by Alfred Marks, a fascinating volume which refers to the text of many rare and ancient documents, what is believed to be the first record of Tyburn Tree reads:
1236 About this time some bold but rash nobles in England, seduced by we know not what spirit, conspired together, and entered into an execrable alliance to ravage England like robbers and night-thieves. Their design, however, became known, and the chief of the conspiracy – to wit, Peter de Buffer, one of the king’s doorkeepers – was taken prisoner, and by him others were accused. In order to whose execution a dreadful machine called a gibbet, was set up in London, and on it two of the chief conspirators were hanged, after having engaged in single combat. One of them was killed in the fight, and was hanged with his head cleft open, and the other, hanged alive, breathed forth and his wretched life on the same gibbet amid the lamentations of the assembled multitude.
The site of Tyburn Tree on the traffic island at the junction of Edgeware Road with Bayswater and Oxford Street, close to Marble Arch. A bronze plaque, close to the bollard in the right foreground, marks the spot. The author
Execution of a Spy 1295
… he should hang so long as anything should be left whole of him.
Having being discovered spying for the French and found guilty of treason, judgement on Sir Thomas Turberville was pronounced by Sir Robert Brabazun, on the great dais in Westminster Hall, that he should be:
… drawn and hanged, and that he should hang so long as anything should be left whole of him.
Sir Thomas was drawn on a fresh ox-hide, and one chronicler wrote that he was so drawn that he might not die too quickly. He was drawn from Westminster to the Conduit of London in Cheapside, and then back into the West End to the gallows at Tyburn.
Cruel Deaths of the Scottish Patriots 1305 & 1306
If he is of nobler blood than the other parricides, he shall be hanged higher than they.
On 23 August 1305, Sir William Wallace, champion of Scottish independence (captured near Glasgow and brought to London), was firstly drawn from Westminster to the Tower of London and from there to the place of execution, where he was hanged on a specially constructed high gallows, before being cut down alive, disembowelled and quartered. The place of execution as most chroniclers insist, was undoubtedly Tyburn. ‘The Elms’ is mentioned in Chronicles of the reigns of Edward I and Edward II, although this term has been used for both The Elms at West Smithfield, as well as The Elms at Tyburn. The sentence ordered that Wallace’s head should be exposed on London Bridge. This is the first recorded instance of a severed head having being exposed there. His quartered body was displayed in Newcastle, Berwick, Perth and Stirling. In 1306 there were two further executions of Scottish leaders. On 7 September Symon Frisel (Fraser), was hanged as a thief, beheaded as a murderer, then the body was hung on a gibbet for twenty days before it was burnt. The head was fixed on a pole upon London Bridge, near the head of Wallace. On 7 November, the Earl of Athol, who claimed to be of royal lineage, was executed. Edward I said of him, ‘If he is of nobler blood than the other parricides, he shall be hanged higher than they.’ Lord Athol was brought to London and condemned at Westminster. Then, as he was of royal descent, instead of being drawn to the place of execution, he rode on horseback. He was hanged on a gallows fifty feet high. Then let down, half alive, so that his torment might be the greater, very cruelly beheaded (the chronicler does not say exactly how this was done), then the body was thrown into a fire, that had previously been kindled in sight of the sufferer, and reduced to ashes. The head was placed on a spike on London Bridge but higher than the other ‘traitors’, in regard to his royal descent.
Quartering of An Embezzler 1377
He was first drawn most uncomfortably to the place of execution …
In April 1377, Sir John Menstreworth was executed at Tyburn, having being found guilty of embezzlement. Sir John had embezzled large sums of money entrusted to him by no less a personage than the King (Edward III) himself, for payment of His Majesty’s soldiers in France. The traitorous knight had fled to Pamplona in the kingdom of Navarre, where he was captured and brought back to London. He was first drawn most uncomfortably to the place of execution, then hanged and afterwards he was cut down and his body was divided into four quarters and sent to four principal cities in England. Sir John’s head was placed on a pike on London Bridge, where it remained for ‘a long time’.
Monks Suffer at Tyburn 1535
… these blessed fathers be now as cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms to their marriage …
On 18 June 1535, three monks of London’s Charter House, named Thomas Exmew, Humphrey Middlemore and Sebastian Newdigate, were drawn to Tyburn, hanged and quartered, for denying the King’s supremacy. Sir Thomas More (1478–1535), distinguished statesman and scholar (canonized 1935), himself shortly to be executed, in July, for similar reasons (in his case he was beheaded and spared any mutilation, at the express command of the King, because he had held the highest office in the land. His execution shocked educated Europe), saw them from his ce
ll, being taken out of the Tower and said to the lieutenant of the Tower’s wife:
Lo, dost thou not see, Meg, that these blessed fathers be now as cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms to their marriage? Wherefore mayest thou see, mine own good daughter, what a great difference there is between such as have in effect spent all their days in a strait, hard, penitential and painful life religiously, and such as have in the world, like worldly wretches as thy poor father has done, consumed all their time in pleasure and ease licentiously. For God, considering their long continued life in most sore and grievous penance, will no longer suffer them to remain here in this vale of misery and iniquity, but speedily hence taketh them to the fruition of his everlasting deity. Whereas thy silly father, Meg, that like a most wicked caitiff hath passed forth the whole course of his miserable life most sinfully, God, thinking him not worthy so soon to come to that eternal felicity, leaveth him here yet still in the world, further to be plunged and turmoiled with misery.
Murder and Mutilation in Long Acre 1687
She was found guilty of petty treason and sentenced to death.
In 1687, Mary Aubrey, a midwife, murdered her husband and chopped off his head and limbs, in Long Acre, Covent Garden, assisted by her young son. She was found guilty of petty treason and sentenced to death. A verdict of petty treason, considered more serious than murder, was established when any person out of malice took away the life of someone to whom he or she owed special obedience. For instance, as in this case, a wife murdering her husband, or a servant killing his or her master or mistress, or an ecclesiastic his superior. However, a wife’s accomplices in the murder of a husband would not be guilty of petty treason. Mary Aubrey was hanged and then burned at Tyburn. Her son was acquitted as he was considered to have only acted under his mother’s coercion.