Damn His Blood (51 page)

CHAPTER 17

1
Description of Worcester Guildhall comes from J. Tymbs,
A Brief History of Worcester
and V. Green,
The History and Antiquities of the City and Suburbs of Worcester
.

2
The presence of the Grand Jury was required by a tradition that stretched back into the medieval age when a jury of important local people would be summoned in the days before a trial to see if there was a prima facie case to answer. A trial could not proceed until this presentment – either from an inquest or, more commonly, through the grand jury – had taken place. In either case twelve men had to agree that a crime ‘probably’ had been committed. The Oddingley case is confusing and somewhat unusual as the prisoners were indicted by both the coroner’s inquest and the Grand Jury, rather than one or the other. The practice of using a Grand Jury was abandoned in the UK in 1933 and now committal proceedings are conducted before a magistrate. There is a good chapter on this part of the legal process by James Baker in J.S. Cockburn, (ed.)
Crime in England 1500–1800
.

3
‘Gentlemen, there is a very important case in the kalender’, T. Eaton,
TTC
.

4
Three quarters of the judiciary dying in harness and other useful facts about the nineteenth century criminal justice system are to be had from David Bentley,
English Criminal Justice in the Nineteenth Century
.

5
Biographical sketch of Judge Joseph Littledale is from
The Gentleman’s Magazine
Vol. XVIII;
The Annual Biography and Obituary 1831
Vol. X and
House of Commons Papers
Vol. 35. There are two surviving portraits of Littledale, one by Sir William Beechey and another by Thomas Phillips. Both are now owned by Gray’s Inn.

6
A list of the indictments is taken from NA ASSI 5/150/19.

7
Description of the scenes outside the Guildhall on the morning of the trial are from
Morning Chronicle
, 12 March 1830;
Birmingham Journal
, 13 March 1830 and J. Pigot,
Pigot and Co’s National Commercial Directory
. Thereafter an account of the trial is taken from the detailed accounts that appeared in the Worcester papers in the following days:
Berrow’s Worcester Journal
, 18 March 1830 and
Worcester Herald
, 13 March 1830. A few interesting supplementary details are to be had from
Birmingham Journal
, 13 March 1830; E. Lees,
TOM
and T. Eaton,
TTC
. Probably the most accurate record of the trial is W. Wills,
Report of the Trial of Thomas Clewes
. Wills attended the trial and hoped to record proceedings as a legal peculiarity for the future. He was the only person to produce a verbatim transcript and most of the direct quotations come from his work.

8
‘otherwise the matter would lie on her …’, David Bentley,
English Criminal Justice in the Nineteenth Century
.

9
‘Nothing is so likely to strike the person’, Charles Dickens,
Sketches by Boz
.

10
‘As an instance of the strange way’,
Examiner
, 14 March 1830.

CHAPTER 18

1
Account of the prisoners leaving the County Gaol comes from
Worcester Herald
, 20 March 1830 and
Birmingham Journal
, 13 March 1830. Initial reaction to the verdicts, the
Observer
, 14 March 1830 and
Carlisle Patriot
, 20 March 1830. Mary Sherwood’s individualistic take on events from Mary Sherwood,
Sequel to the Oddingley Murders
.

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
:

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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,
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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)