Remembering Private George Alfred John Robinson of 7th Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment - Killed In Action, 8th July 1944

 

Venture into any British cemetery of an 80 year vintage or more and there is a very high probability that you will spot at least one Commonwealth War Grave Commission (CWGC) headstone, instantly recognisable by their rectangular shape and gently curved top. Of limestone cut from the numerous quarries of Portland in Dorset these headstones are imbued with a brightness that ensures that they stand out from their more drab granite, marble and sandstone neighbours in any graveyard.

When entering a cemetery previously unknown to me, it has become second nature to scan the headstones from afar for that oh so familiar shape. Even if I say so myself, I have become rather adept over the years at spotting them almost instantaneously. However, the official war graves do not represent the full story of the losses experienced across the villages, towns and cities of the UK, far from it in fact. Every plot in the CWGC cemeteries across The Somme valley and Flanders, Normandy and in every other theatre of war fought over by Commonwealth soldiers contain the remains of personnel who were not repatriated. More tragic still are the memorials to the missing that bear the names of those thousands of soldiers with no known burial place.

In his 1914 poem ‘The Soldier’, a patriotic verse concerning the death of an English soldier on the Western Front, Rupert Brooke rather romanticised a death on a battlefield far from home.

‘The Soldier’

‘If I should die, think only this of me:
   That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
   In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
  Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
  Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
  A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
   Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
  And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
   In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.’

These are certainly fine and stirring words but they would have offered little comfort to the mothers, fathers, wives and sweethearts of the fallen left to grieve back at home. Denied in life of the possibility of visiting a memorial place locally, lost sons and husbands were often commemorated in absentia on family headstones. These memorials are more difficult to spot, but no less poignant for that.

One of my last COVID lockdown walks saw me once again in the Old Cemetery in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire. It came as some surprise to me that I had missed a mention of a young soldier killed in action in Normandy on 8th July 1944. The inscription appeared on a rather overgrown headstone that marked the final resting place of his mother and father.

‘IN LOVING MEMORY OF

A DEAR HUSBAND AND FATHER

GEORGE ALFRED ROBINSON

WHO DIED 3^RD AUGUST 1945

AGED 63 YEARS

 

AND OF HIS SON

GEORGE ALFRED JOHN ROBINDON

KILLED IN ACTION IN NORMANDY

8^TH JULY 1944 AGED 22 YEARS

 

ALSO HIS WIFE

RHODA ELIZABETH

DIED 4^TH OCT 1970 AGED 88 YEARS

 

REUNITED'

 
‘8^th July 1944’, ‘Killed in Action in Normandy’. A date and a place very well known to me for reasons that I will explain.
 
A search of the British Newspaper Archive revealed the news of the young soldier’s death as reported in the Saturday 29th July 1944 edition of the Herts & Essex Observer. 

‘Killed in Action – Mr. and Mrs. George Robinson, of 59, Dimsdale Crescent, have received notification that, their son, Pte. George A (Alfie) Robinson, Royal Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action in July. Pte. Robinson was 22 years of age, was an old Hockerill School boy and at the time of joining up was employed by Messrs. S. Barker & Sons, bakers and confectioners. Three other members of the family are serving in the Forces.’

George was born in Bishops Stortford on 27^th January 1922. I have been unable to ascertain much detail of his early life. Detail of Ancestry based family trees state that George was born in Sawbridgeworth and yet there is no clear indication that his family moved away from the Bishops Stortford area. In the 1911 census the family are recorded as living in Middle Row in the Newtown area, whilst the extraordinary 1939 census sees the family, George included, as residing in Dane Street, in the area of the railway station. Likewise, a family tree source states that he was christened in Thorley. As his parents were married in 1907 at Holy Trinity Church it seems to me to be unusual that their growing family would not be christened in this church rather than another in an area at that time rather distinct from Bishops Stortford. Nevertheless, his early life is not the focus of this post, although of course being an inquisitive soul, I would be interested to know more of his life prior to service.

Private George Alfred John Robinson 5783776 was a soldier of the 7th Batallion Royal Norfolk Regiment. The Battalion was part of the British Expeditionary Force that in 1940 fought in what became known as the Battle of France. Early in the war as a fighting unit within the 51st Highland Division they were not part of the Dunkirk evacuation, they fought on until, depleted of food and ammunition, they were forced into an humiliating surrender at St. Valery-en-Caux on 12th July 1940. Their Commanding Officer, Major General Fortune surrendered 10,000 troops to Erwin Rommel and his 7th Panzer Division.

Back in England the Battalion was reformed in July 1940 around a nucleus of one officer and 29 other ranks who had returned from France, after which the ranks swelled with regular intakes of civilian recruits. As was normal for a newly formed battalion it was assigned duties that combined coastal defence (the 7th defended Grimsby docks for the remainder of 1940) with intensive training.

As Britain’s High Command struggled with the reorganisation of the British Army, successive reassignments of the 7th Royal Norfolks eventually saw them stationed in Loughgall, to the north of Armagh, Northern Ireland, as part of the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division’s 176 Brigade. This was the point at which the history of the 7th Royal Norfolk Regiment and consequently Private Robinson became very familiar to me as well as that fateful date of 8th July 1944. This was because several years ago, as the 70th anniversary of D-Day approached I started researching my maternal Grandfather’s military service in World War II. He was a soldier serving with the 5th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment which was also under the command of the 59th (Staffordshire) Division, but with 177 Brigade. As such from the point at which the 7th Royal Norfolks joined the Division to train in the Mountains of Mourne, my Grandfather’s service history and that of George ran along parallel lines.

The 'Pithead' insignia of the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division

The Battalion returned with the rest of the Division from Northern Ireland and were stationed in Kent as part of 12 Corps from March 1943. In the preparations for D-Day, the North West Europe invasion that all knew to be on the horizon, 59th Division were designated as a ‘follow up’ up Division. Training continued at an intensified pace including Operation ‘Harlequin’ that simulated the mobilisation of men right down to the water’s edge at Dover before the men were turned back. Few of the rank and file knew that this was an exercise rather than the real thing!

The commencement of the Second Front, better known now to history as ‘D-Day’, occurred as we all know on 6th June 1944. As a follow-up division, representatives of the 7th Royal Norfolk Regiment along with all other Divisional units attended a service of commemoration at Canterbury Cathedral where no doubt the thoughts and prayers of all were with their brothers-in-arms who had landed on the British and Canadian assault beaches early that morning.

On 7th June a personal message from General Montgomery (Commander-in-Chief of 21st Army Group) was read out to all troops:

1. The time has come to deal the enemy a terrific blow in Western Europe. The blow will be struck by the combined sea, land, and air forces of the Allies - together constituting one great Allied team, under the supreme command of General Eisenhower.

2. On the eve of this great adventure I send my best wishes to every soldier in the Allied team. To  us is given the honour of striking a blow for freedom which will live in history; and in better days that lie ahead men will speak with pride of our doings. We have a great and righteous cause. Let us pray that "The Lord Mighty In Battle" will go forth with our armies, and that His special providence will aid us in the struggle.

3. I want every soldier to know that I have complete confidence in the successful outcome of the operations that we are now about to begin. With stout hearts, and with enthusiasm for the contest, let us go forward to victory.

4. And, as we enter the battle, let us recall the words of a famous soldier spoken many years ago:-

" He either fears his fate too much,

Or his deserts are small,

Who dare not put it to the touch,

To win or lose it all."

5. Good luck to each one of you. And good hunting on the mainland of Europe.

B. L. Montgomery

General

C - in - C 21 Army Group

The words of Monty are famous, but to my mind, with references to teams, enthusiasm for the contest, this great adventure and good hunting, they strike me as more in keeping with speeches in the halls of Eaton or Harrow than for the ears of the massed ranks of a civilian army!

According to the original plan the 7th Royal Norfolks alongside the rest of 59th Division were due to land on Juno Beach on D-Day + 16 i.e. 22nd June. However, violent storms in the English Channel over the 19th to 21st June meant that the Division was delayed and remained in marshalling areas for some days. For the marching troops (distinct from the Divisional transport) bivouacked in Brighton’s Stanmer Park in fine weather the enforced delay was not as irksome as it could have been.

The Marching troops eventually embarked for Normandy at Newhaven, landing at Courcelleson on 28th June after which they concentrated at Le Manoir. The Battalion’s vehicles and armour sailed out of Tilbury Docks landing at Le Hamel on 29th June.

The 7th Royal Norfolks were permitted scant time to acclimatise to life in a theatre of war, finding themselves at the front line from 5th July when they relieved my Grandfather’s 5th South Staffordshire Regiment.

Private Robinson, his battalion comrades and the rest of 59th Division were about to participate on a three division frontal assault on Caen. The ancient Norman capital had originally been a D-Day objective, but such was the strategic importance of the city in terms of the facilitating an Allied breakout of Normandy and an advance on Paris that it was defended in great strength.

Operation ‘Charnwood’ was to be the push that would deliver Caen into Allied hands. Given the fact that the planned encirclement of Caen had floundered by virtue of a fanatical German defence, Charnwood intended to hammer the city’s defences from the north. The 59th Division was situated in the centre of the battlefront with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division on their right flank and the British 3rd Infantry Division on their left.

With the information that I have I cannot pin George Robinson down to a particular Company, but the engagement that cost him his life ran along the lines of the narrative that follows.

Operation Charnwood saw the first involvement of Bomber Command in engagements on the North West European front. From 21.50 hours to 22.30 hours on the night of 7^th July, George Robinson would have witnessed a display of air power not yet seen in the war to date. A raid comprising no fewer than 467 Halifax and Lancaster bombers pummelled the city with a combined payload of 2,560 tonnes of high explosive, incendiary and delayed-action ordinance. It was a firework display like no other, but the necessity and effectiveness of the raid is still a hugely debated topic almost 77 years after the event.

Head of Bomber Command, Air Chief Marshall Arthur Harris insisted on a 6,000 yard safety margin relative to the forward positions of the British and Canadian troops massed for the assault at zero hour on 8th July. This margin meant that the aerial bombardment fell behind the German front line fortifications and resulted in the decimation of the northern suburbs of the city (as opposed to the intended network of strongly defended positions in the villages and hamlets beyond the city limits that were the attacking forces objectives in Operation Charnwood. The loss of civilian life was high.

Such an overwhelming display of might would have undoubtedly provided a much needed morale boost to soldiers such as George Robinson and my Grandfather as they contemplated the prospect of their first combat, but it offered little in terms of a strategic advantage.

 

Diagram showing the concentration of the aerial bombardment of 7th July that fell behind the forward enemy positions.

It was known that the 59th Division in their first engagement would be facing formidable opposition, not least the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitler Jugend (comprising fanatical young men drawn from the Hitler Youth movement) and the 1st Panzer Division Lebstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (formed from the ranks of Hitler’s personal bodyguard).

No matter how many times I revisit this situation in early July 1944, I struggle to comprehend the idea that a civilian force drawn from the factories, farms and offices of Britain were pitched against the elite forces of the Third Reich, many of whom were hardened and bloodied veterans of many campaigns, not least of them, the Eastern Front.

The objectives of the 7^th Royal Norfolks and 176 Brigade on 8^th July were the fortified villages of Epron, the approach to which necessitated an advance through cornfield crops that were two feet high. These fields were surrounded by hedges and banks in which the Germans had established deadly defensive positions. The situation on the ground was such that the opportunities for reconnaissance in advance of zero hour were limited and heavy reliance was placed on aerial photography. This factor cost much in terms of casualties suffered on the day of the battle.

Map showing the position of Epron and La Bijude and the advances of the 21st Army Group Divisions that resulted in the capture of Caen.

Zero hour for Operation Charnwood was set to 0420 hours. Moments before the off a few artillery pieces stuttered a few bursts which heralded the full fury of the Division’s supporting artillery. At the same time, the big guns of the Royal Navy waded in with their formidable contribution to a dawn chorus from hell. HMS Belfast, Emerald and Rodney anchored in the beachhead added significant weight to the bombardment that became known as the ‘Monty barrage’.

The German defenders were quick to respond, sending over shells from their own artillery, although this left the Norfolks unscathed.

Orders were received at 0620 hours to start phase II of the attack at 0730 hours. This order was made on the assumption that the first phase had concluded successfully. Moreover one of the earliest casualties of the second phase was the Battalion’s radio communication which was rapidly put out of action. The leading Companies of the Battalion, advancing upon their objectives through the aforementioned corn crops, encountered a very confused situation. Despite the fact that the Norfolks had rehearsed an advance through cornfields, a combination of accurate mortar and machine gun fire from the hedgerows enclosing the crop fields, pinned the men down within the fields. Their issues with the advance were compounded by the fact that the opening artillery created a mass of dust that severely compromised visibility to an estimated 300 yards. As a result the tanks were unable to provide any effective support to the advance.

In this confusion the attacking ‘A’ and ‘C’ Companies struggled to make any headway. ‘C’ Company headed towards the fire coming from nearby La Bijude rather than the correct objective of Epron, whilst every officer of ‘A’ Company became a casualty. ‘B’ Company in support were due to mop up after the ‘A’ and ‘C’ Company assault, but they too suffered heavy losses upon deployment in ‘C’ Company’s direction.

It was not until 1045 hours when a runner managed to get a message back to the Commanding Officer that it became clear that the attack had failed and La Bijude remained in German hands rather than with the 6th North Staffordshire Battalion as planned. The loss of the Battalion's 18 sets (field radio) lead to this communication breakdown throughout the morning of 8th July.

With the realisation that the 6th North Staffords had faltered, ‘D’ Company of the 7th Royal Norfolk Battalion with the support of a tank squadron were ordered to capture La Bijude. At the same time the remnants of ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ Companies were reorganised and put in reserve. The combined scratch Company strength was reduced to just fifty men.

‘D’ Company’s assault commenced at 1400 hours but once again fierce and concealed resistance was encountered. Notably, after his own tank was ‘brewed up’ (in Tank Regiment parlance of the day), one Major Cotter continued to direct the tank fire by walking between the machines within full view of the enemy and with little regard for his own safety. A Lieutenant Bartlett was felled, but not before silencing a Spandau machine gun position to the south of the village that was harassing the advance.

At the end of the fighting ‘D’ Company held the southern part of La Bijude, such that anti-tank guns could be brought forward for a continued assault on Epron, but ‘D’ Company were effectively spent by 1530 hours. This being the case, ‘A’ Company of the 7th South Staffordshire Regiment were placed under command with orders to take Epron by nightfall.

 
It was planned that ‘A’ Company would attack the strongly fortified earthworks located to the west of La Bijude whilst ‘D’ Company 7th RNR took Epron. The composite Company comprising the ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ Companies remained in reserve.

The final push to capture Epron started at 2030 hours when tanks opened up against all possible hedgerow positions before the infantry of ‘D’ Company and ‘A’ Company advanced to clear the way into Epron. By 2200 hours, only the odd diehard sniper remained in the village. By night fall, positions were consolidated and anti-tank guns were in place for an anticipated counter attack that never materialised. Reconnaissance into the village reported scores of enemy dead left behind at the German units withdrew from contact with the Allied forces.

By 10th July the majority of the Norman capital of Caen was in Allied hands, albeit over a month later than was originally anticipated by Montgomery.

For their part, the men of the 7th Royal Norfolk Regiment remained in the locale of Epron for a further 36 hours during which the battlefield was cleared and the fallen were commemorated in a memorial service. On 11th July, the Battalion was moved to Ryes close to Arramanches for a period of rest and reorganisation.

The casualty figures for the Battalion in this first engagement were:

Officers: 3 killed 7 wounded 0 missing

Other ranks: 30 killed 111 wounded 1 missing.

George Robinson is accounted for as one of the 30 of the other ranks.

After the Operation Charnwood battles, the fighting units of the 59th Division continued in their efforts to force the enemy out of Normandy and in the direction of the Seine. The 7th Royal Norfolk Regiment fought heroically over the 7th and 8th August 1944 in a tenuously held bridgehead over the River Orne at Grimbosq. These actions would result in Captain David Jamieson of ‘D’ Company receiving the Victoria Cross for his bravery. Back in June 2019 at the memorial raised to commemorate his actions I delivered a speech and a 59th Association wreath was laid.

In the third week of August 1944, Divisional Commanding Officer of the 59th Staffordshire Division, Major General Lyne was instructed to inform the men under his command that the decision had been taken that the 59th were to be disbanded. This was in order to provide similarly bloodied and depleated regiments much needed reinforcement. In this respect, the 59th, as a more recently established Division, was sacrificed in favour of those divisions encompassing older Regiments of the British Army. Thus it was that in the weeks following the disbandment notification, the men of the 59th were transferred to other English, Scottish and Welsh Regiments.

I have for the past few years been a member of the 59th Staffordshire Division Association, with whom I have travelled to Normandy to pay my respects to the men of the Division who fell in the efforts to break out. Sadly, in my time in the Association, no veterans have been able to make the journey across the Channel, but it has been my privilege to be in the company of friends, who like myself, have a connection with the 59th through a relatives who served in the Divisions ranks. It has been with them that I have had the opportunity to travel to several of the CWGC cemeteries most closely linked to the soldiers of the Division. Not least among these is Cambes-en-Plaine cemetery which is located approximately two kilometres to the north east of Epron and six kilometres from central Caen. George Alfred John Robinson lies within these perfectly manicured grounds.

Our pilgrimage of Remembrance takes in this cemetery since many of the men of the 59th Division who fell during the Charnwood fighting on the 8th and 9th July 1944 are buried here. Among them is Private John Rowden James of the 2/6th South Staffordshire Regiment, the father of a fellow  Association member, also named John James. In June 2019 (the last pre-pandemic visit to the battlefields and cemeteries around the city of Caen), John laid a wreath on the grave of the father that he never had the opportunity to know. Like George, John James senior was killed in action on the 8th July in that first engagement for the men of Staffordshire and Norfolk.

1546112 Private J.R. James

The South Staffordshire Regiment

8th July 1944

Age 30

A member of the excellent WW2Talk forum was kind enough to send me a photograph of George’s Cambes-en-Plaine headstone.

5783276 Private G.A.J. Robinson

The Royal Norfolk Regiment

8th July 1944 Age 22

"Thy Will Be Done"

In addition, the 6th June this year saw the unveiling of the Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer, Calvados. This memorial commemorates no less than 22,442 soldiers, across 30 nationalities who fought and died within British units to achieve the breakout from Normandy which culminated in the liberation of Paris on 25th August. The gargantuan struggle that occurred in Normandy between June and August 1944 marked the beginning of the end of Nazi tyranny in Europe.

George Alfred John Robinson’s name appears on Column 147 of the memorial. His 59th Division comrade, John James is remembered on Column 145. The memorial will be one of my first ports of call at the point when travel to France once again becomes possible without quarantine requirements.

In little over a week, on 8th July, I will be remembering both George and John, in fact I may dust down the bottle of calvados that resides at the back of the drinks cupboard for the occasion!

‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.’

George Jacobs Senior and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692

 

Depiction of the trial of George Jacobs Senior

Salem, Massachusetts May 1692

(The Defendant kneels before the judges in the bottom right of the painting)

Some weeks ago I posted a photograph of stocks in Hellman’s Cross, Great Canfield, Essex, which marks and commemorates the site of execution of an unfortunate resident, Elizabeth Abbott. Elizabeth was a late victim of a countrywide surge of witch-finding, meeting her terrible fate in 1683.

The post also appeared on the ‘Memories of Bishops Stortford’ Facebook page and prompted a good response with one group member pointing out that one of the victims of the most infamous series of witch trials of them all which occurred in Salem, Massachusetts, had links with Bishops Stortford. This was something that I had to look into a little more closely.

The European witchcraft hysteria had largely abated by the end of the seventeenth century, but in the recently colonized settlements of New England conditions were very favourable to ferment another outbreak of occult madness. I am sure that the whys and the wherefores of how such a calamity befell Salem and Andover in 1692 could occupy many metres of shelving in the library of the largest Faculty of Psychology but below are some of the factors that students of the Salem crisis believe came into play.

Life in the colonies was incredibly hard. The authorities had stripped holidays out of the calendar such that 300 days of every year were given over to toil. One of the few escapes from the day’s labours was given to time spent in the village Meeting House to hear sermons delivered that told of the ever present machinations of the Devil to disrupt and corrupt the community and to undo God’s will in the young colonies. In this respect, the congregation was continually warned of their weaknesses and the importance of piety and regular religious observance in order to thwart the Devil in his evil designs and to prevent Satan from gaining a foothold in the land. And this is what passed off as entertainment in seventeenth century New England! The inhabitants of the Puritan communities were all steeped to the point of saturation in the Scriptures. Religion played an enormous part in every aspect of their day to day existence.

In addition to being physically hard, life within the colonies was also fraught with danger. King Philip’s War, sometimes known at the First Indian War may have ended a decade before the trials, but the frontier areas of North New England were still subject to violent raids by the Wabanaki Indians. Settlements on the frontier were periodically razed to the ground and the inhabitants slaughtered, scalped or taken into captivity.

The Puritan communities were made up of a limited number of settler families. In Salem the records abound with references the Putnams, Proctors and Jacobs. Inter-marriage was common as was inter-family feuding. Despite the deeply held faith of these New Englanders, lawyers were rarely short of work as residents sued and counter-sued each other. Disputes over land boundaries , cattle incursions into a neighbour’s field and unpaid debts all went through the courts. Whilst it is doubted that these commonplace disputes led directly to accusations of witchcraft, the longstanding rumours and local gossip arising from ill-feeling between families did call into question the reputation of individuals and this in turn opened the door to the more dangerous suggestion of witchcraft.

The start of the trouble is not altogether clear from the records, but it was either in late February or early March 1692. A number of adolescent women began to have seizures, uncontrollable spasms and be subject to pinches, needle pricks and bites from unseen (at least to the majority) assailants. It is interesting that the average age of these ‘afflicted’ girls was 17 and that they were mostly of higher than average intelligence, meaning that they could read, if not write. It has been suggested that in these young women, raised in such an environment it is hardly the greatest leap of faith that the supernatural imps, specters and demons, through to the Devil himself to which they were exposed to from religious texts as well as from the Minister’s pulpit manifested themselves in their young minds as they did. Needless to say that some have proposed repressed sexuality, or feelings of unrequited love interest among the afflicted (along with others as because before too long it seemed that everyone was accusing someone, almost as though to accuse someone served as a greater means of self protection than to accuse noone!) as a motivation for allegations of witchcraft.

If anything a greater leap of faith would be required to understand why it was that the trial officials, several of whom were highly educated Harvard graduates were taken in by the claims and counter claims of supernatural abuses.

So what of George Jacobs Senior. At 81 he was the oldest of Salem’s victims. The circumstances that brought him to New England are lost to time. It is known that his father George Jacobs was a barber-surgeon and that his mother Priscilla was from Bishops Stortford in Hertforshire. It is recorded that George was married to his first wife on 27th June 1639 at St. Michaels Church in Bishops Stortford (a Church that is less than a five minute walk from my door). It is believed that he was christened in February 1609 at St Dunstans in the West, in London’s Fleet Street. 

Leaving the shores of England for a New England with his first wife, the first record of George Jacobs in America concerns the purchase of a property in Salem village (modern day Danvers) close to the estuary of the Waters River with ten acres of land on 20th November 1658 which the Jacobs family went on to tend. George fathered three children in Salem by his first wife, George Junior, Ann and Mary. What became of the first Mrs Jacobs is unknown, but he is known to have remarried one Mary Fetcher in Salem on 12th January 1673.

The Jacobs' house, Salem Village, 1891

The Jacobs' house in disrepair, Salem Village, 1935

George Jacobs Snr was an imposing man known to have a violent temper. He was fined for striking a man named John Tomkins Jr in 1677, and as the report has it he would have landed many more blows had he not been restrained by a witness, such was his fury.

A description of George at the time of his trial is provided by Charles W. Upham who wrote a history of the trials in 1867.

“George Jacobs, Sr, was an aged man. He is represented in the evidence as ‘very gray-headed;’ and he must have been quite infirm, for he walked with two staffs. His hair was in long, thin, white locks; and, as he was uncommonly tall of stature, he must have had a venerable aspect. Perhaps he was the ‘man in a long-crowned white hat,’ referred to by Deliverance Hobbs. The examination shows that his faculties were vigorous, his bearing fearless, and his utterances strong and decided.”

It was on 10th May 1692, three months into the supernatural commotion, that Judges John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin issued an arrest warrant for George Jacobs Senior and Junior along with his Grand-daughter, Margaret Jacobs. The arrests were made by Joseph Neale, a Salem constable on the same day. At George Snr’s first examination, again on 10th May, it became apparent that his accuser was one Sarah Churchill, his domestic servant.

Churchill confronted her employer in court stating that “Last night I was afflicted at Deacon Ingersolls, and Mary Walcot said it was a man with 2 staffs, it was my master.” Notably, Jacobs was know to walk with the assistance of two canes.

Jacobs was also accused as carrying with him the book in which the afflicted would sign over their souls for a fixed period of time to the Devil. He denied these claims of beating Sarah Churchill when in a spectral form (the court acknowledged that he was on the other side of the Waters River when the alleged assault occurred).

Upon the Magistrate urging Jacobs to confess to the charges laid out before him, George Jacobs countered with “You tax me for a wizard, you may as well tax me for a buzzard I have done no harm.”

When challenged as to how it was he that his accuser witnessed him in spectral form he stated that the Devil can assume anyone’s likeness. This was a contention that was to provoke much legal and theological discussion in the trials that followed. Could the Devil use a person for the purposes of affliction and murder without the consent of the ‘witch’ or ‘wizard’? That is to say, could someone harming someone by means of witchcraft be as innocent as the person afflicted?

His accuser went on to state that Jacobs neglected his expected obligation to pray with his family (after all how else could the Devil’s plans be defeated?). When asked to recite ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ Jacob’s stumbled over some of the words. This was considered to be a task beyond the ability of genuine witches and wizards.

At the conclusion of the hearing George Jacobs Senior uttered the prophetic words “Well burn me, or hang me, I will stand in the truth of Christ, I know nothing of it.”

Other girls testified on 10th May that George Jacobs Senior in spectral form had visited them and done them harm. This testimony from Abigail Williams survives.

At a second hearing on the following day, conducted at Beadle’s Tavern in Salem Town the afflicted girls who were present convulsed with fits and Ann Putman offered up the ‘fact’ that the specter had confessed to have been a witch for forty years.

Further into the hearing the presiding Magistrate asked whether it was he, George Jacobs’ who had created a scene at a recent Meeting House lecture on 31st March 1692. This lecture also involved prayers and fasting for the benefit of those girls afflicted with witchcraft and it is possible that the plain speaking elder Jacob spoke out against the girls at this point.

Of the two charges of witchcraft brought against him, only one was upheld, the other was dismissed for lack of evidence.

On the same day (11^th May), Margaret Jacobs, George’s Grand-daughter was also examined and according to the testimony of another witness, one Joseph Flint, she offered a confession to the fact that she was a witch. She went further accusing both her Grandfather and the Reverend George Burroughs of being witches. This was a confession that she would later sorrowfully retract.

A court order of 12^th May directed a local officer to escort George Snr and nine other accused residents to the jail in Salem Town. Two days later warrants were issued for the arrest of his son, George Junior and his daughter-in-law, Rebecca Jacobs. The latter was brought in whilst the former fled thereby evading arrest. Witness to their mother’s arrest were Rebecca’s four young children who followed the cart that carried her away as far as their young legs could take them before they were taken in by neighbours.

Both Rebecca and her daughter Margaret languished in jail for a full eight months before their trial and acquittal in January 1693. In this time, Margaret had recanted her earlier confession stating that she only confessed upon being told that to do so was the only means by which her life would be spared.

The retraction of her confession survives in the records and is worth presenting in full as it sheds significant light upon the atmosphere that prevailed in Massachusetts at the time of the trials:

“The humble declaration of Margaret Jacobs unto the honoured court now sitting at Salem, sheweth That whereas your poor and humble declarant being closely confined here in Salem goal for the crime of witchcraft, which crime thanks be to the Lord I am altogether ignorant of, as will appear at the great day of judgment: May it please the honoured court, I was cried out upon by some of the possessed persons, as afflicting them; whereupon I was brought to my examination, which persons at the sight of me fell down, which did very much startle and affright me. The Lord above knows I knew nothing, in the least measure, how or who afflicted them; they told me, without doubt I did, or else they would not fall down at me; they told me, if I would not confess, I should be put down into the dungeon and would be hanged, but if I would confess I should have my life; the which did so affright me, with my own vile wicked heart, to save my life; made me make the like confession I did, which confession, may it please the honoured court, is altogether false and untrue. The very first night after I had made confession, I was in such horror of conscience that I could not sleep for fear the devil should carry me away for telling such horrid lies. I was, may it please the honoured court, sworn to my confession, as I understand since, but then, at that time, was ignorant of it, not knowing what an oath did mean. The Lord, I hope, in whom I trust, out of the abundance of his mercy, will forgive me my false forswearing myself. What I said, was altogether false against my grandfather, and Mr. Burroughs , which I did to save my life and to have my liberty; but the Lord, charging it to my conscience, made me in so much horror, that I could not contain myself before I had denied my confession, which I did though I saw nothing but death before me, chusing rather death with a quiet conscience, than to live in such horror, which I could not suffer. Where, upon my denying my confession, I was committed to close prison, where I have enjoyed more felicity in spirit, a thousand times, than I did before in my enlargement. And now, may it please your honours, your declarant, having, in part, given your honours a description of my condition, do leave it to your honours pious and judicious discretions, to take pity and compassion on my young and tender years, to act and do with me, as the Lord above and your honours shall see good, having no friend, but the Lord, to plead my cause for me; not being guilty in the least measure of the crime of witchcraft, nor any other sin that deserves death from man; and your poor and humble declarant shall for ever pray, as she is bound in duty, for your honours happiness in this life and eternal felicity in the world to come. So prays your honours declarant.

Margaret Jacobs.”

The trial of George Jacobs Senior began in the first week of August 1692 and on the 4^th a George Herrick testified that in May he had travelled to Salem Jail in order to conduct a physical examination of Jacobs in the presence of constable Joseph Neale (the arresting officer) and the jail keeper, William Dounton. The purpose of the examination was to identify any ‘witch marks’ on the prisoner’s body, physical attributes known to be possessed by witches and wizards, the functions of which were to allow their ‘familiars’ to suckle…. all quite obvious really. Lo and behold, one such mark was observed on George’s right shoulder. Described as about a quarter of an inch long with a sharp point that pointed downwards, this physical anomaly was described unsurprisingly as a teat…. Yet more proof of this unfortunates guilt, as I am sure you would agree. Those of rationale mind could challenge this proof of ‘collusion with the Devil’ with the fact that by the time that a human frame had reached the ripe old age of 81 (and this was in 1692 when such longevity was rather remarkable in itself!) the absence of warts, skin tags, growths and the like would be a greater indicator of supernatural interference than otherwise! Nevertheless the nature and purpose of George’s displaced tit was confirmed by the needle test i.e. when pierced it did not bleed. The case against poor, unfortunate George Jacobs was almost wrapped up.

George Jacobs Senior was convicted on the grounds of his mark and spectral evidence alone. The admission of spectral evidence in court was, along with the debate as to whether the Devil could use a person’s spectral form without their express permission, a hot topic that was much debated both during and after the trials. In fact it was the legal opinion that deemed that spectral evidence was admissible in court in the trial of two convicted witches in Lowestoft in Suffolk that validated George Jacobs’ one way passage to the gallows.

The trial that occurred on 5th August was short, George was found guilty on one charge of witchcraft and sentenced to death by hanging. The date of execution was set as 19th August and he would be joined on the gallows by John Proctor, Reverend George Burrows, Martha Carrier and John Willard. All five protested their innocence until their final moments.

On the morning the 19^th the five condemned prisoners were taken by cart from the jail in Salem Town to Gallows Hill on Proctor’s Ledge for the death sentence to be fulfilled. In full view of an illustrious throng that included Cotton Mather, a big hitting figure in New England politics with a big hand in the conduct of the trials at Salem.

George Jacobs Senior was the last of the prisoners to be pushed off the gallows platform into the abyss.

Once dead, the prisoners were cut down and allegedly dragged by their nooses to shallow graves that had been dug close by.

Memorial at the Proctor's Ledge execution site.

Legend has it that Jacobs’ body was reclaimed from the execution site, undercover of night and reburied at the family’s property.

Support for this outcome comes from the discovery of human remains in the nineteenth century on the former Jacobs property. Once again according to Charles Upham:

“The tradition has descended through the family, that the body, after having been obtained at the place of execution, was strapped by a young grandson on the back of a horse, brought home to the farm, and buried beneath the shade of his own trees. Two sunken and weather-worn stones marked the spot. There the remains rested until 1864, when they were exhumed. They were enclosed again, and reverently redeposited in the same place. The skull was in a state of considerable preservation. An examination of the jawbones showed that he was a very old man at the time of his death., and had previously lost all his teeth. The length of some parts of the skeleton showed that he was a very tall man. These circumstances corresponded with the evidence, which was that he was tall of stature; so infirm as to walk with two staffs; with long, flowing white hair. The only article found, except the bones, was a metallic pin, which might have been used as a breastpin, or to hold together his aged locks.”

George’s remains suffered further indignity when disturbed by a bulldozer's bucket in the 1950’s when the site was redeveloped. After a period in storage the remains were buried for a third time in 1992 on the Rebecca Nurse (another hanged victim of Salem) Farm. The remains were put into the earth in a replica seventeenth century coffin and the site marked with a headstone typical of his day.

As reported in the recent 2014 publication by Emerson W. Baker entitled ‘A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience’.

“In 1992 Danvers also endorsed another modest act of reconciliation. There was a tradition in the Jacobs family that George Jacob’s body had been taken from Gallows Hill after his death and buried on his farm, which is located within the town’s borders. A skeleton exhumed and then reburied on the farm in the mid-nineteenth century was believed to be his, and this skeleton was rediscovered by a bulldozer when the property was developed in the 1950s. Safeguarded for years by Danvers officials, the skeleton was quietly reburied on the Rebecca Nurse farm, complete with replica seventeenth-century coffin and gravestone, in 1992. Although analysis of the remains established that they were those of an old man and generally fit Jacob’s description, it will never know whether they really were those of Jacobs. However, it was still an important and sincere gesture.”

In the years that followed the Salem tragedy, the events of 1692 were hushed up. In the immediate aftermath, the proceedings the court sessions, although not the judges, were called into question. Eventually over a long period of time, acceptance of the fact that 20 innocents (19 by hanging and one by pressing) had perished came. Salem remains to be an embarrassment to the American nation and a warning as to how legal proceedings can escalate out of control.

Today, amends have been made to the victims of 1692. Memorials to George and his fellow victims have been raised in several locations connected with the trials, including the execution site at Proctor’s Ledge and at the new site of his grave in the Rebecca Nurse Homestead family cemetery.

George Jacobs Senior's 1992 headstone at the Rebecca Nurse Farm site that bears his words to the court

"Well burn me, or hang me, I will stand in the truth of Christ, I know nothing of it."

Salem and Danvers seem also to be more accepting of the areas dark and perplexing history and even the police department patrol cars carry a witch on a broomstick motif across their doors!

May the last word go to George’s strickened Grand-daughter, Margeret, who wrote to her father on the day of George’s execution:

“The reason of my confinement is this, I having, through the Magistrates threatenings, and my own vile and wretched heart, confessed several things contrary to my conscience and knowledge, though to the wounding of my own soul, the Lord pardon me for it; but Oh! the terrors of a wounded conscience who can bear…”

It would appear that news of Margaret’s retraction of her confession reached George as he amended his Last Will and Testament to award his Grand-daughter an additional £10 in silver, although after his death, the court did not honour his amendments and besides, most of his possesions had been claimed by Judge Corwin and his men even before Jacobs' sentence was carried out.

The George Jacobs stone at the Salem Witch Trials Memorial in Salem Town.

 

 

The Old Cemetery, Bishops Stortford in the Snow, February 2021

 

They dubbed it the 'Beast from the East 2'. From memory what we have experienced today has not been a patch on what we experienced here on the edge of East Anglia a few years ago with 'Beast #1'. Nevertheless, adamant this morning to partake in at least a modicum of lockdown exercise, I made for the cemetery as before. Admittedly, with an wind chill from the easterly blast estimated to bring the wind chill factored temperature down to -5°C to -8°C my resolve was short lived and within 20 or so minutes I was once again heading through the wooden gates in the direction of modern central heating!

The scenes within the cemetery walls were stunning and I cannot for one minute claim to do them justice, but I think what I managed really brings home the point that I made in an earlier post that the seasons really do have such a dramatic impact upon the nature and dramatic beauty of a graveyard.

And would you believe it, that wing-ed woman is here once again!

The Angel in the Old Cemetery

 

The Laugher Monument

Bishops Stortford Old Cemetery

9th January 2021

It is 9.05 a.m. on Sunday 24th January 2021. Unusually, I am still in bed. Generally, I am an early riser, especially on a Saturday or Sunday when I am reluctant to lose any precious weekend hours. But weekends are very different now and as I lie here the measured tones of the Radio 4 newsreader convey mostly bad news, predictions of extended restrictions and vaccine production issues. For the coming months it seems that we will need to exist in a No Man’s Land between injection and infection. So be it, we must all do what we need to do, follow the rules and conquer COVID-19. But how to fill those long free hours under lockdown restrictions. The answer, or at least my answer……..make for the cemetery, after all where else can you social distance in three dimensions!

A couple of weeks ago on an early morning excursion into Bishops Stortford Old Cemetery, I took a photograph of an angel. After playing with some of the filters that iphone have to offer I posted the moody shot on Facebook and it was well received, looking like it does as a cover of a lost Joy Division album. On this Sunday morning, I decided to pay her another visit.

One thing that I always notice about aged cemeteries is the wonderful way in which they change with the weather. Take the shelved Joy Division photo for example. The fog was such that the expanse of the cemetery seemed much reduced as all but those stones within 15 metres or so of where you were standing were indistinct to unseen. The angel was also slow to reveal herself as I approached and only up close was the detail of the sculpture visible with any clarity. This morning was very different. My weather app told me that it was 0°C and the ground frost under my Dr Marten’s confirmed what I didn’t really need a Smartphone to tell me!

Bishops Stortford Old Cemetery

24th January 2021

The greatest contrast to the white tipped grass was the profusion of greens on show in this old graveyard. From the shades offered by the mix of deciduous and evergreen trees to the various lichens that almost illuminate the monuments. The mottling revealed on the angel’s robes is beautiful (at least to my eyes) but unfortunately beyond my limited photographic skills.

Clearly this angelic statue has for some reason resonated with me, so it seemed quite natural to see whether I could glean any further information on the names adorning three out of four faces of the plinth. The proud Victorians in whose eternal memory this monument was raised must have a story to tell.

The clarity of the inscriptions is varied and several of the lead letters have been lost, but all dedications can be fully deciphered.

Front face:

HERE BURIED

BENEATH THIS STONE

LIE THE MORTAL REMAINS OF

HENRY LAUGHER

OF THIS TOWN

WHO ENTERED HIS HEAVENLY REST

1927 IN THE 81ST YEAR OF HIS AGE

LEAVING FIVE SOROWING SISTERS 

AND ONE GRANDSON

WHO MOURN HIS LOSS

Right face:

ALSO

HIS BELOVED WIFE

SOPHIA ELIZABETH

DAUGHTER OF

JAMES AMOS AND HANNAH ASHWELL

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE

MARCH 16 –1899 AGED 60 YEARS

____________

“TO FALL ASLEEP IS NOT TO DIE

TO DWELL WITH CHRIST IS BETTER LIFE”

Left face:

IN LOVING MEMORY

OF

FREDERICK JOHN MURRELL

WESLEYAN MINISTER

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE NOV 20 – 1920

AGED 63 YEARS

AND WAS BURIED AT BRIXHAM DEVON

ALSO OF HIS BELOVED WIFE

FLORENCE ASHWELL

ONLY DAUGHTER OF

HENRY AND SOPHIA ELIZABETH LAUGHER

WHO FELL ASLEEP

DEC 6 – 1926 AGED 53 YEARS

“IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE ARE MANY MANSIONS” ST JOHN XIV.2

Beyond the tachophilic appeal of the monument, I was curious about what lay beyond the lead lettering.

It would only be right and respectful to start this inquiry with Mr Henry Laugher, the man ultimately responsible for the raising of such an impressive memorial to his extended family.

Henry Laugher was born in Studley in Warwickshire in 1847. I am picking up what I can of his story from the 1881 census onwards where Henry is recorded as the head of the household at 125 Market Square, Bishops Stortford. At that time he was listed as a merchant tailor employing two clothiers assistants and a general servant. Ten years later his residence is recorded as 36 Potter Street where, at the age of 44, he is a clothier and outfitter married to Sophia Elizabeth Laugher (neé Ashwell) eight years his senior. The couple wed in 1872. The property is shared with their 17 year old daughter, Florence, a Bishops Stortford born girl who features later in this narrative, two boarders employed to assist in Henry’s shop and again a general servant.

Henry’ wife Sophia Elizabeth Ashwell was born in Eaton Bray in Bedfordshire in 1839. She first appears in the 1841 census as the third child to her farming parents, James Amos and Hannah Ashwell, both of whom were 25 years old at the time that the census was taken.

It is evident from the 1851 census that Mr and Mrs Ashwell took pleasure in each other’s company as the family was much expanded within the passing of the decade. James and Hannah were the parents of Louis (15), Prisella (13), Hannah (10), Thomas (8), Alfred (5), Jeffrey (1) and Leanora (4 months). Sophia was absent from this list as on the day of the census she was visiting 71 year old Elizabeth Ashwell also of Eaton Bray, who I am guessing (without checking) to be her paternal Grandmother.  

The 1851 census reveals that James Amos was a farmer responsible for 120 acres with 10 labourers in his employ. At some point between 1851 and 1855, James upped sticks and relocated his large family from Bedfordshire to Bishops Stortford where he took up a position as a farmer of Bishops/Stortford Park Farm, located on the Great Hadham Road. His prospects had improved it seems as he was now managing a significantly increased acreage of 306 acres with an increase in farm hands as well. 

So, it is clear that Henry was an established local retailer and businessman. In addition, Henry, Sophia and their son-in-law to be, Mr. F. J. Murrell were stalwarts of the Methodist (Wesleyan) community. Their charitable activities within the Church were regularly reported in the local press. Henry himself was an occasional Minister. Whilst Sophia’s name was often repeated in the Bishops Stortford news column in our regional newspapers as the genial host of Wesleyan charitable events. These were strictly tea rather than wine evenings unfortunately.  Henry crops up from time to time in his own right. Occasional shop-listing accounts from his Potter Street premises made it into the news and invariably resulted in a sentence of hard labour for the convicted thief! Several column inches in the first months 1894 were taken up with the Collis vs Laugher court case. John Collis, a draper, operated out of the premises adjacent to Henry’s tailors shop. Mr Collis contended that Henry had willfully erected obstructions to ‘ancient lights’ on the premise owned by Mr Collis. Sadly, in the records I cannot see whom the court ultimately ruled in favour of.

On a more personal level, 21st April 1923 the Essex Newsman reported a serious accident that befell Henry late in life.

“TRADESMAN’S SERIOUS ACCIDENT – Mr. Henry Laugher, of the Clothing Hall, Potter Street, is lying in a serious condition as a result of a fall. He was standing at the top of a flight of steps leading into the garden, when the railing gave way, and he fell nearly 20 feet. He sustained a broken leg and collarbone, and a fracture of the skull. Mr. Laugher who is 75 years of age and one of the oldest tradesmen, is a prominent Wesleyan and a local preacher.”

Remarkably, Henry was still working at the age of 75, but the impact of this traumatic accident upon Henry can only be guessed at, as the only later mention of him in the press is a report of his funeral, as reported in the Chelmsford Chronicle of 30th December 1927.

“THE FUNERAL of Mr. Henry Laugher, clothier, Potter Street, one of Stortford’s oldest traders, who died in his 81st year, took place on Friday in the Cemetery, after a service in the Wesleyan Chapel. The Rev. P. Porri officiated. There was a wreath from the officers and members of the Wesleyan Chapel, to which Mr. Laugher had been a great benefactor.”

Henry’s wife Sophie had died many year’s before in 1899. Originally reported in the the Essex Newsman, I found a correction piece in their edition of 8th April 1899.

“CORRECTION – It was stated in a paragraph which recently appeared in this paper that the deaths had recently occurred of two sisters – Mrs. Henry Laugher, of Potter Street, and Mrs. Parkes of Carlton Cottage, Apton Road. The statement was true as far as Mrs. Laugher is concerned but we are happy to be informed that Mrs. Parkes is still alive. We regret the pain which the mistaken announcement must have caused to the relatives of Mrs. Parkes.”

Mrs. Parkes was Sophia’s older sister, Prisella, who was alive and well for a few years yet in Apton Road, the road in which I live.

Having looked into the pious and temperate lives of the Laugher’s of Bishops Stortford, I turned my attention to the man commemorated on the left hand side face of the plinth. What I discovered was quite shocking and tragic.

Mr. Frederick John Murrell was Wesleyan Minister in the town. His name usually appeared in the local press alongside that of Sophia’s in connection with charitable events organised by the Church. Sophia was the lady who was to become his mother-in-law, for it would seem that Fred had designs on the Laugher’s only daughter, Florence. 

As a well-respected minister of the Church he was an established preacher on the Wesleyan circuit across the South East and South West of England in the first 20 years of the 20th century. Reports of his death in November 1920 in the highly syndicated press of the day remembered him as a well-received circuit minister in both the Kettering area from 1912, where he acted as a Non-conformist chaplain to troops during the Great War, and in the Canterbury area during and in the immediate aftermath of the First World War.

In July 1919, Frederick took up ministry in the Dartmouth and Brixham area and here his life appeared to unravel. 

In early July 1919, changes to the Wesleyan ministerial circuit, as decided at the Wesleyan Methodist Conference in Hull were published in the press. Thus was Frederick’s ministry in the Brixham and Dartmouth area announced. Early reports of his engagement with his new West Country parishioners included his involvement in the celebration of the 108th anniversary of the Penryn Wesleyan Sunday School.

However, Frederick’s ministerial activities in the area appear to have ceased in August 1919 subsequent to some manner of nervous breakdown.

The tragedy that shortly after befell the small Murrell family is most fully described in the coroner’s inquest report that was published in the Western Morning News of 23rd November 1920.

A painful tragedy, which has caused a deep sensation in Brixham and Dartmouth, was investigated by Mr. Sidney Hacker, coroner, yesterday when he conducted an enquiry concerning the death on Saturday night of Rev. Fredk J. Murrell, superintendent of the Dartmouth and Brixham Wesleyan Circuit. 

Deceased was in Canterbury during the war, and came to Brixham last year. Owing largely to his strenuous work in the large camps around Canterbury, his health was much impoverished, and he had been under the medical care of Dr. Falconer for some time.

FOUND BY HIS SON

Deceased’s son, Henry Murrell age 17, said he left his father’s room at 8.30 p.m. on Saturday for supper. Returning there, he found his father on the bed, bleeding. He screamed for his mother, who came and took a razor from his father’s hand and sent witness for Dr. Falconer. 

Mrs, Murrell said deceased came to Brixham in September 1919, as superintendent minister. Latterly he had been in failing health, and the last time he did duty was during the first week of August last. He had an idea that he was not going to recover. A short time ago he asked her to take his razor out of his room, and she did so, giving it back to him only when he required it for shaving. When she heard her son scream, she ran upstairs and found her husband kneeling or sitting with his head over the bed bleeding. She took a razor from him and heard him whisper, “I cannot die”. She was very much frightened, and screamed for her son to fetch Dr. Falconer.

HIGHLY STRUNG MAN

Dr. Falconer stated that when he arrived at the manse he found the deceased lying on the bedroom floor with his throat cut. He was still alive, and just able to whisper. Witness tried to get him into bed, but could not manage it single-handed and, as it would have caused him extreme pain, he attended him on the floor. Having made the deceased as comfortable as he could, he asked “Why did you do this?” Deceased whispered: “It has been in my mind all day.” Witness was convinced deceased would not have committed the act if he had been in his right mind. He was a nervous, highly-strung man.

CORONER’S REMARKS

The Coroner recalled Mrs Murrell and her son. – Replying to him, Mrs. Murrell said that when her son went for the doctor, no one else was left in the house. She remained in the bedroom, some while, and after her husband had fallen on the floor she waited outside the door until the doctor came. Both she and her son were afraid to go into the room.

The Coroner: Then you left your husband on the floor bleeding to death. You did not staunch the wound, but waited outside the door with your husband a dying man.

Witness: I waited outside until the doctor came.

Mrs. Murrell here broke down in grief and was not asked further questions.

The son, recalled, also said he and his mother were afraid to go into the room, he put a piece of rope on the handle of the door as he was afraid to open it and afraid of what his father would do in such a condition, and he personally did not know what to do.

The Coroner recorded a verdict that the deceased committed suicide while of unsound mind. He said he was not pleased with the evidence given by the son, who should have played a more manly part and not left his father bleeding to death."

Frederick’s funeral was reported in the Western Morning News edition of Saturday 27th November 1920.

"FUNERAL OF REV. F.J. MURRELL

The funeral of Rev. F.J. Murrell, superintendent minister of Brixham and Dartmouth Wesleyan Circuit, was at Brixham on Thursday. At a service in Brixham Wesleyan Chapel Rev. W.A. Chettle, Chairman of the Plymouth and Devonport District, spoke of Mr. Murrell’s faithful service, his zeal and enthusiasm. "

Frederick lies in the churchyard of St Mary's in Brixham.

At some point after the death of her husband, Florence returned with their son, Henry, to Bishops Stortford, where in December 1926 she passed away when living at 40 Grange Road in the town. Her estate was passed on to Henry who was working as an outfitter’s assistant, presumably to his Grandfather.

This then is very fragmented story of three families united in faith and the teachings of John Wesley, families who seemed to have devoted a large part of their lives to those less fortunate than themselves in Bishops Stortford and beyond. And yet, their family history is touched by tragedy. 

For me this is part of the appeal of cemeteries, that even after the passage of a century or more, if you look behind the inscriptions, you can be part of a drama unfolding. Real people, with real people’s loves and losses, triumphs and tragedies.

And what of Frederick Murrell, a devout man who took his own life, an action in contravention of both his deep held religions convictions and the law of the land at that time. The deed of suicide, or of self-murder, as it was often termed by religious organisations was illegal until The Suicide Act of 1961 decriminalised the taking of one’s own life under English Law. This being the case, makes what Frederick did all the more desperate.

As a prolific preacher of the Wesleyan message, Frederick may well have been familiar with founder John Wesley’s uncompromising position on the ‘act of self-murder.

In a letter dated 8th April 1790, Wesley committed his thoughts on suicide to paper.

“It is a melancholy consideration, that there is no country in Europe, or perhaps in the habitable world, where the horrid crime of self-murder is so common as it is in England!  One reason of this may be, that the English in general are more ungodly and more impatient than other nations.  Indeed we have laws against it, and officers with juries are appointed to inquire into every fact of the kind.  And these are to give in their verdict upon oath, whether the self-murderer was sane or insane.  If he is brought in insane, he is excused, and the law does not affect him.  By this means it is totally eluded; for the juries constantly bring him in insane.  So the law is not of the least effect, though the farce of a trial still continues.

This morning I asked a Coroner, “Sir, did you ever know a jury bring in the deceased felo de se?”  He answered, “No, Sir; and it is a pity they should.”  What then is the law good for?  If all self-murderers are mad, what need of any trial concerning them?

But it is plain our ancestors did not think so, or those laws had never been made.  It is true, every self-murderer is mad in some sense, but not in that sense which the law intends.  This fact does not prove him mad in the eye of the law: The question is, Was he mad in other respects?  If not, every juror is perjured who does not bring him in felo de se.

But how can this vile abuse of the law be prevented, and this execrable crime effectually discouraged?

By a very easy method.  We read in ancient history, that, at a certain period, many of the women in Sparta murdered themselves.  This fury increasing, a law was made, that the body of every woman that killed herself should be exposed naked in the streets.  The fury ceased at once.

Only let a law be made and rigorously executed, that the body of every self-murderer, Lord or peasant, shall be hanged in chains, and the English fury will cease at once.

Liverpool,  April 8, 1790.                                                                 JOHN WESLEY."

Indeed, the Coroner’s verdict in Frederick inquest recorded that ‘the deceased committed suicide while of unsound mind’. In arriving at this verdict, the dead man was cleared of committing a crime and the inheritance could pass down to his surviving relatives. So, in this respect Wesley had a point when stating that suicide as a crime on the statute book was a poor deterrent of ‘the English fury’.

Was Frederick always a ‘nervous, highly-strung man’, or had his experiences as a chaplain to the troops in the UK during The Great War contributed to his mental instability, culminating in a nervous breakdown in August 1919 that ended his ministering. I guess we shall never know.

Finally, I read the Coroner’s closing statements from the inquest with interest. It is true that the behaviour of Henry and Florence whilst waiting for the arrival of Dr Falconer was rather unusual. Tying a door shut out of fear of what a man, who was lying on the bedroom floor with his life ebbing away, may do, would probably not be my first reaction to the situation. Then again, what 17 year old teenager would be equipped to deal with such a terrible and shocking scene in the more ‘manly’ manner expected from the Coroner. The situation may have been different had Henry been a few years older, a veteran of the threnches perhaps and one hardened to the sight of blood and horrific injury. The calamity for the family echoes down the years when reading the inquest account.

There is no doubt that from now on when on my frequent forays into the Old Cemetery I will regard that angel and the names associated with her a little differently than before.