4 days ago
Two murders, a strung-up body and a highway robbery haunt one Derbyshire spot
You might imagine that a tranquil and beautiful corner of the Derbyshire countryside, where the silence is rarely broken other than by sheep and birds, would hardly be the scene of one grisly murder - let alone two - and also a nasty highway robbery. But between 1815 and 1826 that's exactly what happened - and there was also a family connection for two of the criminals.
The story starts in the Peak District area around Litton and Wardlow Mires, not far from Tideswell, and involves a young man called Anthony Lingard, who is described as being aged 21 in newspaper accounts about his trial but is likely to have been nearer to 24 years of age, according to parish records.
At Derby Assizes (now the magistrates' court in St Mary's Gate) in March 1815, Anthony Lingard, of Litton, was tried for the murder of a widow called Hannah Oliver, 48, who kept the turnpike gate at Wardlow Mires. It was stated that Lingard committed a robbery and murder on January 15. He took "several pounds in cash and Bank of England notes" and also a pair of women's shoes, which he gave to a young woman who was pregnant by him, along with some of the money.
This was provided that she would say that someone else was the father of the child she was expecting. However, the young woman heard about the murder and the missing shoes and gave them back to Lingard, who tried to reassure her by saying he had exchanged them for a pair of stockings for her.
The returned shoes, together with other evidence, established the guilt of Lingard, who had already pleaded guilty at a meeting of magistrates earlier. A report in the Nottingham Gazette said: "The learned judge carefully summed up the evidence to the jury, who after a few minutes returned a verdict of guilty. His Lordship then passed the awful sentence of the law upon the prisoner."
Read more: The eccentricity of the Harpur-Crewe aristocrats passed down the generations
The newspaper account said that, after his trial, he wasn't repentant about what he had done. He acknowledged the crime for which he was about "to suffer the sentence of the law, and was reluctantly induced to pronounce his forgiveness of the young woman who was the principal evidence against him".
His trial was on Saturday, March 25, and the sentence was carried out on the following Tuesday, March 28. At 12 noon he was "brought upon the drop in front of the county gaol and after a short time in prayer with the chaplain, he was launched into eternity". The account remarked: "He appeared but little agitated or dejected by his dreadful situation."
Going against common practice, which was to give the bodies of hanged felons to doctors for dissection, the judge directed that Lingard's body should be gibbeted - hung in chains in the most convenient place near the spot were the murder was committed - as a lesson to other people.
The jury that found Lingard guilty was made up of all the great and good of the county including well-known names such as Sir Robert Wilmot, of Chaddesden; William Drury Lowe, of Locko Park; Richard Arkwright, Ashbourne Hall; William Strutt, Derby, and William Evans, Allestree.
The treasurer's accounts for Derbyshire 1815-16 show that the punishment of gibbeting cost a considerable amount of money. The expenses for arresting Lingard amounted to £31 5s 5d but the expenses incurred in the gibbeting reached a total of £85 4s 1d, and this was in addition to the ten guineas charged by the gaoler for conveying the body from Derby to Wardlow.
It is understood that Lingard's body continued to hang in the area around St Peter's Stone for up to ten years, and his bleached bones were said to creak in the wind. Eventually, the gibbet was cut down, and what remained was buried.
But it was while Lingard's remains were swinging in the wind that a second murder took place within yards of them around four years later.
This time a 16-year-old girl called Hannah Bocking was involved. She was hanged in Derby on March 25, 1819, after being found guilty of poisoning Jane Grant, also 16, who had been given a job that Hannah had wanted. Hannah - who lost the job because of her "unamiable temper and disposition" bought arsenic "to kill rats" about ten weeks before she carried out the murder, by putting it in a cake she gave to Jane while out on a walk to bring in cattle in the area close to Lingard's remains.
The writers of the Derby Mercury said they thought it had more than 60 years since a woman had been executed in Derby when Hannah was hanged, and this attracted a crowd from neighbouring counties to witness the event. It seems that Hannah exhibited no remorse for what she had done. In fact, she had implicated several of her relations in her guilt.
She faced the noose with "composure" but, as she was hanged, an account says: "An involuntary shuddering pervaded the assembled crowd and though she had excited little sympathy, a general feeling of horror was expressed that one so young should have been so guilty and so insensible."
Her body was cut down and given over to be dissected, despite protests from family and friends who wanted to bury her.
And as if that wasn't enough, William Lingard, 21, brother of gibbeted Anthony, also found himself in court in 1825 - ten years after the death of his brother. He was sentenced to hard labour in the House of Correction for one year after robbing his mother of clothes, which he pawned to get money for drink, and she was the principal witness who testified against him.
But he still hadn't learned his lesson because 12 months later he was up before Derby Assizes when he was sentenced to death for highway robbery close to where his brother was gibbeted. A newspaper account said: "It is remarkable that Lingard committed the robbery within view of the gibbet on which the bleaching bones of his brother were hanging."
It seems though that he escaped the hangman's noose and instead was transported to New South Wales in Australia for life on board The Speke, with 155 other convicts. He set sail on August 8, 1826, and landed on November 26, 1826. He was given a conditional acquittal in 1852 but not allowed to return to England, after which it is difficult to trace what happened to him.
From a family of 13, it is likely that the pair have descendants who may know more about the pair - and what happened to William.
Coming up next Sunday in our 'Little Did You Know' series, we will be looking at the curious reason why Derby city centre doesn't have a "High Street" - and the fascinating history behind some of its street names. Read last week's feature about the eccentric Harpur-Crewe aristocrats here.
