| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

The1841Myth

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years ago

Parson Darby: Why the 1841 myth is wrong

* THE LAST HIGHWAYMAN hanged in England was Robert Snooks, hanged at Boxmoor, Hertfordshire in 1802. His gravestone, in the field where he was hanged, can still be glimsed as you dash past Hemel Hempstead on the new A41(M). Robert Snooks was tried at the county assizes where the judge ordered him to be hung at the scene of his last crime. This was an exception rather than the normal practice.

 

* GIBBETTING the body of a criminal at the scene of the crime after execution was legalised in 1752 as a deterent. However this practise of suspending the body in chains, or a metal cage, had ceased before 1841.

 

* HANGING BY LYNCH MOBS is a feature of Wild West movies; it is not something which happened in the UK in the 19th century.

 

* THE RECTORS & CURATES of Yateley and Eversley in the 19th century are well documented.

 

* REV CHARLES STOOKS wrote his History of Crondall and Yateley in 1905. Rev Charles Kingsley commenced his long incumbancy in Eversley just a few years after 1841. It is unlikely that either gentlemen would have omitted to mention the mob hanging locally of a former clergyman.

 

* THE 1841 CENSUS was taken on Saturday 6th of June so there is at least a 50% chance Parson Darby could be found in the national census returns -- if he had really existed.

 

* YATELEY WAS MANORIAL in 1841 so there is a very strong chance he could be found in the records of the manorial court.

 

* THE NAME DARBY GREEN is found in an entry in 1678 in the žrst book of Parish Registers.

 

* THE YEW TREE INN was a licensed beerhouse. No records have been found for it before the 1851 census.

 

* MAIL COACHES had ceased to operate across Hartfordbridge Flats as soon as the railway reached Winchfield in September 1838.

 

Back to The Parson Darby Legend

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.