Murders in Yateley

The early parish registers for St Peter's Church contain these grim records of murder:

• Mr Philip Webberly a young Merchant of London was murthered by Thieves in Strood Poole bottom going home, here buried July ye 16th 1649
• A Traveller found dead in his way from London to Exeter was buried Aug ye 12th 1649
• William Ryder murther'd by Edward Puckeridge at Moulsham Spray Bridge buried Jan ye 11th 1650
• John Powell alias Durnefold of Andover, Glover, was killed upon the high way to Blackwater by George Sturt and buried here Feb ye 18th 1654
• John White our neighbour knock'd on ye head in ye heath between Sandhurst and Ockingham was buried at Sandhurst May ye 4th 1662
• ****Tuckman Qui in malam Crucem adiit sepultii fuit in briviis apud lapidam vocatum Hawley Stone Sep. 14 1688

The first three murders took place within a six month period, at a critical stage of the British Civil Wars (1639-1660). Charles I was beheaded in January 1649. The Interregnum, which followed, was particularly lawless. Former highwaymen, who had been recruited into the Royalist army because of their expertise, continued activities we now call terrorist attacks, on Puritan travellers, and particularly on wagon trains carrying the pay of Cromwell's New Model Army. Many Royalist families were now destitute. Many clergy with Royalist, high church or Catholic sympathies were turned out of their parishes. With no other financial means of support, and believing they were supporting the Royalist cause, many former gentry and clergy turned to a life on the road. Some highwaymen were styled Captain.

It is possible that Parson Darby really was a clergyman, turned out of his living by the Puritans, who became a highwayman. In this period particularly, it is equally possible that a highwayman would resort to the garb of a clergyman as a good disguise. If these assumptions are true then Parson Darby could have been a real person, possibly using an alias, who lived and died well before 1700.

However I have spent considerable time going through the lists of both the clergy turned out of their living by the Puritans and, after the Restoration in 1600, the Puritans turned out of their living by the Royalists. There are in fact some very good stories from nearby parishes, but none of these deprived clergy was named DARBY

Back to the Parson Darby Myth