27 August 1673: John Holden fatally mugs his wife at Lightcliffe (Calderdale), but witnesses are fearful, and the jury sees only manslaughter
Oliver Heywood. 1883. The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630-1702, Vol. 3/4. Ed. J. Horsfall Turner. Bingley: T. Harrison. Get it:
.Excerpt
One John Holden living by Norwood Green having been in the country a-shearing had got some money, which when he came home he gave to his wife. They being very poor, having three small children, he went down into Lightcliffe, lay in wait for his wife in the fields, and demanded money of her. She gave him 6d., he not content with that struck her off a stile, laid on her with a great staff, which he broke on her, paused her with his feet, set his foot upon her breast, dealt most barbarously with her, left her to go fetch another staff in the hedge to beat her with, that while she got crept to an house and so was secured from present death, yet had received mortal wounds, for this staking her was on Wednesday August 27, 1673, and she died the Saturday night following, August 30. The jury went upon her on Monday, and they found it manslaughter, thought it was clear that he lay in wait for her, but witnesses were shy in speaking. I spoke with some of the jury, they said she was barbarously and inhumanly dealt with, he had set his foot upon her breast, which stopped her passage that she could let down no meat. He fled twice, but the former time turned back, the latter was found in a neighbour-house, had not power to fly, he is exceeding sturdy – is sent to York Castle.
To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:
- ER: East Riding
- GM: Greater Manchester
- NR: North Riding
- NY: North Yorkshire
- SY: South Yorkshire
- WR: West Riding
- WY: West Yorkshire
Comment
Comment
Something to say? Get in touch
Original
One John Holden living by Norwood Green having been in the country a-shearing had got some mony which when he came home, he gave to his wife. They being very poor, having 3 small children, he went down into Lightcliffe, lay in wait for his wife in the fields, he demanded money of her, she gave him 6d, he not content with that struck her off a stile, laid on her with a great staff, which he broke on her, paused her with his feet, set his foot upon her breast, dealt most barbarously with her, left her to go fetch another staff in the hedge to beat her with, that while she got crept to an house and so was secured from present death, yet had received mortal wounds, for this staking her was on Wednesday August 27 1673, and she died the Saturday night following, August 30, 1673.
The jury went upon her on Monday, and they found it manslaughter, thought it was clear that he lay in wait for her, but witnesses were shy in speaking. I spoke with some of the jury, they said she was barbarously and inhumanly dealt with, he had set his foot upon her breast, which stopped her passage that she could let down no meat. He fled twice, but the former time turned back, the latter was found in a neighbour-house, had not power to fly, he is exceeding sturdy – is sent to York Castle.
243 words.
Tags
Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.
- Dysphagia (1)
· - Heywood, Oliver (1630-1702) (34), Bolton-born nonconformist minister and diarist, active in the West Riding, resident at Northowram, ejected for his beliefs ·
- Jury (7) ·
- 📌Lightcliffe (2), village in Calderdale district in West Yorkshire/West Riding, three miles east of Halifax and two miles north west of Brighouse ·
- Manslaughter (4) ·
- Murder (38) ·
- Norwood Green, West Yorkshire (1) ·
- Oropharyngeal dysphagia (1) ·
- Poverty (16) ·
- West Riding of Yorkshire (147) ·
- Witness tampering (1) ·
- 📌York Castle (36) ·
Similar
- 18 June 1664: Jane Thompson of Craven, “a swinish drunkard,” dies of a barely-treated compound fracture
- 12 February 1677: Heavy snow leaves Oliver Heywood unsure whether to cross the Pennines into Lancashire
- 11 April 1667: A hubristic Sam Mitchell impersonates a gypsy in a Halifax pub, and nemesis follows
- 10 January 1675: George Aislabie, profiteering registrar of the York ecclesiastical court and assiduous duellist, challenges the wrong man
- 17 December 1674: Michael Gilburn, a Halifax lawyer, terminates a drunken weekend in style
- 6 March 1684: The highwayman and racketeer John Nevison is captured at an alehouse near Sandal Castle, Wakefield
- 5 September 1860: Friends of Elizabeth Mitchell (14), murdered by a fellow-servant at Upton (Pontefract), bear her to her grave at South Kirkby
- 23 June 1674: Oliver Heywood attends the funeral of Martha Stansfield and her baby
- 17 December 1688: Mass mobilisation in Leeds on rumours of an imminent Celtic counteroffensive against the Glorious Revolution
- 24 February 1673: Oliver Heywood regrets impulsively baptising the child of an irresponsible Quaker father
Search
Donate
Music & books
The Headingley Gallimaufrians: a choir of the weird and wonderful.
Music from and about Yorkshire by Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder.
RSS feed
Bluesky
Extwitter