Now! Then! Miners rob, murder and burn a pit-owning nonconformist minister and his mother and maid at Beeston (Leeds)

24 January 1680: Miners rob, murder and burn a pit-owning nonconformist minister and his mother and maid at Beeston (Leeds)

Ralph Thoresby. 1830. The Diary of Ralph Thoresby, F.R.S., Vol. 1/2. Ed. Joseph Hunter. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. Get it:

Excerpt

After dinner rode to Beeston to see the most dreadful spectacle that was ever beheld in these parts. Mr Scurr, his mother, and a maid servant, every one burnt to death last Thursday, at night between eleven and one o’clock, but whether accidentally, or designedly by the malice of some, (whom perhaps he was in suit with) is yet uncertain. The old gentlewoman was most burnt; her face, legs, and feet quite consumed to ashes, the trunk of her body much burnt, her heart hanging as a coal out of the midst of it! Part of his face and arms, with the whole body unburnt, but as black as the coals, his hands and feet quite consumed. Very little of the maid was to be found, only I saw her head; a most piteous sight! Some observe all their skulls are broken, as it were, in the same place, which causes some to suspect it is wilfully done; but if so, the Lord will reveal it, so that in all probability those inhuman murderers may have their desserts in this life.

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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

Comment

Another contemporary account comes from Oliver Heywood:

Dreadful providence fell out at Beeston near Leeds, a mile and half from Morley Jan. 22, 1680. Mr Scurr, his mother and maid-servant were all burnt to death, and the house they dwelt in. None can tell how or when it was done, nor was it discovered till the Friday morning, when they were taken out of the ashes, what was left of them. Mr. Jo. Brooksbank told me the Sabbath following that he saw them on the Friday, being strangely disfigured, dismembered, Mr. Scurr’s crown of his head being burnt off that they might see the brains, his mother’s legs burnt off, a great hole made in her side in a formidable manner, he lying in the chamber, she in the parlour, which when the building was burnt dropped down, was found in the ruins by her, the maid in another room. Nobody can guess, how this should come to pass, but house and barn were burnt to the ground.

The man was brought up a minister and before the change of times had preached at Beeston, a great scholar, of singular fine parts, of notable ingeny [?] mild temper, not easily provoked, had a wife formerly, but dead many years ago, had an estate of 300li a year, but had made most of it away in suits at law to which he *** himself *** my good friend Mr Moses–cast him, he had extraordinary skill at law, oft more judgment than his *** begged liberty to plead his own cause, this occasioned his confidence in suits which ruined him, brought him into debt, straits, quite outed him of Beeston-hall, he was retired to a little poor thatched house wherein he preached of late to those that came to him.

The last suit he had was with some colliers, whom he had bound to work for him as long as water run under Leeds bridge, they blow off, he sued them, whether some burnt him and all he had out of malice, or first robed him, it’s not known, but sad it is: there is some grounds of suspicions (1) that some first murdered, then burnt the house, for the two men (colliers of the neighbourhood) have [been] wanting ever since, (2) those 2 and he fell out that day and they gave him some threatening words, (3) his gold ring was found at a distance from the house, (4) he received 10li that day. The coroner’s quest went upon him, then they were all buried on Monday Jan. 26. 1680 (Heywood 1881).

Suspicions were confirmed, and justice was done on 14 July 1682, though I don’t know if Holroyd and Littlewood (see below) were the two miners referred to by Heywood:

Rose pretty early. Most of the day taken up with visitants, to see Holroyd pass by to his execution, for the horrid murder of Mr. Scurr, his mother, and a maid-servant. After, rode to the moor, where were many thousand spectators; but, alas! frustrated exceedingly in their expectations, he dying in the most resolute manner that ever eye beheld, wishing (upon the top of the ladder) he might never come where God had anything to do if he was guilty, and so threw himself off in an anger as it were, without any recommendation of himself to God that any could observe, which struck tears into my eyes, and terror to my heart, for his poor soul, earnestly imploring, while I saw any signs of life, that God would give him repentance for his crying sins, and be better to him than his desires.

Of later versions, I haven’t seen Thomas Whitaker’s (Whitaker 1816), who may be the source for Edward Parsons:

During the time of the Protectorate, Mr. Leonard Scurr had discharged the ministerial functions in Beeston chapel with considerable ability, but without corresponding moral character. When Charles II. returned to his kingdom, Mr. Scurr abandoned the ministry and commenced the management of a coal mine for which he seems to have been well qualified, and which he conducted with considerable success. Preparatory to a journey to London on business, he had collected a large sum of money, and the fact became generally known in the neighbourhood. On the night antecedent to his departure from home (January 19, 1679 [Thoresby’s Thursday is 22 January 1680]) about eleven o’clock, two unhappy men whose names were Holroyd and Littlewood, accompanied by their accomplices, broke into the house with the intention of seizing the money and obviating detection by the murder of the family, then consisting of Mr. Scurr, his aged mother, and a servant girl. The outcry of the mother whom they first seized, woke Mr. Scurr then in bed, he immediately descended from his room armed with a rapier, and commenced a desperate contest with equal resolution and energy. He mortally wounded two of the robbers, and had not one of his hands been cut off with an axe, there is but little doubt that he would have mastered them all. Such was his indomitable valour, however, that he fought until his weapon became useless, and then he attempted to escape by a trap door. But the robbers had previously fastened it, and Mr. Scurr was at length murdered. His mother shared his fate, but the servant girl who implored mercy and promised secrecy would have been spared, had it not been for a wretched woman who was with the murderers, at whose instigation she was beheaded at the door. The ruffians then having taken the money and other valuables, set fire to the house in the hope of exciting the belief that it had been casually consumed with its inhabitants. But the murder was discovered by the facts that the head of the servant was found separated from her body, and the hand of Scurr at a distance from his mutilated body. Vengeance swiftly pursued the perpetrators of this horrid deed. Holroyd and a woman with whom he lived in shame repaired to Ireland, there they met with a female whose name was Phoebe, who had formerly been servant with Mr. Scurr, and to whom they had the folly to converse about the murder. This person identified a gown and a scarlet petticoat, which Holroyd’s companion then wore, as having been the property of Mrs. Scurr; she suspected the true state of the case, and applied to a magistrate; the murderers were apprehended and their gross prevarications were so conducive of their guilt, that they were sent over to York to take their trial. Littlewood was also taken into custody, and he and Holroyd were arraigned at the Lammas assizes at York in 1682. Littlewood was respited in the hope of making further confession, and the woman probably not having been actually engaged in the murder was never brought to trial. It was very properly determined to make a public example of Holroyd in the immediate neighbourhood of the place where the atrocious crime was committed, and he was accordingly executed on Holbeck Moor, in the presence of thirty thousand spectators. His body was hung in chains on the same spot. On his way through Leeds, the vicar, Mr. Milner, had some conversation with him, but he continued hardened and impenitent to the last (Parsons 1834).

Regarding the location of Scurr’s house and mine:

It has been mentioned by several authors that Leonard Scurr managed a coal mine in Beeston Park in the late 17th century and that this was a day hole, or drift mine. Scurr was murdered in 1680 and an account by Thomas Wilson identified as 18th century in the West Yorkshire Archives, Leeds (WYAS WYL483), describes Scurr as being murdered in his home at Cad Beeston. This is now known as Beeston Hill and was historically a separate settlement to Beeston. The link made with Beeston Woods is no doubt because there was a Scurr House located just outside the north western boundary of the park. The idea of a drift mine in the 17th century is also incorrect; these do not appear in Yorkshire until the very end of the 18th century (Roe 2008).

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Original

After dinner rode to Beeston to see the most dreadful spectacle that was ever beheld in these parts. Mr. Scurr, his mother, and a maid servant, every one burnt to death last Thursday, at night between eleven and one o’clock, but whether accidentally, or designedly by the malice of some, (whom perhaps he was in suit with) is yet uncertain. The old gentlewoman was most burnt; her face, legs, and feet quite consumed to ashes, the trunk of her body much burnt, her heart hanging as a coal out of the midst of it! Part of his face and arms, with the whole body unburnt, but as black as the coals, his hands and feet quite consumed. Very little of the maid was to be found, only I saw her head; a most piteous sight! Some observe all their skulls are broken, as it were, in the same place, which causes some to suspect it is wilfully done; but if so, the Lord will reveal it, so that in all probability those inhuman murderers may have their desserts in this life.

184 words.