Cornish Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Cornish Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Cornwall (England : County) -- Biography; Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
I don't know whether it was soiled with blood. I did not see any
blood on my brother's clothes. We returned together, crossing the
river at Pendavey Bridge and the Treraren fields to Burlorn village.
My brother then went to his house and I to mine. I think it was handy
about eleven o'clock. I saw my brother again on the Sunday morning. He
came to my house. There was nobody there but my own family. He said,
'Dear me, Mr. Norway is killed.' I did not make any reply."
The prisoner upon this was remanded to Bodmin gaol, where his brother
was already confined, and on the way he pointed out the furze bush in
which the tablet and the keys of the deceased were to be found. James
Lightfoot, in the meantime, had also made a confession, in which he
threw the guilt of the murder upon his brother William.
This latter, when in prison, admitted that his confession had not been
altogether true. He and his brother had met by appointment, with full
purpose to rob the Rev. W. Molesworth, of S. Breock, returning from
Bodmin market, and when James had snapped his pistol twice at Mr.
Norway, he, William, had struck him with a stick on the back of his
head and felled him from his horse, whereupon James had battered his
head and face with the pistol.
The two wretched men were tried at Bodmin on March 30th, 1840, before
Mr. Justice Coltman, and the jury returned a verdict of "Guilty";
they were accordingly both sentenced to death, and received the
sentence with great stolidity.
Up to this time the brothers had been allowed no opportunity for
communication, and the discrepancy in their stories distinctly enough
showed that the object of each was to screen himself and to secure the
conviction of the other.
After the passing of the sentence on them, they were conveyed to the
same cell, and were now, for the first time, allowed to approach each
other. They had scarcely met before, in the most hardened manner, they
broke out into mutual recrimination, using the most horrible and
abusive language of each other, and, not content with this, they flew
at each other's throat, so that the gaolers were obliged to interfere
and separate them and confine them in separate apartments.
On April 7th their families were admitted to bid them farewell, and
the scene was most distressing. On Monday morning, April 13th, they
were both executed, and it was said that upwards of ten thousand
persons had assembled to witness their end.
As Mr. Norway's family was left in most straitened circumstances, a
collection was made for them in Cornwall, and the sum of £3500 was
raised on their behalf.
William Lightfoot was aged thirty-six and James thirty-three when
hanged at Bodmin.
There is a monument to the memory of Mr. Norway in Egloshayle Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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