The main characters:
Charles Stevens -
John Ward – born 1811, the son of William and Ann Ward. Living at Preston in 1844 and 1851. Poacher.
William Crew -
Winch. (Several Winches lived at Preston)
FIRE AT PARSONAGE FARM, KINGS WALDEN 9 December 1844 Hertfordshire Mercury
On Monday night about half-
The fire originated in the neighbourhood of the cart shed from whence it extended
on all sides with great fury. Two powerful engines from Luton and Hitchin were soon
on the spot and rendered the most valuable assistance. Some difficulty had to be
encountered in the endeavour to keep up a sufficient supply of water, in consequence
of the distance it had to be brought; this difficulty, however, was to a certain
extent surmounted by the admirable arrangements made. A double line of labourers
and others formed from the engine to the spot where the water was situate and the
buckets were handed up and down the lines with great facility. The adoption of this
plan and the activity and judgement of the persons managing the engines were at last
successful in preventing the extension of the fire. A very large barn in the farm-
A LETTER TO THE HERTFORDSHIRE MERCURY
Dear Editor,-
Whether this was an ideal offspring arising out of the fertile imagination of your contemporary or a statement founded on itinerant report is known best to those who have submitted it to the public. That general or individual reputation should be thus assailed, unsupported by respectable evidence must appear to every well regulated mind, a gross innovation of the sacred claims of British character. In order that the public mind may be relieved on this subject, I have felt it my duty to submit matter of fact to its notice.
At the period of this incendiary fire, Mr Roberts had no less than 16 labourers in
his employ, a number far more than adequate at this season of the year, to the extent
of the work, several of whom were receiving 2/6d per day, others 2/-
And to prove still further his highly reputable position as an employer, one third
of his men have served him twenty-
This is practical evidence – and it is to be hoped for the future, when journalists undertake to define cases involving general, or individual character, they will be supported by TRUTH.
From an Advocate. Ashwell, Herts 17 December 1844.
The Hertfordshire Mercury added a further comment: “The County Press stated generally that the conflagrations which have just occurred in that district were attributed to the reduction of the labourers’ wages by the neighbouring farmers. No such reduction, it appears has taken place and Mr Roberts himself is a very liberal employer. The County Press well deserves our correspondent’s censure for circulating such unfounded and malicious reports. We regard the giving utterance to such statements, unless they are known to be true, as a species of moral incendiarism because the minds of the ignorant and the vindictive amongst our rural population are thus supplied with dangerous suggestions and some are probably induced to commit crimes they would not otherwise dream of.”
On 27 January 1845, Charles Stevens was tried with starting the fire.The trial was reported thus:
Mr G W Roberts – I occupy the Parsonage Farm at Kings Walden. Mr W Hale is the owner.
On 9 December 1844 there was a fire at my premises and between £600 and £700 worth
of property was destroyed. The fire broke out at the back of a barn in the direct
road from Frogmore to Ley Green. The prisoner lived at Ley Green at the time. He
had been in my service but was discharged for misconduct at the harvest preceding.
The fire broke out at twenty-
John Ward, labourer – I live at Preston, near Kings Walden. I knew the prisoner from
a child. I remember the fire at Mr Roberts’. On a Sunday about five weeks ago I saw
the prisoner at Styles’ public house. There were several in the house. We drank together
and left about half-
During his cross-
Re-
By the Judge – Don’t know what regiment the prisoner enlisted in; don’t recollect stealing any ducks.
William Crew, a labourer from Bendish, Kings Walden, examined – I remember the night
of Mr Robert’s fire. It was the same night as the fire at Lilley Hoo which I started
to go to with two others. We could not find where it was. While looking for it, we
got to Kinsell End, near Mr Roberts’s and I saw the prisoner and somebody with him
coming from Lilley Hoo and going towards Ley Green. We all went together to Ley Green;
left the prisoner close to his own house which is about a quarter of a mile from
Mr Robert’s farm. About half-
The learned judge in summing up said: There could be no doubt in the minds of the jury that the premises of the prosecutor were fired on the 9 December and very little doubt – judging from the position in which the fire broke out – that they were fired wilfully. It was proved that at the harvest preceding the occurrence, the prisoner was discharged from Mr Robert’s service for misconduct, but that was slight evidence against him, for it did not follow that he should, on that account, be guilty of a crime so heinous. The only other evidence against him was that of John Ward and if the jury believed he was trustworthy and accurate then there could be no doubt of the prisoner’s guilt, for he had told Ward that he was the person who set the premises on fire. It would however be necessary to see how far they could rely upon the evidence of a man like Ward.
It was rather singular that the prisoner should confide such a secret to him – and if he had chosen to confide to another this wasting sorrow of his heart, it was strange that he should have done so in the presence of a third person, even though that person were deaf. The commencement of the alleged confession was also rather abrupt and strange. – “I set George Robert’s barn on fire”. This certainly was a strange way of commencing the story, and the words that followed – “I struck a whole box of Lucifer matches and stuffed them in the barn”, were equally strange. Even supposing it were true that the prisoner had made the confession stated, it would be matter for consideration whether he might not have made it for the purpose of escaping from the army into which he had enlisted. Untrue confessions of guilt had been made for such purposes before and the prisoner’s admission might have been made with the same view.
It was stated that the prisoner was sober at the time, but people did not generally enlist at public houses without having something to drink and there was a probability that the confession, if made at all, was a drunken one.
The main question though was, however, whether the jury could rely on the evidence of Ward, whose memory was so infirm that he could not recollect whether he had ever been charged with stealing ducks or who was so bad as not to tell the truth on a matter like that. It was also worthy of consideration that the statement alleged to have been made by the prisoner to the witness Ward did not agree with the facts as stated by other witnesses. Ward stated that the prisoner told him he fired Mr Robert’s barn as he was coming from Frogmore to Ley Green. Now, they had the evidence of two men who came home with the prisoner and left him at his own house and then went on past Roberts’s farm to Frogmore where they smoked and drank together; the fire broke out after that time and they came back to it. They thus had the prisoner brought to and left at his own home for some considerable time before the fire broke out, instead of setting fire to it as he came past from Frogmore. At a later hour, another man picked him up at his own house and went with him to the fire. If Ward’s statement were true, then it was clear that the prisoner had told him some circumstances which were not correct – and was it likely that if he made the statement at all, he would have departed from the truth in these particulars.
The jury – We can’t believe in the evidence against him to say that he is guilty. Not guilty.
