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WITHOUT DOUBT Wotton's most infamous son was William Crew, the highwayman who, with eight other wrongdoers, was executed at Gloucester on Friday the 21st of April 1786 for robbing the house of Mrs. Fowles. Quite why William Crew embarked on a life of crime is a matter for conjecture. Certainly it was not a matter of heredity because his father was an honest, industrious workman. Unfortunately the father's influence was removed by an untimely death and young William, at the age of 14 years, was left in his mother's care.She placed him in employment with a London cheesemonger but William did not like the city life and returned home to Wotton-under-Edge. He spent some three years in idleness and wickedness, pilfering what he could from his mother. William's first theft to come to the attention of the authorities was the breaking open of a box owned by his sister and stealing three half crowns. With the money he purchased a horse but then, wanting some cash in a hurry, sold the unfortunate animal as meat for Mr. Kingscot's hounds. He also went around the area collecting debts owed to his mother but that good lady never saw the money . . . William spent it on his own extravagances. Family ties were then at a breaking point and William was turned out of the house. Mrs. Crew married for the second time and moved to Badminton. Even then she was to suffer at the hands of her son. Expressing pleasure at the wedding he offered to go to Badminton and 'air out' the house for the newlyweds. Certainly he let the air in . . . but he also assisted some of the contents to go out. In fact he made off, with the best bed. William Crew's next few years did nothing to improve his reputation. He stayed with a grandfather . . . and plundered the old man's house. It was the last straw, and the family literally 'ran him out of town.' William made for Portsmouth and enlisted in the Marines. He augmented his military pay by joining with a comrade in the business of stealing metal from the dockyard. Ironically the thieving came to light when the barracks were searched for a missing fire bucket, the loss of which was in no way William's fault. However, he did have a quantity of stolen metal in his quarters. Thanks to a kind sergeant there was no disciplinary action in this matter. Six months later William Crew decided to return to Wotton-under-Edge. This he did. He broke into his grandfather's house, stole a suit of clothes belonging to a cousin, and somewhat cheekily left his regimental clothes in their place. Smartly dressed, William Crew had no difficulty in finding employment as a servant to a farmer. There he met a maid who had saved the princely sum of £20 in anticipation of the day when the right man would come along and marry her. The money was an obvious attraction so William Crew went to the altar, spent his wife's money, and then left her to repent at her leisure. An amnesty for deserters prompted William to give himself up to the 24th Regiment (after selling his share of a house in Wotton for six guineas), but the military life did not suit him and he again deserted. He went to serve a merchant Williams of Chepstow in the Irish trade and went with him for on two voyages. He then stole a few things from a ship and moved to Frampton on Severn where he served for two voyages in a sloop owned by a Mr. Barnard. Finding himself suspected of being an army deserter he left this gainful employment and become a professional housebreaker. It is recorded that he raided John Griffith's shop at Frampton. He also found his grandfather's home drawing him like a magnet and the unfortunate old gentleman was robbed as many as three times in a fortnight. In each case the booty was cheese . . . grandfather was apparently a skilled cheesemaker. To end the thieving bars were placed across the cheesestore window. William was undeterred. He pulled the cheese to the window with a rake and then cut them in two so that they could be extracted! From then on his record of housebreaking provided a list so lengthy that it would take many pages to record. He was audacious, but not particularly clever and rarely tried to conceal his identity. The inevitable happened and he found himself hauled before the Justices at Thornbury. Strangely he was not convicted of his local crimes but was sent to Portsmouth as a deserter with a recommendation that he should be sent to he Indies for life. At Portsmouth he received 300 lashes ( a drastic punishment indeed) and put aboard the man of war Carisford bound to the West Indies. Had he been sensible and started a new life in a new land that would have been the end of the story, but he returned two years later and jumped ship in the first English port visited. Back he went to the Wotton area, stealing as he went and engaged in a number of local crimes before being apprehended. He had the misfortune to appear before the very same Justice who had previously recommended him to be sent to the Indies for life. William next found himself in custody at Portsmouth receiving another 200 lashes before being place on board the man of war Marlborough. This time his life as a sailor lasted a mere six months before he again deserted with a companion, Joseph Hunt, and headed north for Wotton stealing what they needed along the way. At Oldbury it is recorded that they saw some fishermen out in the water, their clothes lying neatly on the bank. The two robbers took the clothes leaving the fishermen naked. Back at Wotton-under-Edge the life of crime was continued, but not without incident. William Crew was by then a household word and the fault for every theft was laid at his door. Somehow he eluded arrest, but the hue and cry was such that his thieving became very difficult and somewhat unprofitable. He left his companion in crime and moved southwards, stealing as he went. From Somerset he moved to Wales then back across the channel again to Somerset. All the time he was stealing and robbing. The remainder of Crew's life was a continuing catalogue of crime, so lengthy that it would fill a book. And fill a book it did, a best seller printed and sold by Wotton bookseller Mr. L. Povey. The crime for which Crew was eventually hanged was for robbing a Mrs. Anne Fowles at Huntley, near Gloucester. It was a particularly vicious robbery in which Mrs. Fowles, through upwards of 80 years of age, was badly beaten with a stick. Crew became a very badly wanted man and at one time he was being pursued by a search party of upwards of 60 men. He was unable to appear in public by day in case he was apprehended. Instead he travelled at night, stealing as he went for victuals. When he was finally caught and convicted, the gallows were inevitable. Some 10,000 spectators attended the hanging . . . an impressive occasion made all the more awesome by a sudden burst of thunder. My Thanks to the Gazette for this information. Copyright©Gazette |
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COTSWOLD ~
AMY COOK ~ BERKELEY
HOUSE ~ ISAAC PITMAN
~ KLB |
