THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

SLAYING MOST FOUL

Copyright Valerie Martin 2006

Here is yet another local mystery waiting to be unravelled.  The year this story commences is 1810 and it all took place just a few years after Jack Upperton had been gibbeted at the nearby crossroads for robbing a horseman carrying the king's mail from Steyning to Portsmouth.   This would have been somewhere along the track traversing Findon, Myrtle Grove, Michelgrove, Angmering Park, Warningcamp, Arundel and westwards to the shore of the English Channel.   It was during an era when highwaymen prowled and footpads stalked our solitary hills.  It was indeed dangerous to wander needlessly and unarmed in the evenings — and on one would have ventured out unnecessarily on dark winter nights.

The dastardly crime for which Jack was hanged in 1771, was robbery of the King's mail being carried by the postboy William Baldry — and it is said that two men may have been  involved in the daring hold-up.   Rumours abounded at the time and news spread throughout the countryside and the local inhabitants always stoutly believed that the real villain got clean away with the unlawful act, and that loyal Jack refused to "turn informer". 

The local vicar is said to have visited Jack Upperton in gaol, and all Jack would say  —

"It was a scrambling sort of turn-out".

So make what you like out of that comment!

When Jack Upperton was sentenced to death at East Grinstead, the judge, Baron Perrett, pronounced —

"Let him be hung in chains on the most convenient spot on Burpham New Down...."

This was the usual custom at that time and was, no doubt, intended to deter any others from committing a robbery of this kind.

The local blacksmith of the day was paid £5 the handsome sum for making the irons and chains, which surely must have seemed a rather grisly commission to undertake.  Legends and stories very soon grew up around the site of the gibbet and Jack's bones were rumoured to be still rather grotesquely rattling two years following his gruesome downland execution.

Although there appears to be no well documented actual ghost story, villagers often talked of "Jack Upperton's ghost" and many felt extremely uneasy when passing the lonely site on dark nights.

What did the local countryside look like at that time?  Well, it was just a network of verdant corn fields, enclosed by neat quickset hedges and great elm trees, reaching from the downs to the sea and embowering small flint and thatch villages such as Findon.

The story now gets even more interesting.  In the autumn of 1810 a gang of navvies (working for the wealthy Liverpool merchant, Richard Walker of Michelgrove) methodically wielded their pickaxes and spades to break up the heavy clay soil of an ancient footpath running from Michelgrove to Lee Farm.   Richard Walker had purchased the handsome Michelgrove Estate for just £115,000. from the Shelley family.    The estate had been in the Shelley's hands since the mid-16th century when the original Elizabethan house was built.  It was a large and ancient estate stretching far, in fact all the way from Poling to Shoreham and taking in Angmering Park).

The toiling workmen's task that day was to provide a completely new access track to join the Steyning to Arundel lane with the dominating imposing Gothic-style Michelgrove mansion which had been re-constructed at the end of the 18th century to replace the original Elizabethan one.

It is reputed that they commenced their daily work beside a mighty tree that was very distinctive and a well-known local landmark.   Then they were stopped in their tracks.   The pickaxe of one of the navvies struck something bizarre just a few inches below the soil.  A shout went up and they all bent forward for a better look.   After some discussion, they agreed that the discovery looked to them like human bones.  As they scraped away the earth further, it soon became apparent to the men that a complete human skeleton lay buried at the spot and the men needed no more encouragement to immediately cease digging.

A local surgeon, Mr. Dennett from nearby Storrington was duly summoned to inspect the gruesome find.   He immediately declared the remains to be that of a young woman — and concluded that she may have met with a rather bloodthirsty and harrowing death.  That was all it needed and rumours spread like wild fire that a murder may have occurred and be connected with the family living at the "big house"..... Michelgrove.    These fanciful stories were later dismissed when intensive enquiries failed to trace a missing girl. 

It is said that many came to view the bones of the pitiful skeleton but no one could throw any light on the puzzle.   As the remains were a complete mystery and with no one coming forth to claim them, they were eventually quietly buried without ceremony in the Angmering graveyard.  It was considered by all to be an end to the unfortunate matter and it was soon forgotten.

Many years later, a horse and cart were transporting a pauper of some mature years from Kent to the East Preston Workhouse.  I am not quite sure why he should be coming from Kent but that is how the story goes.  By a very strange coincidence his surname was the same as the condemned Jack Upperton  (Christian name is unknown) but he appears to have been related to our ill-fated highwayman.

Upon this Mr Upperton's arrival at East Preston Workhouse, he became very ill and related a rambling yarn and subsequently requested to make a full confession of his deeds to a priest.   According to contemporary records he originated from our Sussex area and freely admitted to have returned to the scene of his former crime —

Everything then began to fall into place.  How he would have known about the demise of the unfortunate young female some years earlier if he was not involved, is not clear.

Here is a contemporary report of his claim:

It is said that within three days of making his devastating and grisly confession, Mr Upperton, had died within the cold inhospitable walls of the nearby East Preston Workhouse.

Many questions still remain unanswered concerning my original storyline.   Firstly, who was the unfortunate murdered female in our original story?    Secondly, did she meet her fate by the hands of Jack Upperton's relation?  Thirdly, do we believe the confession many years later of Mr Upperton in the Workhouse?

Continue if you would like to read the about Smuggling and Smugglers.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.