How did Long Sutton man die?

There is an interesting memorial slab in St Mary’s Church in Long Sutton, which reads: ‘ALAS! POOR BAILEY’. It is clearly a ‘nod’ to one of Shakespeare’s famous lines: ‘Alas! Poor Yorick’ (from Hamlet), says researcher Stuart Henderson, but that’s it – no dates, first names or eulogy.

Mr Henderson, of Gosberton, set himself the challenge to find out more.

“Who was Bailey? When and how did he die?” he asks.

The book ‘The History of Long Sutton and District’ by Frank and Bruce Robinson gives an insight into the story.

“We learn that the memorial is to one John Bailey, a well-respected gentleman in the town. He was a surgeon by trade and was tragically murdered in 1795. The chief suspects appear never to have been caught and brought to justice.”

Intrigued by this murder mystery, Mr Henderson delved deeper.

“We know that he was murdered but I thought it made sense to see what the newspapers of the day said. There were many twists and turns,” he explains.

These included what appeared to be false confessions and a number of suspects.

Using different sources of information, he discovered the events of the murder.

“On Tuesday, April 21, 1795, John Bailey rode four miles south from his home in Long Sutton to Tydd St Mary to attend one of his patients,” Mr Henderson explains in his South Holland Miscellany series.

“In the early hours of Wednesday, Bailey’s horse returned home without him. This obviously raised alarm bells and a group of men set off along the road towards Tydd Gote to look for him.

“Along the road they met a servant girl who was heading towards Long Sutton. When she realised they were searching for someone, she told them she had in fact passed a man lying in the grass. He was moving slightly and she took him to be a drunk and so carried on her way without a second thought. She said the man had been lying near the bridge across the South Holland Drain – about half way between Long Sutton and Tydd St Mary.”

Riding to the spot, the group found Bailey, barely alive and with horrendous head injuries. It was clear he had been horrifically attacked. Unable to speak, he appeared anxious to write something in the silt but was unable to do so. He did not survive.

A nationwide search began for the murderers with the prime suspects being named as a Butcher Jack and a Miller Jack. A watch had said to have been stolen from Bailey’s pocket and people were urged to be aware that it may be offered for sale.

The suspects ‘Butcher Jack’ and ‘Miller Jack (or Toby)’ were said to have been spotted on the night of the murder at the Black Lion pub in Gedney and the then ‘Wool Pocket’ in Long Sutton. Was the attack an attempted drunken robbery gone wrong?

During the search for the pair, various arrests were made but no charges brought. One person arrested had the surname Dickinson, thought to be the real surname of Butcher Jack.

The newspapers later began reporting that ‘Miller Jack’ was a man by the name of Henry Syer, Mr Henderson discovers.

Meanwhile, the watch stolen from Bailey had been traced. It was discovered to have been sold to a Mr S Allen, a publican near Thrapston.

The search continued to that area and a couple – William Freeman and his wife Hannah, of Raunds in Northamptonshire, were incarcerated in the county gaol on a charge of harbouring the two suspects.

“There are no subsequent reports as to whether this couple were ever brought before a court,” Mr Henderson points out.

Other arrests were made, there were cases of mistaken identity and false confessions but it appears the real suspects were never found.

“One can only imagine the turmoil of emotions that Bailey’s widow and son went through as they endured disappointment after disappointment over many years as suspects were arrested, acquitted, confessed then recanted, or were released due to mistaken identity,” writes Mr Henderson.

Bailey’s wife Rebekah lived in a house on the corner of Market Street and Bull Lane in Long Sutton. She died at the age of 59 and was buried on August 5, 1810.

Her name was added to her husband’s memorial stone in the church at Long Sutton. Where it reads ‘Alas! Poor Bailey’ it is added at the bottom ‘And Rebekah, his wife!’

Their son, also called John, was around 11 years old when his father died. He also became a surgeon.

Mr Henderson adds that 22 years after Bailey’s murder the question of who was responsible was still ‘bubbling away in Long Sutton’.

The Stamford Mercury newspaper published on December 12, 1817, a public apology from Thomas Hill, a resident of Long Sutton, to Thomas Cartwright, who he falsely accused of being involved in Bailey’s murder. “The magistrates dismissed the claim as groundless and Hill was forced to publicly apologise by way of notice in the newspaper…” Mr Henderson explains.

* Stuart Henderson has a book available called South Holland Miscellany. It’s available as an eBook or print version. Go to www.blurb.co.uk and search for South Holland Miscellany.