Mereworth Gang Kills in Wateringbury (1633)

Post date: Jul 15, 2011 2:3:27 PM

At Maidstone Assizes on 31st July 1633 Thomas Cornford, John Newport and Edward Hubbard, labourers, and John Hartropp, cooper, of Mereworth were indicted for murder.

By an inquisition held at Wateringbury, 14 May 1633, a jury found that on 22 April 1633 at Wateringbury Cornford punched and kicked Coleman in the stomach, inflicting injuries from which he died on 14 May. Newport, Hubbarb and Hartropp aided and abetted Cornford in the killing.

Cornford was found guilty of manslaughter (not murder) but 'allowed clergy'. The others were not found guilty.

Being 'allowed clergy' meant that Cornford received a lighter sentence as he had proved, by reading a passage from scripture, that he was able to read and so might have been a clergyman. For more on this read 'Shenanigans in Pelicans'.