Honora Sneyd and Major Andre'- A story for Valentines Day

The story of Honora Sneyd and Major Andre’- a story for Valentine’s Day

I was given a copy of John Sleigh’s tombstone of a book on Leek’s history which dates from 1883. Although the author has in recent times has been criticised for inaccuracy especially with regard to his account of the Huguenot involvement in the development of the silk industry in the town it is still an interesting read. I particularly like the genealogical tables of the established families of the area which are scattered through the book.

The Sneyd family of Ashcombe, Basford and Onecote has a distinguished history that goes back to Henry de Snede from Burslem a force in the area in the 14^th century. But as it’s now Valentine Day my story concerns Honora Sneyd, granddaughter of Ralph Sneyd of Onecote and her ill fated relationship with Major Andre’ whose large monument has a significant place in Westminster Abbey which details his sad fate.

Honora was born in 1742 in Bath and spent much of her early life in Lichfield and the Peak District. Andre’ was eight years her junior of French Protestant origin. London born, he was something of a charismatic character, fluent in a number of languages. He was a poet, an artist and a gifted musician. Sometime in the mid 1760s they met and fell in love. Resistance from the relationship from Honore’s father clergymen at the Cathedral. Andre had a rakish reputation. The father demanded that Andre’ settled down applied himself and became rich. However the relationship cooled between Honore and Andre’ and after a meeting in Buxton in 1769 the engagement was broken off.

John it was said was upset by the breach, A Lichfield poet Anna Seward who knew them both thought that his disappointment led to Andre joining the Army gaining his commission in 1771. A few years later he joined the forces fighting the American rebels in the Revolutionary War. He kept a journal which is an interesting account of the war.

He became involved in intelligence during the conflict and found himself engaged in covert activity .  André was sent on a secret mission to General Benedict Arnold to negotiate the surrender of West Point to the British. However he was captured within the American lines, in civilian dress , with incriminating plans of West Point concealed in his boot. He was taken before General George Washington’s board of inquiry and in spite of every effort to obtain his pardon, he was hanged as a spy on 2nd October 1780 and buried beneath the gallows at Tappan, New York.

 Even before his execution André had aroused the sympathy of the British and the Americans. As he walked to the gallows he was watched by many sobbing women, one of whom is said to have given him a peach which later grew into a tree above his grave. He became a romantic hero in England and after the war the monument was erected in the Abbey and it was proposed that his bones should be brought back for burial. During a stay in England Benedict Arnold and his wife Peggy, who had been a friend of John, visited the monument.

In 1765 Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the well-known author, visited Lichfield.  He had been a wild young man, and had eloped with his first wife, who died in March, 1773.  His personal address was “gracefully spirited, and his conversation eloquent.”  He danced and fenced well, was an ingenious mechanic, and invented a plan for telegraphing, consequent on a desire to know the result of a race at Newmarket.

 Becoming very intimate with the Sewards, and the addresses he had made to and for Honora, “after some time being permitted and approved,” Edgeworth married her on 17th July, 1773, as his second wife, in the beautiful ladies’ choir in Lichfield Cathedral.  Mr. Seward, who had become a Canon Residentiary of Lichfield Cathedral, performed the ceremony, and shed “tears of joy while he pronounced the nuptial benediction,” and Anna Seward is recorded to have been really glad to see Honora united to a man whom she had often thought peculiarly suited to her friend in taste and disposition.

Honora died of consumption in 1780, and, in accordance with her dying wish, Edgeworth married her sister Elizabeth on Christmas Day in the same year.  Honora, who was buried at King’s Weston, had  two children.

Trolling in Alstonefield= an example from 1737

Until a few years the only troll I heard about existed in Scandanavian legend. They were the ugly, misshapen creatures of evil intent who undermined the good order of society by causing chaos and disruption. Now Trolls are ugly, misshapen individuals who use social media to bully threaten and accuse with equally damaging effects on the good order of society. The original trolls were destroyed by light. I suppose the modern day ones are equally damaged when exposed to the glare of public obloquy. Although on reading a newspaper article some time ago my perceptions about trolls and trolling were questioned when I discovered while most are  isolated young men, there are some trolls who are older and more socially adjusted than I had imagined.

In the past society took a very dim view of people who slandered others believing such actions “contrary to piety, justice to our neighbours and sobriety to ourselves” it became the practice to hear false accusations against people in Consistory Courts, an ecclesiastical court presided over by a Chancellor usually a Cathedral official who could pass judgement on offenders. Their remit was to keep good order in society and as it was a time when the vast majority of people would go to church it had power over people. Originally a medieval court, by the 17^th century consistory courts dealt with cases in certain areas: defamation, wills, matrimonial disputes including divorce and accusations against the clergy. (Many of the functions of the court were transferred over to civil courts during the Victorian era.)

The clergy could be summoned for a variety of transgressions such as dereliction of duty, not carrying out their priestly duties and brawling.

The Consistory Court that covered the Moorlands met at Lichfield. They had a variety of punishments at their disposal such as excommunication or ordering penance, although the church authorities sought initially to mediate.

One serious case of brawling in Hanbury near Burton was heard in 1746. John Cauldwell the Vicar was involved in a fight with a churchwarden named Robotham over the offertory box. During the kerfuffle the contents of the box were spilled in front of the altar and Cauldwell hit Robotham over the head with the empty box. Both men were dismissed for failing to restrain themselves.

The court also dealt with a 1737 case of slanderous comments being made in Alstonefield against a widow in her 60s, a button maker called Rachel Brindley. She brought a case against Grace Chapman  a local woman alleging that she had slandered her accusing her of lax morals. Matters came to a head in Alstonefield Churchyard and in a scene reminiscent of an Ena Sharples encounter with Elsie Tanner many years ago they set about each other with some venom. They were involved in a lengthy shouting match, with each woman calling the other one whore and other names. Witnesses from Alstonefield sided with Widow Brindley describing  her as a pious woman who paid her taxes and did not take any money from the parish in poor relief. There were some snide remarks made about Grace. At the hearing in Lichfield it was discovered that the underlying quarrel revolved around the ownership of a shop in Hollinsclough. The dispute was resolved through arbitration. 

Madeley and the " day of judgement has come"

Some weeks ago I met with Leek resident John Band who wanted to show me his very interesting collection of 17^th century pamphlets and journals. Several of them mention events in North Staffordshire during the period of the Civil War. But one very curiously mentions an incident that happened in Madeley in the spring of 1651. It is recorded in a newspaper called the Perfect Diurnal

“By Letters from Cheshire we had an exact accompt of a late strange appearance in the Air at a place called Madeley, of the Sun, Moone, and sighting, and other strange things as followeth, 16 Aprill 1651. Mary Sidway, Wife unto Robert Sidway in the Parish of Madely, Gent. in the County of Stafford saith, That sitting in her doore, one of her children being playing by her, about a quarter of an houre before Sun setting, taking notice of the Sunne, thought it to be of a strange bloudy colour, looking more earnestly upon it; perceived over it a perfect halfe Moon, but she thinking she might be deceived in her sight, wiped her eyes, and looked upon it againe: Upon which the said Moone suddenly vanished, and there appeared round about the Sunne many darke bodies, in compasse like unto ordinary Pewter Dishes, all which instantly turned as red as bloud, those of the North side, flying off from the Sunne,”

Mary Sidway called her maid who was looking after Mary's children. She was asked if she had seen the curious spectacle at first the maid denied that she had seen anything but recanted

“Crying out unto her Dame, ah Dame they come upon us! they come upon us! and forthwith in their view came downe from the Sun into the Court before the door, multitudes of darke bodies in the signs of men, having arms and swords discernable, but from the rest of the bodies were of a thick darknesse without fome, of which they can give no good accompt; there also in their view arose out of the ground as many like bodies in opposition unot these, which to their judgements ran violently one upon another; In their running up and down the Court they pressed so near the door where she sate and the maid stood by, that being afraid of hurt by them, they withdrew themselves into the entry of the house, but she, the said Mary Sidway, remembering her little Child to be left without doors desired her maid to fetch the Child “

The maid collected the child and the women and child barricaded themselves into the house and began to pray. They looked out of the windows to see if they could see anything. They saw

 Two horses shapes being by them seen amongst this Company, and that which most affrighted them with the Mote beore the window, which seemed to be spotted all over in the Compass of Round Trenchers with staining blood: Her Maid then desired her to look out of the other window upon the other side of the house, (which she did) and there they beheld all the back side full of long Cannons, and holsters standing rowes, with their mouthes upwards; They being still in feare went to prayer againe, after which they looked out on both sides the house, and all was gone and seemed to be cleare.

The women left the house and wandered over some fields. A fog descended and out of the mist

“out of which came flying to them a creature in the bignesse of a Canon, with a broad face all hairy, two large wings (in their description, like unto the Angels wings pictured in Churches) upon sight whereof she the said Mary Sidway, said to her maid, certainely this is an Angell, and the day of judgement is come, come let us go and hasten to our folks and die together; but while she was thus speaking came another in the like shape, and after that a third”

The creatures disappeared and a farm labourer that the women saw did not see anything odd.

What can we make of the references to “pewter plates” or “ multitudes of strange sights” or the flying creature with “large wings and face all hairy”.

John Band is of the opinion that the women were suffering from ergotism the result of an enzyme released when rye or oats get damp and develops a fungal infection which can cause symptoms such as hallucinations. Some historians believe that religious visions or charges of bewitchment might be caused by ergotism. Although the early 1650s are characterised by fine springs and summers and drought like conditions.

Another suggestion is given in the clue of the the bloody colour of the Sun is that the woman witnessed an partial eclipse although it occurred on the 19^th April and not the 16^th. It could have been an error in typography and the wrong date given. The eclipse was visible in Lichfield not too far away.

And of course there is the fanciful view that it really was a Close Encounter of the Third Kind!

Foxe Book of Martyrs and a local villain

It must have been a troubling time to be a church goer in England in the mid 16^th century as the country went on a roller coaster ride plunging between positions from the English Catholicism of Henry VIII , extreme Protestantism of Edward VI back to the fanatical Catholicism of Mary before the arrival of the Elizabethan Settlement and the establishment of the Church of England.

Of course, a wrong choice in the matter of religious belief could result in imprisonment, torture and at worse a gruesome execution. One book that chronicled the 300 or so Protestants who were executed during the reign of “Bloody” Mary was the “ Acts and Monuments” of John Foxe better known as the “Book of Martyrs”.

It was one of the most important books of its time whose graphic illustrations helped to frame the anti Catholicism of the country right up to the 20th century. The main message of the book that Catholics were cruel oppressors was so powerfully conveyed that a essential characteristic of “Englishness” up to fairly recent times could be defined as not being Catholic. One account in the Book of Martyrs features as a villain a local man Anthony Draycott, a native of Draycott- in- the- Moors, a prelate at Lichfield Cathedral and a zealous Catholic. He was determined to root out heresy locally. Draycott had also been Rector of Grindon and was well known in the area. He and the Bishop of Lichfield Baines began to eagerly conduct trials of Protestants after 1555. The case of Joan Waste, a young blind woman from Derby, came to their attention. A Protestant convert she had objected to the services now being read in Latin. She was sentenced for buying a New Testament in English which she asked friends to read to her.

 Waste also denied the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and held that the bread and wine were only that. She was quickly found guilty and condemned to die at the stake in Derby. Foxe takes up the story

“Sentence was then adjudged, and Dr. Draycott appointed to preach her condemned sermon, which took place August 1, 1556, the day of her martyrdom. His fulminating discourse being finished, the poor, sightless object was taken to a place called Windmill Pit, near the town, where she for a time held her brother by the hand, and then prepared herself for the fire, calling upon the pitying multitude to pray with her, and upon Christ to have mercy upon her, until the glorious light of the everlasting Sun of righteousness beamed upon her departed spirit”.  It said that after the burning Draycott calmly ate a meal.

However, he quickly fell foul of the new Queen Elizabeth and was imprisoned in London before being allowed to return to North Staffordshire dying at the family home Painsley Hall near Cheadle in 1572.

Beating a deadly disease

Ellastone Parish records state that it was Katherine Bott a servant to Mr Hugh Sheldon who was the first to die. She must have thought she had the flu when she fell ill in May 1636. There would have been headaches, tiredness and sickness. At this time, she would have been too sick to carry on her normal duties.  Small red spots later emerged on her tongue and mouth. These spots develop into sores that broke open spreading the virus. At this time she was highly contagious. Death would have followed by the second week. It may have come from the intense fever causing dehydration, kidney and heart failure. The disease that Katherine succumbed to was a scourge- Smallpox. The disease entered into the country the previous century although it had been known about since Roman times. The parish record in Ellastone chronicles its progress that summer of 1636 with Katherine the first victim. John Weston, John Smith, quickly followed her until the 10th victim Prudence Walker died on August 10th. The disease was to become a frequent visitor to the Staffordshire Moorlands with epidemics breaking out regularly. Even as late as 1878 there was a report of an outbreak in the West End part of Leek.

Smallpox was particularly successful in virgin populations. The Spanish inadvertently owe much of their success in conquering the Aztecs in the 16th century to smallpox. Unlike the Spanish, the native Indians had no immunity to the disease, having never encountered it before. It wiped out millions of them.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) is credited with introducing variolation to Britain in 1721. Severely pockmarked herself after surviving the illness, she learnt about the method in Constantinople, where her husband was the British Ambassador. She had her children inoculated- the first Westerner to do so, She is buried at Lichfield Cathedral. It was Edward Jenner who later developed vaccination that proved the turning point

 The fight against smallpox, one of the great killers of mankind, proved successful .A concerted effort by the World Health Organisation to eliminate the disease through vaccination triumphed. In the 1950s 2 million people were dying of smallpox throughout the world. By 1980 the disease had been eradicated- surely one of mankind’s better moments