Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Ealing

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Trouble at the Town House - in 1747...

Local Historian Jonathan Oates has written an account of murders and suspicous deaths in Ealing borough, which casts a fascinating light over life in our area in the past. The book includes "local merchants executed for treason, a highwayman's last robbery, the cruel fate of a forger, the unsolved murder of a servant girl, the husband who accidentally strangled his wife, the killing of local policeman and the assassination of a prime minister." We would like to thank the publishers and Dr Oates for allowing us to publish one of the stories.

Extract from 'Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Ealing'

by Dr Jonathan Oates.

Reprinted by kind permission of Pen and Sword Books.

Anyone acquainted with the London Newspapers in 1747 would have been aware that murder, assault and theft on the roads around London were at a serious level. A few of these thieves were gentlemanly - one, having robbed a man on 1 January 1747, then wished him a very happy new year. Most were not so polite and what happened in Ealing in 1747 was just one of those cases. However, not for the first or last time, the initial reporting of this incident, although correct in broad outline, was wrong in detail.

At least two London newspapers carried exactly the same story at the end of January 1747. According to them, on the evening of Saturday 24 January, a farmer and his son, who lived at The Old Hats Inn, West Ealing, 2 miles from Acton on the Oxford Road, were on their way back from London, presumably where they had been on business. They stopped at Acton for a pint of beer. On finishing their drink, the father left immediately, while the son remained to pay the bill. A quarter of a mile along the road, the farmer was attacked by two men.

Hearing sounds of a struggle, his son ran to his father's rescue, accompanied by fellow drinkers. When they arrived, they found his father injured, but still breathing. He had been shot twice and one bullet was in his left breast. On the morning of 26 January, he died. According to the newspapers 'great Enquiry is making after the villains to bring them to Justice'.

In contrast, a couple of days later, The General Advertiser, another London newspaper, made the following remark, 'The Affair of the Farmer shot near Ealing, having been misrepresented in several of the Papers, had occasioned our publishing the Facts at large, which we have had from his Neighbours'. What happened was this. Samuel Verry 'an honest, substantial Farmer of Oxendon-hill [presumably Horsenden Hill], in the Parish of Perivale, Middlesex' was going home on 24 January at 7.00 in the evening, accompanied by John Thomas Verry, his 17-year-old son. Leaving the main road from London, they travelled northwards towards Perivale along Castle Bear (now Castlebar) Road. This was a lonely stretch of road, with very few habitations.

They went by an empty house which had been that of Dr Holling, where they passed two men loitering in the road. Verry senior rode straight past them, clearly having caught the two by surprise. They then tried to stop his son's progress, but he escaped them and rode back to the inn called The Sign of the Feathers (since 1998 imaginatively renamed The Town House) and shouted 'Murder'.

Verry looked back towards his son, but was prevented from riding back to him by one of the robbers, who proceeded to attempt to rob the farmer. Verry was 'somewhat in liquor and a stout man', and struck the would-be thief 'a Violent Blow'. His companion in crime then shot Verry and robbed him of some of his money. Despite this, the wounded man managed to ride back to the inn where he met his son and some other men who were coming to his assistance. It was too late to do anything about the thieves and the whole party returned to the inn.

Although he had been wounded, Verry 'thought himself not much Hurt: And he seemed very Hearty'. Even so, he was bleeding heavily. Once back at the inn, he was seated, stripped of his clothes and a surgeon was sent for. The doctor found a bullet in his left breast, which he removed. Verry remained conscious throughout, and 'settled his affairs'; presumably by making a will. Finally he gave a warning, based on his recent experience, saying that he 'earnestly desired all people to be cautious of travelling late, or making Resistance if attached by such Villains'. This advice is still appropriate over two and a half centuries later. He died at 2 o'clock on Monday morning, 26 January, and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Perivale.

Two days after his death, Noah and William Groves were examined by James Clitheroe of Boston House, a local JP. The two had been seen loading pistols on the evening of the attack. On 30 January the two men were gaoled on suspicion of murder.

About one month later is the last reference concerning this matter. It was known that the King, George II, had offered a pardon to anyone who could reveal the identity of the killer of Samuel Verry, except the guilty man himself. This indicated that the Groves brothers were probably released prior to even being tried. This could have been because of the lack of evidence against them, or the fact that they had alibis for the time in question. In any case, there was only one witness, Verry's son, and he may not have been able to recognize the two as the men who killed his father as at best he would only have had time to have caught a glimpse at them on a dark winter evening. This supposition is strengthened by the fact that Verry's friends and relations offered the sum of £30 to anyone who could bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, nothing more is know of this matter. The newspapers do not refer to anyone being caught or tried for this crime at the next two sessions of the Old Bailey in February and April 1747, and nor do the records of cases held before the Old Bailey, either. Yet another unsolved murder to darken the annals of crime.

 

September 22, 2006