What they didn’t teach you in school history

This is the intriguing title of Stuart Orme’s talk at our meeting on Friday, 9th September at 7.30 pm. He is always an entertaining speaker and promises, in his own words, “a thought-provoking and naughty view of the past!”

The event will be held in the main hall of the Community Centre in Market Deeping. Entrance £3 for non-members.

Local history research also reveals untold stories, like an incident at Deeping on 31st January, 1813. It was 5 am when John Palmer drove his horse and wagon through the Market Place on his regular route between Boston and Stamford, transporting goods for local traders. He was a licensed carrier, known to be a diligent man, and to protect their property from potential thieves, he carried a pistol.

On that particular morning he also had two passengers. Sitting beside him was Mrs Parr from Deeping Fen, with a baby in her arms. As they drove along Stamford Road, near the junction with Millfield Road, two men appeared out of the darkness and grabbed the horse’s bridle. Two shots were then fired – but not by John Palmer. Without warning, a third man had fired a pistol ball through Mr Palmer’s left arm. The second shot missed him, but passed so close to Mrs Parr that it scorched her forehead.

The accomplices tried to drag Mr Palmer off his cart, but despite being injured, he managed to draw his own pistol and and threatened to shoot them. The thieves ran off, though one of them returned for a second attempt, before retreating.

It appears they struck again the same day, as during that evening a farmer from Braceborough was stopped by three men near Lolham bridges and robbed of twelve shillings.

In an era with no professional police force, victims of violent crime were entitled to raise Hue and Cry, advertising a reward of £40 to anyone who apprehended the offenders. In addition to that statutory amount, John Palmer offered ten guineas of his own money.

It was said that his attackers were dressed like farmers, and the previous evening, men of that description had asked a local toll bar keeper what time John Palmer was likely to pass through. Suspicion fell on three men who had spent most of that Sunday in a Market Deeping inn, but no convictions were ever made.

As well as being a carrier, John Palmer was landlord of The Royal Oak pub in St Leonard’s Street, Stamford, but had retired from both occupations by the time he died twenty-five years later. His passengers are believed to have been Hannah Parr, a farmer’s wife, and her daughter of the same name, who was nine months old. Mrs Parr gave birth to five more children, before dying in her early forties. Baby Hannah lived to be eighty-nine years old.

Speaking of the Past

Our new programme of talks begins on Friday, 9th September when Stuart Orme will reveal entertaining facts which were never taught in school history lessons. On 14th October, Christopher Close will describe the archaeological search for Collyweston Palace (home of Lady Margaret Beaufort in the 15th century) and on 11th November, David Baxter’s subject is the history of Stamford Hospital, where he worked for many years. Information about later speakers is on the Events page of our website.

All meetings will be held in the main hall of the Community Centre in Market Deeping, starting at 7.30 pm. Annual membership costs £6 per person, with an entrance charge of £1 for each talk. Non-members are always welcome to attend talks – entrance £3.

If we could choose a speaker from past generations in the Deepings, Jane Ward would be an ideal person to enlighten us. She lived for ninety-six years, through the period when Market Deeping was transformed from “an old ill-built and dirty town” described by Daniel Defoe in the 1720s, to a prosperous trading centre of Georgian elegance. Three times married to local inn-keepers, she would have known everyone in the community, their business dealings – and the scandals!

In 1745, Jane married Ormond Butler and they kept the Bertie Arms, next to the old bridge over the river Welland in the Market Place, now the site of The Iron Horse Ranch House. In the photograph taken around 1910, a hay cart stands next to old cottages which were once part of the inn. At the age of fourteen, Ormond had been apprenticed to a barber in Stamford, and it is likely he continued that trade alongside being an inn-keeper. The couple’s son, Thomas Butler was said to be the only child born at the Bertie Arms over a period of a hundred years. It was named after the Bertie family who were then Lords of the Manor, and whenever local property changed hands, the buyer attended a Court session at the inn, where his ownership was registered.

Jane Butler was widowed in 1747, and in 1760 she married John Byerley, who was described in the parish register as a gentleman, but when he made his Will seven years later, he was an inn-keeper. There is no evidence to show where they traded in Market Deeping, but it is possible that Jane took over the licence of The Bertie Arms following her first husband’s death, and Mr Byerley later became landlord.

In 1770 at the age of fifty, Jane Byerley married her third husband, William Ireland who was inn-keeper at The Bell near Deeping St James’ stone bridge. After his death in 1779, she became licensee of the pub, which was used by stage coach travellers and for auction sales, as well as serving local drinkers.

Her son, Thomas Butler was a grocer and draper in Market Deeping, where he also became Post Master. He pre-deceased her in 1808, and Jane Ireland’s death was recorded in Stamford Mercury in June 1816 “at the advanced age of 96 years, formerly and for many years, landlady at the Bell Inn, Deeping St James.”

If only she could tell us about her experiences and the characters she met…