William AMOR of Pewsey - Murderer

[dee-jay]

Hi Paul
I was in contact with Duncan McBurney in 2014, contributing details from my earlier personal research on this subject and also on the infamous C19 Pewsey Workhouse.

I proved to my own satisfaction on the timeline that the Townsend 'tale' was a fabrication!  I had previously encountered a similar report on a Somerset[?] murder, so these rumours were rife in the West Country, and Witchcraft reared its ugly head in Seend in 1773!

I tried, to no avail, to get Wiltshire Local Studies to remove their erroneous website report of Thursday 27th March 2003 14:59 in a Q & A Could you tell me about the murder of a farmer at Pewsey in the late 18th century? which perpetuated the Townsend myth.

dee-jay       

[paul moorhouse]

Hi Dee-Jay thanks for your reply that's interesting -- I'd be interested in your Workhouse research, it's a bit outside my period but my research is actually into Townsend's ideas on poverty! I agree that 'touching the body' tale is a 19th century fiction. Th clincher to my mind is that Richard Warner does not mention it in his Literary Recollections published in 1830 where he has a 15 (ish) page memoir of Townsend, it's just the kind of story he'd have included. Can you let me have references for the Somerset story. Paul.

[dee-jay]

You're very fortunate, Paul, because serendipity has conjured this out of the huge pile of old research papers that I'm currently sifting/sorting and the link still works  :

The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes ... during the reigns of James 1 and Charles 1 ed. by J.O. Halliwell (Google eBook)
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Y5sUAAAAQAAJ&q=Babb#v=snippet&q=Babb&f=false 

[Vol  1]
‘I was born  through the mercy and providence of my gracious God (who hath hitherto preserved me) at Coxden, in the parish of Chardstock, in the county of Dorset, upon Saturday, the 18th day of December, about five of the clock in the morning, in the year of year of our Lord, 1602, …..’  ‘I was baptized upon the 29th day of the same month, being Wednesday, in the open gallery of Coxden aforesaid 

Vol 1 pp 57-61  extract
'There happened this year [1613] so far as I can remember, (I am sure it was during my stay at Wambroke,) a famous murder, committed on the person of a rich widow by one Master Babb, at a little village called Kingston, in Somersetshire, some three miles from Taunton. ......'

So far as my Workhouse research is concerned, I'll be happy to share but at the moment I can't dedicate the time required to sift it.  I have a huge accumulation of paper for a multitude of FH and social history and I keep getting distracted from attempts at filing.      

[paul moorhouse]

Thanks very -- any time will do for the rest, best wishes Paul.