Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/307

 vm. OCT. 12, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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trapped by the bait of the hundred guineas, afterwards regretted the part he had played in turning traitor to his comrades. He denied the truth of the charges he had made against Hartley and Oldfield. This was whilst they were in custody. He made two journeys to York to try to obtain their release, but no notice was taken of his retractation.

Another who proved false to his friends was David Greenwood, of Hill-top, in Erring- den, the man who was also known as the "Duke of Edinburgh." In addition to being charged with the crime of high treason at the assizes, he was charged with that of fraud, having tried to extort from the widow of David Hartley the sum of 20., which he asserted he had paid as a bribe or fee to Mr. Parker, the Crown solicitor, to obtain the acquittal of the prisoners. The " Duke " was condemned to be hung at York Castle, but died -before the day appointed for his execution. One part David Green- wood had played in this coining business had been to find money for his accomplices, and it is said that at times he had been able to furnish them with more than a hundred guineas. This fact, that in one transaction alone so large a sum was handed over to the coiners, proves on how extensive a scale the undertaking was conducted.

After a time the authorities succeeded in capturing forty of the coiners. They were not treated with too great severity, as nine- teen of them were liberated on finding sureties for their good behaviour and on promising to appear before the justices of the peace when called upon to give an account of themselves. They abused their liberty, however, and continued to practise their nefarious arts. Most of these nineteen were brought to trial a second time and convicted. Two of them, nevertheless, owing to some mistake in the indictment, managed to escape conviction. But after a few years they were tried once more and condemned. On this occasion it was merely a matter of a few shillings and halfpence. Imprison- ment would probably be their only punish- ment.

Clipping and coining were bad enough, yet had these desperate Yorkshiremen steeped themselves no deeper in crime, the verdict of history would not have been so terribly, but justly severe on their deeds and character. As it is, we have unfortunately to record against them much weightier and more damnatory charges. These Turvin clippers and coiners resolved to have a deadly revenge. It was nothing less than to take the life ol Deighton, the excise officer who had been chiefly instru-

mental in the apprehension and conviction of the culprits.

They set about and accomplished the fell deed with their accustomed determination and cunning. Deighton was induced by means of a forged letter to delay his return home, when engaged in business at a distance, till the night was far advanced. As he was wending his way along what was then a narrow country lane leading to his house he was met by two assassins, who fired upon him, and he fell. It was a fatal shot, and he lay dead. Thus perished one of the most gallant of excise officers, a man who had served his king and country with distin- guished ability.

That was heinous enough ; and would that the crime, as well as sympathy with the crime, had rested with the two assassins ! When the reader is told that for this dastardly deed the miscreants received a reward of one hundred guineas, subscribed by their neighbours and friends, and were even welcomed with something like a public reception, namely, a supper to celebrate the event, it cannot but cause pain to reflect how widespread was the practice of clipping and coining, and how wickedly ill-placed was the sympathy that connived at and encouraged the perpetration of cruel and cold-blooded murder. The two assassins made no secret on their part of what they had done, but boasted of the murder in open day ; and each one contended for the distinction of having been the chief actor in taking poor Deighton's life.

The two men who murdered the excise officer were Robert Thomas and Matthew Normanton, of Heptonstall. Whether they belonged to the village or the township I cannot say. The accounts of what took place after the murder of Deighton are not satisfactorily clear, and are sometimes seem- ingly contradictory. A reward of 200. was offered for the apprehension and con- viction of the murderers, which indeed appeared unnecessary, since the two men had made a parade of their crime, and everybody knew who were the actors in that tragedy. Be it as it may, some time elapsed before they were captured and brought to the bar of justice. At last, however, the whole affair obtained a more than local publicity, -and the assassins were apprehended, tried, and executed. Their dead bodies were brought to Halifax and suspended in chains on the top of Beacon Hill, and for a long while the fleshless skeletons were left to bleach in the air, a warning and a terror to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.