Off the Beaten Track in Somerset: July 2020

John Walford was born in Over Stowey in 1762. His parents were William and Ann Walford and they lived in Bincombe. His father was a self-employed charcoal burner and John followed in his father's footsteps. John worked alone in the woods six days of the week and slept in a small wooden hut close to the charcoal burner. During the winter of 1784 he was visited by local girl Jane Shorney and she became pregnant by him.

Illegitimate pregnancies were considered a disgrace at this time. Parishes wanted to avoid illegitimate children becoming a burden on the poor rates. Therefore if expectant mothers named the father of their child on oath before a Justice of the Peace, the Overseers of the Poor were given the power to apprehend him and imprison him, unless he agreed either to pay for the upbringing of the child or to marry the mother. On 7th February 1785 Jane Shorney was brought before the local Justice, James Bernard of Crowcombe Court and she declared that she was pregnant with an illegitimate child by John Walford. He was arrested but released when his mother agreed to pay to support the child. A son was born a few months later.

In 1786 Jane Shorney got pregnant again - this time the father was John's brother William. William agreed to pay for the upbringing of his daughter, who was called Betty.

In 1787 Jane became engaged to Ann Rice, who lived with her parents at Adscombe Mill but the engagement was broken off after a few weeks and Ann went into service. However she and John continued to meet and she became pregnant. Jane Shorney resumed her visits to John in the woods and became pregnant again. John was arrested again but could not pay to support the child and he was therefore obliged to marry Jane.

Jane Shorney and John Walford married on 10th June 1789. However John arranged with Jane's mother that Jane and the two children would live with her and that Jane would only join John in his rented cottage at Bincombe at night.

On 27th June 1789 John met his friend William Bishop at the Dial Inn in Aley Green and asked him if he would go to London with him but William said he didn't have enough money to do this. John admitted to William that he did not like his wife and said he would either have to murder her or leave the area.

On 4th July 1789 John Walford returned home from work at about 8pm. He ate his supper with his neighbours - the Rich family. He returned to his own cottage at about 10.30pm and shortly after Jane arrived. She wanted to go to the Castle of Comfort inn at Dodington for some cider. John gave her a shilling and as it was dark and Jane didn't want to walk there on her own, he accompanied her. As they approached the Counting House at Dodington they argued and John hit Jane, firstly with his fist and then he beat her with a post and fractured her skull. He then attempted to drag her unconscious body, possibly to the shaft of the nearby copper mine, but she was too heavy, so he cut her throat with a pocket knife. He returned home after midnight and went to sleep.

The following morning two children saw blood running under a gate on Dodington Common and told their neighbours John Mogg and William Sellick about this. Mogg and Sellick discovered Jane's body. Sellick went to John Walford's cottage to tell him the news. Walford said that Jane had gone out to buy some cider the previous night but had not returned home and he had assumed that she had gone to her mother's house. Walford set off to go to his mother-in-law's house to tell her that Jane was dead. On the way he met Sarah Phillips and told her that he wished that he had never married Jane and that he also wished he had left the area. He then accompanied his mother-in-law to see Jane's body. When he arrived he spoke to Thomas Chidgey.

John Walford was interrogated by Thomas Poole (a tanner and farmer who lived in Nether Stowey). He asked Walford why he had not gone out to look for his wife and queried why the shilling he had given her to pay for the cider was not found on her body. Thomas Poole, Richard Briffet and Thomas Mogg then accompanied John Walford to his cottage where they found bloodstains on the clothes that John had been wearing the previous day. His shoes were very dirty and the missing shilling was found in the pocket of his trousers. Thomas Poole asked Walford where his knife was and Walford first of all claimed that he had lent it to Thomas Ware and then later that he had given it to his brother William. A few days later Thomas Mogg returned to the cottage and found the knife under a window seat. It had blood on it.

John Walford was arrested and taken to the Globe Inn in Nether Stowey to wait for the results of the inquest into Jane's death. The inquest was held the following day and the coroner, William Blake pronounced a verdict of wilful murder by John Walford. Walford was taken to the county gaol at Ilchester to wait for the summer assizes at Bridgwater. Jane Walford's body was buried at Over Stowey.

On 18th August 1789 John Walford was escorted to the courtroom in Bridgwater. The judge that day was the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Kenyon. The court listened to the testimonies of Joan Rich and her daughter (Walford's neighbours); John Mogg; William Sellick; Sarah Phillips; Thomas Chidgey; Thomas Poole; Thomas Mogg; Thomas Ware; Richard Briffet; James Shorney (publican of the Castle of Comfort who said that Jane had not visited his inn on the night in question) and William Bishop. The jury retired briefly before returning a verdict of guilty. Lord Kenyon sentenced John Walford to death by hanging the following Thursday. Walford then confessed to the murder but said it was not premeditated.

On Thursday 20th August 1789 Walford was taken by cart to the Globe Inn in Nether Stowey to wait while the final preparations were made for the execution on the hill above Dodington. Ann Rice appeared and spoke to John Walford for several minutes. The cart then moved on to the execution site where he again spoke to Ann Rice before he was hanged on a gallows. When he was dead his body was put into an iron cage and this was hoisted on to a gibbet. It stayed there for a year until the iron cage fell to the ground and John Walford's body was buried below the gibbet. The site is now known as Walford's Gibbet.

In November 1789 Ann Rice gave birth in Stogursey to a daughter who she called Sarah. Ann died in Nether Stowey in February 1790.