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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=564520" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Murder in 1654 - Broadsheet</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Title: A true relation of a horrid MURDER committed upon the person of Thomas Kidderminster at the White Horse Inn in Chelmsford in the County of Essex in the month of April 1654</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was in the year of '54<br>Foul murder did occur<br>A traveller came to a Chelmsford inn<br>Then died in blood and gore<br>He only meant to rest one night<br>As to London he made his way<br>But he remained for many years more<br>While his ghost refused to lay</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Tom Kidd had been to Huntingdon<br>Where family lands he'd sold<br>Weary he came to the White Horse Inn<br>With his cloak-bag full of gold<br>Travel-tired though Tom might be<br>His face it surely smiled<br>For the very next day he'd be at home<br>With his loving wife and child</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The keeper, Sewell, who ran the inn<br>Tom knew from earlier time<br>Could not resist his scheming wife<br>Who'd hatched an awful crime<br>By sad mischance the landlord's wife<br>Saw gold bright in the light<br>And so it quickly came to pass<br>there was red blood in the night</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The flash of golden sovereigns<br>had fired her evil greed<br>'Husband I will be the brains<br>And you will do the deed'<br>As Tom retired to bed that night<br>For the last time in his life<br>Between the sheets he dreamed sweet dreams<br>Of his children and his wife</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His wife she waited patiently <br>But then she had great fears<br>For Tom never came as he said he would<br>There was silence for 13 years<br>All her enquiries drew a blank<br>Of Tom there was never a trace<br>Except unknown to those searching for him<br>Strange happenings in the place</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The rooms upstairs were seldom quiet<br>A ghost prowled night and day<br>So the landlord and his wife took fright<br>and soon they went away<br>The fence at the back just wouldn't stay<br>upright for long at all<br>So John Cox would to do the job right<br>And build a good brick wall</div><div style="margin:10px 0">As he dug the foundation hole<br>His pick struck something dull<br>On looking down amongst the earth<br>he found a human skull<br>He tossed it in the orchard field<br>but it would not lie still<br>It kept on moving through the grass<br>and even rolled up hill</div><div style="margin:10px 0">John picked the gruesome object up<br>and thought it made a sound<br>Then dug down in the earth to find<br>a skeleton in the ground<br>The shocking news of this strange death<br>was by the journals spread<br>Mrs Kidd soon guessed the truth<br>and so to Chelmsford sped</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She bravely went to that fateful inn<br>and there would stay the night<br>At two o'clock with an groaning crash<br>she was woken with a fright<br>The spirit knew his love was come<br>so boisterously did it show<br>Chairs went flying and the table split<br>from a dreadful ghostly blow</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The unquiet ghost had walked before<br>since that bloody deed<br>Now Sewell and his accomplices<br>would soon pay for their greed<br>Sad was the tale of that bloody night<br>when poor Tom was killed<br>Enquiries soon found the story out<br>Of how his blood was spilled</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Will you rob me of my gold.<br>Murder me as well! <br>Take my money or my life<br>And I'll see you all in hell'<br>Cruel Sewell swung a poleaxe<br>Which struck him in the head<br>His wife then went and cut his throat<br>so Tom like a pig was bled</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ostler helped to dig the grave<br>out in the hotel's grounds<br>For this he got the traveller's suit<br>and also sixty pounds<br>Justice slow but certain came<br>to those who did the crime<br>First to die was the woman who <br>washed the linen at the time</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She was brought before the justices <br>and made to swear an oath<br>'May I rot alive' so she said<br>'If I don't tell the truth'<br>'There was no blood upon those sheets<br>Of that I can be sure'<br>But soon her bowels began to rot<br>- for that there was no cure</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Her loathsome death made Sewell think<br>Fear and doubt fought in his head<br>Demons and conscience struggled inside<br>'til he wished that he was dead<br>In case he gave the game away <br>by losing of his mind<br>His wife poisoned him so soon to hell<br>his soul it was consigned</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In her turn she caught the plague<br>Before assizes time<br>And the gibbet claimed the ostler's life<br>for his part in the crime<br>Four deaths for one was not enough<br>The ghost hadn't settled the score<br>The family was broken by these foul deeds<br>So still he walks the floor</div><div style="margin:10px 0">  ***<br> <br>At night when you are fast asleep<br>And hear a ghostly call<br>Don't dig too deep in your back yard<br>'cos you might just find a skull</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>(Rendered into verse from a rare narrative of the same name for Essex book festival from a reference in Chelmsford Through The Ages found in Colchester library's local history section.)</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Peter+Fox">Peter Fox</a><div class=q>
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It was in the year of '54
Foul murder did occur
A traveller came to..."></div>
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