A Torrington Scandal. 'The Ordeal of Miss Lucy Jones'

A Devon author who specialises in breathing life into true stories from the past has chosen a remarkable Torrington story for her latest book, The Ordeal of Miss Lucy Jones.

In 1879, the effigies of two local people were tarred, feathered and burned on Torrington Common by a disorderly crowd of three thousand people. Who were the two victims, and why were they being publicly shamed?

‘I was fascinated by a report of the event in a nineteenth century newspaper,’ said author Liz Shakespeare, who lives near Bideford, ‘so I decided to find out more.’

Incidents of ‘rough music’ were not uncommon at the time.  A crowd of people, often in disguise, would march to the houses of those who had committed an offence against society, often a couple who were believed to be having an illicit affair. The crowd would make a terrible racket by banging pots and pans and blowing horns, and sometimes effigies of the couple were burnt. However, this event in Torrington was on an unprecedented scale.

‘One of the effigies was of Miss Lucy Jones, the daughter of a Torrington doctor who lived in Castle House,’ said Liz. ‘As a church visitor to the poor, she had to meet regularly with the curate, Reverend Francis. He was very unpopular, so when someone claimed to have seen him and Lucy ‘acting improperly’ together on the Common, the people of Torrington seized the opportunity to be rid of him.’

The ensuing enquiry, culminating in the burning of the effigies, was reported in no less than fifty-two newspapers throughout Britain, and all included the name of Lucy Jones.

‘It would have been a terrible time for her,’ said Liz. ‘The investigation into Reverend Francis’ behaviour was reported in great detail in the local newspaper. I studied this carefully, and although there were plentiful reasons for his unpopularity, I am convinced that Lucy was innocent of any wrongdoing.’

Liz’s novel draws on extensive historical research to tell the story from Lucy’s point of view. Lucy Jones liked to walk on the Common and to take excursions by train to Bideford and Instow, and the novel describes Torrington and the surrounding area as it was in the 1870’s.

Reverend Francis had to leave the town as a result of the scandal. ‘But after the burning of the effigies,’ Liz said, ‘Lucy was afraid to leave the house. Knowing that her name would be forever associated with the scandal, she despaired of ever being able to marry her childhood sweetheart.’

While researching the book, Liz particularly enjoyed walking on Torrington Common, as Lucy had done.

‘As I studied the history of the Common, I came to understand what a powerful influence it has had on the people of Torrington. Their grazing rights gave them an independence and a determination to unite and organise which enabled them to get rid of Reverend Francis, and I believe that determination still survives today.’

Torrington is famous for its Mayfair, and for the hugely successful bonfires organised by the Torrington Cavaliers which raise a lot of money for local charities, and take place on the same spot as the burning of the effigies in 1879.

Liz Shakespeare has been writing for more than thirty years, this is her seventh book. All her books are set in North Devon and are based on true stories.

The Ordeal of Miss Lucy Jones will be launched at The Plough Arts Centre in Torrington at 2pm on Thursday 25^th April. Booking is essential, tickets are £6 to include tea and cake. Liz will give a talk on the background and writing of the novel, and there will be the opportunity to buy signed copies.

Liz will also be speaking at Parracombe Arts and Literary Festival on May 6^th, Bude Literary Festival on May 17^th, RHS Rosemoor on May 18^th, and Torrington Library on June 13^th.

After 25^th April, The Ordeal of Miss Lucy Jones can be purchased from local outlets, or ordered post-free from www.lizshakespeare.co.uk.

Devon author, Liz Shakespeare, in Torrington Market.

 

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The Ordeal of Miss Lucy Jones by Liz Shakespeare
Letterbox Books - 336 pages Publication date 25/4/2024
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For further details or to purchase the book
Contact: Liz Shakespeare 

Email: lizshakespeare@hotmail.com

Website www.lizshakespeare.co.uk 

Summer Signings. Devon author, Liz Shakespeare bringing new life to Devon's past.

One Devon author is looking forward to a busy summer. Liz Shakespeare, who specialises in breathing life into true stories from Devon’s past, will be attending a number of events this summer to sign copies of her books and to talk to members of the public.

Liz said, ‘Writing is a solitary activity, so I really look forward to opportunities to meet readers when I give talks or attend book signings throughout Devon.’

She has written six books set in Devon, bringing to life the stories she finds in old newspapers, on gravestones and in parish records. Liz has a long Devon ancestry which she feels has given her a good understanding of the county and its people. Her most recent book The Song of the Skylark tells the true story of a young girl who was sent out as a parish apprentice to work on a remote Devon farm.

‘I am currently working on my seventh book,’ Liz said. ‘Each book takes around three years to research and write, so it will be a while before this one is ready to publish.’

Liz will be signing copies of all six of her books at the following events:

• Magpie Marquee at the Mid-Devon Show on July 23rd
• North Devon Show on August 3rd
• Appledore Food and Craft Market on August 6th
• Hartland Farmers’ Market on August 7th
• Okehampton Show on August 11th
• Chagford Show on August 18th
• Ashwater Show on August 20th
• North Molton Country Fair on August 21st
• Holsworthy Show on August 25th
• Torridge Art and Craft Market on August 27th
• Lustleigh Show on August 29th
• Appledore Food and Craft Market on September 3rd
• Clovelly Lobster and Crab Feast on September 4th

Liz’s books can also be ordered post-free from her website www.lizshakespeare.co.uk

Author, Liz Shakespeare and her Books from Devon

 

Devon author, Liz Shakespeare at the Mid-Devon Show 2019.

Liz’s books can also be ordered post-free from her website

VISIT WEBSITE

Compelling Storytelling. 'Song of the Skylark', a new Devon book by Liz Shakespeare

Two hundred years ago in North Devon, a young girl stands on a table before an audience of farmers.

‘Mary Mitchell, nine years old. Draws your straws, gentlemen and we’ll see who’s to win this prize.’ The child was a parish apprentice, and this method of selection had died out everywhere else in the country, except North Devon.

Author Liz Shakespeare, who has become well-known for writing books inspired by the history of Devon, has uncovered the true story of one such apprentice.

‘The Song of the Skylark tells the story of Mary Mitchell, aged nine, and her brother Thomas who are sent to a remote farm, far from their parents and everything that is familiar to them,’ says Liz. ‘Pauper children in North Devon were often apprenticed as farmworkers and had to work long hours without wages. They were not granted their freedom until they reached the age of twenty-one. In effect they were simply used as unpaid servants to their masters.’ In 1843 the editor of the North Devon Journal criticised the practice, referring to it as slavery.

Liz found numerous documents which helped in her research into parish apprentices. ‘Many children would have been treated as part of the family,’ says Liz, ‘but it is clear that some were not. There are reports in the local papers of apprentices being severely whipped, and some ran away from their masters.’ Liz found adverts that had been placed by farmers giving a description of the runaway child, and warning that whoever harbours said apprentice will be prosecuted.

Thomas and Mary Mitchell work on the farm in Buckland Brewer parish for five years. These years become increasingly difficult for them due to a series of failed harvests.

‘It was shocking to realise how hard their lives would have been,’ says Liz. ‘The potato blight which caused the Great Famine in Ireland also hit Devon, and many labourers came close to starvation during the period termed the Hungry Forties.’

However Liz discovered that Thomas and Mary also had some respite from the backbreaking work. ‘One document revealed that they could read, and described them as ‘Thornites’. This was the name given to followers of the Thorne family of Shebbear who, along with William O’Bryan from Cornwall, had founded the Bible Christian movement, an offshoot of Wesleyan Methodism. The centre of the Bible Christian movement was Shebbear where there was a school for training ministers, later Shebbear College.’

Chapels were built wherever a small piece of land could be found, often at a crossroads with no other dwellings in sight; small unpretentious buildings with arched windows, now often converted to dwellings.

For Thomas and Mary, whose days are filled with unremitting labour and who are far from their family, joining a welcoming community at chapel and being told wonderful stories of the Promised Land brings very welcome relief.

‘The Bible Christians were particularly interesting’ said Liz, ‘because right from the start, in the early 1820’s, they used women ministers. One such was Mary O’Bryan Thorne. She was an extraordinary woman; highly educated, an inspirational preacher despite suffering terribly from nerves before speaking, mother to thirteen children, she also ran a busy farm household at Shebbear with the help of only one servant. She is an important character in my story.’

After five years on the farm, Thomas and Mary eventually take daring action in an effort to change the course of their lives. Their attempt ultimately wins them their freedom, but not before they are brought face-to-face with the heartless judicial system of early Victorian England.

‘I found it a compelling and sometimes difficult story to write,’ says Liz, ‘’but it has a happy ending!’

Liz is launching The Song of the Skylark on Friday 16^th October with talks on Zoom at 2.30 and 7.30 describing how she came to write it and the research she carried out; there will be time for questions afterwards. Tickets are just £3 each with all proceeds being donated to The Plough Arts Centre in Torrington. You can book tickets at www.lizshakespeare.co.uk.

Signed copies of The Song of the Skylark can also be ordered from the website for £9.99 and will be sent post-free, or cheques made payable to Letterbox Books can be sent to The Old Post Office, Littleham, Bideford, EX39 5HW. The book is also available on Kindle.

'Ran Away' Public Notice (North Devon Journal) 29th January 1840
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The Song of the Skylark Launch 

Friday 16^th October with talks on Zoom at 2.30 and 7.30 

 You can book tickets at www.lizshakespeare.co.uk - proceeds being donated to The Plough Arts Centre in Torrington. 

What a gift - 'Postman Poet' author sends books set in Devon by post, without leaving home

At this difficult time when most of the shops are shut, one Devon author is offering to post copies of her books to readers – without leaving her home!

Liz Shakespeare says ‘I have a post box in my front garden, so I can post a book to you or to one of your friends or relatives, while obeying the Stay At Home order!’

Liz lives at The Old Post Office in Littleham. Although there is no longer a post office in her front room, the Royal Mail post box is still there.

She says, ‘If you need to send a birthday present, a get well present, or just want to escape into another world for a while, choose a book set in Devon from my website www.lizshakespeare.co.uk or give me a ring on 01237 471165.’

Liz Shakespeare has become well known throughout the south-west for the five books she has written, all of which are set in Devon. Liz says ‘My inspiration is the people, the history and the landscapes of Devon. The most topical of my books is Fever: A Story from a Devon Churchyard which tells the true story of a Devon village struggling to cope during an epidemic 150 years ago.’

Also available is The Turning of the Tide, a novel based on the true story of a young Clovelly mother confined in Bideford Workhouse, The Postman Poet which tells the story of Devon man Edward Capern, The Memory Be Green: An Oral History of a Devon Village and All Around The Year, a book of short stories set in Devon.

Postage is free - Liz can sign books and inscribe them for a special present on request. '
Contact Liz through her website for book titles and prices www.lizshakespeare.co.uk 

Tel: 01237 471165

"A Sigh for Devon" - Bicentenary of Edward Capern’s birth.

It was two hundred years ago, on 21st January 1819, that Edward Capern, Devon’s Postman Poet, was born into a poor, working-class family in Tiverton. His father, a baker, could not afford to educate his son and would never have dreamt that he would become nationally renowned as a poet, winning plaudits from the Prime Minister and support from the biggest literary names of the day.

The bicentenary of his birth would, perhaps, have gone unnoticed if his extraordinary story had not been brought back to public attention by Devon author Liz Shakespeare. She has written The Postman Poet, a novel based on the life of Capern, and has published 34 of his 600 poems in The Poems of Edward Capern. While writing the novel, Liz drew on historical research and details in the poems to tell the astonishing story through Edward’s eyes as he struggles to support his family, capturing the opportunities and inequalities of Victorian North Devon.

Edward Capern became a postman following the introduction of the Penny Post, walking the 13 mile round trip between Bideford and Buckland Brewer 364 days a year. He would jot down poems while he was walking and he often wrote on the envelopes he was about to deliver: “He had to ask the recipients if he could keep the envelopes because he’d written poems on them,” said Liz Shakespeare, whose own cottage was on Capern’s round.

He was entirely self-taught but he had a local benefactor, William Frederick Rock from Barnstaple, who saw Capern’s early poems in the North Devon Journal in the 1850s and supported the publication of the first volume of poems. The book was a national success, winning the support of Charles Dickens, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Rowland Hill, the inventor of the Penny Post, as well as considerable local fame. Many people used to visit North Devon to see the Postman Poet set off on his round, at the same time as visiting the scenes made famous by Charles Kingsley’s book ‘Westward Ho!’ after which the seaside resort was named. Edward Capern was awarded a Civil List Pension by the Prime Minister for his services to literature and went on to write three further books of poems.

During her research, Liz found that some of his poems were intended to be sung, so collaborated with Devon musicians Nick Wyke and Becki Driscoll who set them to music for their CD, The Songs of Edward Capern.

Most of his poems are happy and extol the beauties of the North Devon countryside, but he was also very aware of the darker side of life. Although he was careful not to upset the aristocracy who bought his work, Capern was keen to use his pen to champion the cause of the poor and he managed to slip in many reminders, amongst his happier verses, that the poor should not be forgotten, and that labourers should be paid fair wages.

One poem Nick and Becki have set to music is The Dinner Bell, a tale of the haves and have-nots in which Capern laments the plight of families who could hear the sound of distant dinner bells but had no food themselves.

In recognition of Capern’s commitment to social justice, £1 from each copy of the poetry collection sold is being donated to the Northern Devon Food Bank, and more than £500 has been raised so far.

Together, Liz Shakespeare, Nick Wyke and Becki Driscoll have appeared at music festivals and book festivals to tell the story of Edward Capern through words and song.

On Monday 21st January Liz will be placing flowers on Edward Capern’s grave in Heanton Punchardon to commemorate the birth of Devon’s Postman Poet two hundred years ago. 

A Sigh for Devon

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Bright haunt of the daffodil, myrtle, and rose,
Of solitude sweet, and of pleasant repose,
Where a welcome waits all with a heart in its hand,
My Devon! dear Devon! my beautiful land!
Blest region of valley, hill, woodland, and river,
I love thee, dear land, and shall love thee for ever.
Edward Capern

Portrait of Edward Capern - Photo copyright Burton Art Gallery (All Rights Reserved)

Devon Author, Liz Shakespeare with musicians Nick Wyke and Becki Driscoll

Here lies The "Postman Poet" Edward Capern