The South Tawton Forger

Hello, thank you for calling in.  Today I am sharing with you an ancestral tale I have been working on for a couple of years; it's not finished yet, and indeed it may never be finished, but I suppose family stories are never finished because there is always more to discover, but I feel that I now know enough about this one to tell it. 

Ashburton is a small market town on the edge of Dartmoor in rural Devon and in about 1778, when King George III was on the British throne and America was newly independent, John Orchard was born there.  At least, I think he was, but I can't be entirely sure because I haven't yet found any record of his birth or baptism.  However, he was said to be 49 when he died in April 1827 and I am entirely sure that his parents, John and Elizabeth, were married in Ashburton in December 1777 and that his brothers Thomas and James were born there in 1781 and 1784, so please indulge me.  I don't know anything about John's childhood except that his father inherited property from a relative in the nearby parish of South Tawton in 1784, when John was about six years old, and that the family moved there, where two more brothers, Paul and William, were born in 1787 and 1790.  James and Paul will feature later in this story.

John married Grace Curson in October 1806 and their daughter, Dorcas, was born five months later in March 1807 but Grace died in December of the same year.  I lose sight of John at this point until 1818, when this story really begins.  Before I tell this story, however, I need to explain about mortgages - I know that you probably know how a mortgage works, but you might not, and I do believe that there's no such thing as a silly question.  So, when you take out a mortgage, the ownership of your property is transferred to the person who lends you the money, usually in a document called a deed, and when you have paid all the money back, with any interest which has been agreed, the ownership of the property is transferred back to you.  This transfer of ownership means that if you default on your payments, the lender can sell the property and so recoup the money they lent you.  Right then, on with the story...

On 15th December 1818 (the date is important) John married again, a young woman called Elizabeth Mortimore.  They married in the church in her home parish of Lustleigh and a son, John Mortimore Orchard, was born nine months later in September 1819.  Eventually, three more children were born, a girl and two more boys, the last, Jabez, in April 1826.  However, by the time Jabez was born, his father was in trouble.

 

It came to light that in 1818 John's father, John Sr, had mortgaged an estate called Ford to a woman named Mary Lane for £1,000.  John Jr had negotiated the arrangement through a solicitor and was present when all the paperwork was signed because his father, who was in his seventies, was said to be frail and "unable to transact his own business".  The money was released to John Jr on 23rd December 1818, eight days after his wedding, and he paid it into his own account at the Devonshire Bank; it later transpired that he actually paid in £971, of which £750 was used to clear a debt.  (£750 in 1818!!!)  So, ownership of Ford was transferred from John Sr to Mary Lane at this point.

The mortgage agreement included interest payments at 4.5% and they were paid for a few years but then stopped so in 1824, Mary Lane's solicitor gave John notice for the sale of the Ford estate so that she could recoup her money - effectively, this was a repossession notice.  The sale was advertised but did not actually go ahead because it was discovered that John Sr had actually transferred the legal ownership of the Ford estate to his son in 1817, a year before Mary Lane had lent him the £1,000.  This meant that the loan was not secured on the property after all and the mortgage document signed by John Sr was worthless as, in effect, he didn't own the Ford estate, so there was no way for Mary Lane to recoup her money.  When John Sr was asked why he had transferred the property to his son in 1817, he replied that he didn't know anything about it.

When James Tyrell, a solicitor based in Exeter, saw the advertisement for the Ford estate he came forward and said that he had arranged a mortgage for £1,400 on the estate between John Jr and a Mr Sparke of Ashburton in 1817 - so the estate was effectively owned by Mr Sparke when John Jr arranged the mortgage with Mary Lane, and I suspect that he used her money to make the outstanding interest payments to Mr Sparke.  Another solicitor, Mr Partridge of Tiverton, also came forward and said that he had conducted business for John Sr: an earlier mortgage had been raised on a number of properties, the loan having been made by a Mr Pope and the ownership of those properties had been transferred to him.  Presumably some of the money must have been repaid because Mr Partridge's job was to transfer the ownership of all the properties except the Ford estate back to John Sr, the actual wording on the document read "save and except that capital messuage tenement called Ford".  However, the document was altered and the words "save and except"  were erased and replaced by "also" so the transfer now read "also that capital messuage tenement called Ford".  So, ownership of the Ford estate was transferred back to John Jr and Mr Pope had no way of recouping his money as the deed was everything.  Mr Partridge testified that the word "also" was in John Jr's handwriting.
 

This is all quite complicated but are you still with me?  To put it in a nutshell, it seems that John Orchard Jr forged the title deeds to the Ford estate so that he could use them to borrow money fraudulently from Mr Sparke and Mary Lane.
 

The English legal system was developed to protect property ownership and these were very serious offences.  In January 1827 the newspapers reported that 
 

John Orchard, father and son, of South Tawton, Devon, were last week fully committed for trial at the next assizes, charge with having forged and altered a deed conveying an estate, with intent to defraud a Mrs. Mary Lane of £1,000.  The elder of the prisoners is nearly eighty years of age.
 

John Jr's wife, Elizabeth, pawned everything she had to pay for her husband's legal defence.
 

The men were tried on twelve counts at Exeter assizes on 26th March 1827 in front of a crowded gallery.  The witnesses who gave evidence included Reverend Oliver, who testified that he had known the defendants for more than thirty years and that they were "honest and respectable men".  The judge, Sir James Burrough, gave his summing up and the jury delivered their verdict about two minutes later: John Orchard Sr was Not Guilty but John Orchard Jr was GUILTY.  These are the words of the Salisbury and Winchester Journal:
 

The Judge directed the father to be removed from the bar, and an awful silence pervaded the court as the fatal cap was placed on his head.   The Judge said, "Prisoner, you have had the benefit of a fair and most impartial investigation into your case, - you have just heard the opinion a jury of your countrymen have formed upon it; of the justice of their decision I entertain no doubt; during your trial you have had the benefit of most able legal assistance; it now becomes a painful but necessary task for me to perform my duty - your crime is of that description that strikes at the root of all security of property, and must be checked with the strongest hand; a man to borrow £1000 and tender as security for it that which he knows not to be worth one farthing, is a degree of offence, as affects the public, of the first moment, and bids me imperatively to permit the law to take its course - therefore, form no delusive hope, for, be assured, I shall not interfere to sty the completion of the awful sentence I am about to pronounce upon you, and as an accountable being, I recommend you to diligently employ the little time that yet remains to you in this world, in preparing to appear before a tribunal from which no action of our lives can be concealed; - the sentence of the court is, that you be taken from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck, till you are dead, and may God have mercy on your soul."
 

John Jr was sent back to Exeter Gaol and his brother James, who was a solicitor based in London, immediately organised an appeal against the conviction.  A letter was sent to the Home Secretary, Robert Peel, asking for clemency and signed by James, Elizabeth, Mary Lane's solicitor, the Mayor of Okehampton, the Vicar of Okehampton and several notable citizens of that town.  The stated grounds for clemency were
 

No intent to defraud; since obtaining the mortgage he has paid several years interest thereon; in a recent agreement for sale of the property to his brother he had stipulated that £1000 plus interest be paid by the purchaser to Mary Lane; previous good character; he has a wife and five children, four of whom by his present wife and under eight years of age without the means of subsistence; the prosecutor joins in the petition; he was ignorant of the capital nature of the offence; the purchaser was not called as a witness.

The letter is in the National Archives at Kew and this list is copied from their catalogue description which also states "April 12th 1827, Mr Peel sees no ground for interfering".   

The following day, Friday 13th April, Elizabeth took her children John, Elizabeth and Paul to the prison to bid their father goodbye.  John, the eldest, was seven years old.  Elizabeth returned to the prison two days later with baby Jabez and twenty year-old Dorcas, her stepdaughter, to see him for the final time.  The newspaper reported that "The prisoner conducted himself with becoming fortitude through this trying scene" so I imagine that everyone else was distraught. 

John Jr seems to have spent most of that Sunday night and the following morning praying - in fact, the contemporary reports state that after his conviction, he spent most of his time praying and reading the bible.  His brother Paul, a Methodist minister, arrived early on Monday with another minister, Rev Mr Burgess, who had "constantly visited" the prisoner since his conviction and they stayed with him until just before midday.  This is the newspaper report for the rest of that day, Monday 16th April 1817:

"as the moment drew near for ascending the platform his fortitude forsook him, and a considerable time elapsed before with the assistance of two sheriff's officers, he walked down the pathway from the governor's house: his eyes were closed and his ejaculations incessant; his dress was that of a man on his farm - fustian jacket and trousers.  While the officers pinioned him in the press room, he appeared scarcely conscious of what was passing, continuing his ejaculations without the smallest intermission; the support of the officers was again necessary in ascending the steps, and being placed on the machine, the Chaplain in vain waited several minutes for the usual signification of the prisoner's being ready to join in the last service, when seeing his state, the Chaplain mercifully commenced the service, and all being ready, as he had nearly closed the service for the dead the bolt was drawn, the platform fell, and in a few moments life appeared to be extinct."

The newspaper reported that a huge crowd of spectators gathered to witness the execution.  John's body was cut down and at 5 o'clock the next morning it was placed on a hearse and sent to South Zeal where he was buried that  same day.

A little over two weeks later, on 5th May, this notice appeared in the  Exeter and Plymouth Gazette:

To all who feel for the Distresses of Others.

The case of the WIDOW and FOUR INFANT CHILDREN of JOHN ORCHARD, who was lately executed at Exeter, is respectfully presented.  They are left in a state of perfect destitution, and the poor Woman, who was brought up tenderly, (now residing in St Thomas) has been driven to pawn all she had for the purpose of raising the means of his defense.

The object of this application is to raise if possible a sum that may enable the poor widow to redeem her Furniture, and place her in circumstances whereby she may be able to support herself and children.

Subscriptions will be thankfully received at the Exeter, City, and General Banks, and at Curson's and Balle's, Booksellers. - Exeter, 30th April 1827

I'm afraid I don't know whether or not this attempt at crowdfunding was successful.  I do know that the legal proceedings had not finished because, after all, Mary Lane was still owed money.  Remember that women were not legally able to own property in this country until the Married Women's Property Act of 1868 so when John Jr was executed, the ownership of any property he owned passed not to Elizabeth but to her son, John Mortimore, even though he was only seven years old, but being a minor, he was not able to legally agree to any contract.  So, when he reached the age of majority, which at that time was twenty-one, there was another court case, this time a civil case rather than a criminal one, which resulted in his inherited properties being sold and his father's debts repaid.  

I haven't been to South Tawton but I hope to visit at some point, to walk in the footsteps of my ancestors.  The South Tawton Forger was my great, great, great, great grandfather.  

See you soon.

Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x