Extraordinary Affair – Rye.
(From the Sussex Express)
About a month since Mr Kingsland, cabinet-maker, of this town, and his wife, were greatly annoyed day after day, by having panes of glass broken in their back kitchen window, by the throwing of stones, pieces of tile, brick, hard mortar, and other such like missiles, one of which struck the face of one of the female apprentices, several of whom worked in a room over the kitchen (Mrs K. carrying on the dressmaking business); it was at first considered to be the frolic of some of the neighbours’ boys – and there were a goodly number of likely lads not far off; but the matter grew serious, and the police officer was sent for; he examined the back premises of this and the neighbouring houses, but got no certain clue to the now mysterious affair.
The following day brought with it more broken windows, and permission was asked, and granted, to watch from the summer-house of a gentleman next door, the top room of which commanded a view of the premises all around: but vain were their watchings, no one could see the missiles thrown. The neighbours now take the matter up, and watch from their own premises, but with no better success; boards are placed against the house to protect the window from farther damage. Still the stones came into the yard, some wrapped in pieces of paper containing insulting messages to Mr and Mrs K.
The matter now became serious, not only in a pecuniary point of view (which was no trifling matter), considering the loss of time to Mr Kingsland in being kept at home from his business, and the number of broken panes of glass, but his wife became so agitated and excited, wondering who, among the peaceable neighbours, could act so dastardly towards them, and what they themselves had done to merit such treatment, that her rest both by night and day was completely disturbed, and her health visibly affected; and a stone being thrown through the window into the workroom, she went off into a violent hysterical fit.
The police advise that all the missiles thrown should be preserved; but now a change took place in the material used, for instead of stones, pieces of stones, pieces of brick, etc., it was pieces of coal, one of which was in a piece of paper containing the following words in rather bad writing: – “Mrs Kingsland, the first time I catch your servant in the garden I will break her head with a stone and kill her.” The servant here alluded to was a poor girl about 15 years old, named Harriet Stone, whose business it was principally to attend to the baby. The excitement increased and it became a “town’s talk.” but a change was about to come over the spirit of the dream – there was some one now on whom suspicion fell.
The servant reports that the pieces of coal come from over the adjoining wall, several pieces of which she brings in that were at intervals thrown at her when she was in the yard, one in another piece of paper, containing the following words in the same hand-writing as all the others, “if i am hung for it, i will kill her.”
Close on the other side of the stable, coach-house, harness-room, etc., of the gentleman next door, and there employed as a groom is a lad 18 years old, and on him suspicion fell – his master’s coal-house was close at hand, the stones to the path in the stable corresponded with those thrown over the wall, and there was no lack of pieces of tile, etc., in the yard. The girl is asked if she had done aught to give offence to the suspected party to cause him to be so ill-disposed towards her. The poor girl could recollect nothing, but once remonstrating with him for sweeping the dirt from his coach-house on to where she had been cleaning, and her mistress had threatened to inform his master if he repeated it. Consequently the gentleman was called in, and made acquainted with the suspicion of the parties. He very properly said, “If you prove that it is my servant, I will discharge him immediately.”
The watch was again on duty, the papers were shown to parties supposed to be acquainted with the lad’s handwriting, and were believed to be his. The authorities of the town are again applied to, and their advice again is to keep watch. Pieces of coal came larger and faster, until a large quantity is collected, and it is seldom thrown but when the girl is in the yard. A small piece of the same material is privately marked, and placed in the stable-yard when the lad is out of the way. The excitment increases – neighbours come in and sympathise – the poor girl, who appears to be the target of the villain, like her mistress, is afraid to go to sleep in the house – but the next morning she picks up the very identical piece of coal that had been marked, and carries it to her mistress with joy beaming in her countenance, exclaiming, “We’ve caught him at last;” the neighbour who marked the coal is sent for, recognises the mark, but no, it is not the piece of coal, the same size, but not the same shape. Oh, the artfulness of that fellow, to mark another piece and throw it over, so that if brought as evidence against him, he might bring the very piece forward, and so confound the witness. But never mind, watch again.
Soon after, as Mr Kingsland is at his back door, a piece of coal strikes the wall of his house a little above his head and bounds into the yard. On looking up, he sees his servant girl on the watch in the garret, screened by a black petticoat, which she had hung in the window for that purpose, and she now declares she saw the groom take a piece of coal from his pocket and throw it backwards over his shoulder as he went through the gate into his master’s garden; that she is ready to swear to.
All this is communicated to the proper quarter, but no, not yet, it won’t sustain a charge of assault, as no person was hit by it; nor a case of damages, as nothing was broken; wait a little longer. The annoyance had now been carried on for three weeks, and the only consolation Mr Kingsland had was, that if he suffered by the breaking of his windows, amounting now to 16 panes, he was a gainer in coals, as his stock was increasing every day.
After dinner on the following day the girl was observed to go into the yard for some domestic purposes, and soon afterwards returns with her forehead black, bruised, and swollen, and a large piece of coal in her hand that had been thrown at her; she, upon the advice of her mistress goes immediately to some of the persons who had taken an interest in the affair, and shows them the state she is in; the result is that the young groom is boldly charged with being the perpetrator of all this mischief, and he as boldly denies it. At night the lad comes to the house of Mrs Kingsland, accompanied by his mother, who is much distressed at the charge made against her son, and, naturally enough, cannot believe him to be guilty of it. The girl is brought before them, and repeats her former statement of having seen him throw the piece of coal, and her willingness to take oath of the same; she is then dismissed to bed, and an arrangement afterwards agreed upon, with the consent of the lad’s master, that he shall, after doing his morning’s work, be absent from the premises during the day, so that if any missiles are then thrown, it will exculpate him of the charge, and this is thrown only to those present. The morning arrives; the groom does his work and leaves at breakfast time, notwithstanding which four large pieces of coal are thrown at the girl in quick succession, and with one a paper stating that if the servant is allowed to remain on the premises she shall be killed in spite of the mayor, the police, and everybody else.
Mr Kingsland is sent for home again, the mayor comes and inspects the premises. What can it be? If the groom is not there himself he must have an accomplice secreted somewhere, for the girl just now heard him whistling. Parties go and search the stable, coach-house, loft, out-houses; even the roof is scaled, but no one there. During the searching another piece of coal bounds into the yard, in spite of the person who is there to watch; but this piece, the girl says, came over the lower part of the garden wall, whence the searchers immediately repair and beat about the scarlet runners, shrubs, bushes, &c., but with no better success. A messenger is now sent to the house of the lad’s father, where the suspected one is sitting with his mother and other members of the family, anxiously awaiting the result of the search.
As all things have an end, so had this mystery, and it was brought about thus: – On examining the coal (of which there was now a considerable quantity), one gentleman, taking up a piece about the size of a brick, asked how such a piece could be thrown over without breaking to pieces? The girl replied that it struck her foot and that prevented its breaking. A new idea now seemed to strike one of the parties present, and he inquired if the girl could write at all? The mistress said she did not know, but thought she could a little. Some time afterwards the girl is asked to write (from dictation) a few lines containing most of the principal words in the threats, which she unhesitatingly does, having been led to believe that the paper was to be sent to the groom by way of retaliation. No sooner had she finished writing than the whole mystery was unravelled. Every word in this was an exact copy of the others, and all were convinced that she, and she only, was the guilty person.
Even while they were examining the papers a piece of coal came bounding into the kitchen, which one of the apprentices accidentally, from the workroom window, saw the girl take from their own coal-hole and throw in, and came running down stairs to communicate the fact. A consultation was afterwards held, and the girl was called into the room in the presence of her mother (a poor woman who had been sent for), the police officer, and some neighbours, and there charged with being the perpetrator of all this mischief. She for a time stoutly denied all knowledge of it, but the proofs being placed before her, she burst into tears, and owned it all. She broke the windows, wrote all the papers, and bruised her own forehead by striking it with a piece of coal. She could assign no reason for doing it. Her master and mistress had always treated her with the greatest kindness, and she had no ill-feeling towards the groom. She had never had anything to say to him.
She could not tell why she did it. She begged hard for forgiveness, and to be allowed to continue in their service; but of course that was out of the question altogether. She was immediately dismissed. Her friends sent her away the next morning to some relations in the country, and Mr and Mrs Kingsland have since lived in undisturbed repose, and the groom is reinstated in the good opinion of his friends and neighbours.
West Kent Guardian, 17th September 1853.
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