The hill remembered for Morgan

Subject: The hill remembered for Morgan Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:26 pm

When does a hill get named?

A named feature of the landscape will only live on in the memory of those who choose to remember it.
If the map calls a feature by a name, it becomes encased within the local reference.
Morgan's Hill has a lot of features to make it stand out, like the Wansdyke and a Roman road.
This hill may have been known for its beautiful flowers, or the sweet bird song of evening.

Morgan's Hill is named after a murderer who killed his uncle in Heddington.

This was told to me by Mr. Atwell from the local motor museum.
He tells I that when he went a riding over the downs, he was shown the stones that marked the grave of Morgan.
The murderer was hung at the ancient gallows on top of the hill.
No parish would touch the body, so it was buried on the edge of two parish boundaries.
Mr. Atwell also stated that he hadn't been out on a horse since his father died in 1965 but the grave was near the dew pond and that was still visible.

I spoke to the farm hands at Baltic Farm but they knew nothing of this.

William Stukeley, in his "Abury - A Temple of the British Druids" shows the area in PLATE 7.

http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/plates/plate7.html

This shows the hills and he calls it RUNDWAY HILL. This could be Roundway Hill

The next plate shows the Wansdyke and the Roman road, but the hill is not named.

http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/plates/plate8.html

Anyone know when the Morgan murder took place or where the body lies?

I asked about this at the Wiltshire History centre but knowbody could tell me.

Is there any records for murders or those hung on gallows or giblets?

Chance

Subject: Re: The hill remembered for Morgan Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:17 pm

do you fancy a recce around the area?
Let me know when...
PeteG

Joined : 19 Jan 2008 Posts : 215

My recollection of this tale is that it was a highwayman, but I really don't recall why or where it came from.

Another account suggests that there was a second battle of Badon (Mons Badonicus) at which Morgan was killed and was buried on a hilltop c.635, from memory the year cited as coversion of the West Saxons to Christianity. And of course just east of Silbury is Bay Down (say it quick) and the origins of Beckhampton is something like Bakendun, again from memory. Fergusson proposed Silbury as a monument to Arthur after the battle but was sunk by the proving of the Roman Road going past it. A.C.Smith really gave him a going over afterwards but citing the likes of Raden etc. in the vicinity has to have something going for it, then there's Toope of course.

Have a look in the VCH, Marsh, and Notes and Queries (all in the History Centre local studies library and public library). If you can narrow down a timespan go for the Quarter sessions and newspaper accounts. Did Andrews' and Dury's map mark it as Morgans Hill ?

Lastly don't forget that names on maps can be corruptions and spelling changes - 'Vymans Hill' in Overton is Windmill Hill, and Tidworth is Tedworth etc.

Sorry, bit of a ramble that!

Subject: The Black Horse Gang Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:32 pm

Subject: Re: The hill remembered for Morgan Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:37 pm

chance,
I researched highway men for my Avebury Tour CD.
You will find a lot of tales in old coaching books.
PeteG

There are two stories of the "Cherhill Gang" that are deserving of reproduction.
The first is that one member had a great fancy for attacking his prey after having first divested himself of his clothing;
and he used to say that the effect of springing naked from his hiding-place into the full moonlight had a most terrifying
effect on his victim.

The other, that Serjeant Merewether, when returning home one night after having triumphantly secured the liberation
of another member charged at the assizes with highway robbery, was requested to "stand and deliver" by the very man
whose cause he had championed in the morning.

It was not usual for highwaymen to molest those who had befriended them; as a general rule they acted on the
principle that "one good turn deserves another."
Many of them were most polite, as the following extract from an old paper shows:-
"Last month (Jan. 1743) a captain in the army who was going to Bath in a post-chaise was stopped near Sandy Lane
by two highwaymen, by one of whom he was told that he wanted but a guinea, which he hoped to be able soon to pay
him again. The captain gave him the guinea, and the fellow gave the driver a shilling, and told the gentleman if he was
stopped by any one else to say 'Virgin Mary,' that being the watchword for the day. They had not gone far before
they were stopped by four persons, but on being given the watchword, hay raised their hats and rode off."

For the especial warning of these pests a gibbet bearing the iron-branded remains of a highwayman stood for many years
on the Downs between Cherhill and Beckhampton, but gibbet and remains have now entirely disappeared.
(A.E.W. Marsh. A History of the borough of Calne. 1903)

Daylight Robbery
1777. About this period several gentlemen in Bath and Bristol, headed by the Duke of Northumberland and Colonel Drax, entered into a subscription for the purpose of excavating Silbury Hill; and while the miners were engaged in the task, a correspondent of the Salisbury Journal, with the intention of throwing
ridicule on the undertaking, narrated through the medium of that paper, that some years previously a poor boy who was carrying a pitcher of milk along the high
road at that spot, fell down and broke the vessel. A tailor, who lived at Avebury close by, met the boy lamenting his case just at the same moment that a carriage appeared in sight. He, therefore, directed him to shout out lustily in order to excite the compassion of the passengers, and advancing up to the coach himself, observed that the poor lad had but too much reason for his lamentations, for the urn which he had broken had but just before been exhumed by his father, and as a piece of antiquity was of such rare value, that Dr. Davies, of Devizes, would no doubt have given a guinea for it. This declaration so wrought upon the curiosity
of the travellers, that after due examination of the fractured vessel, and a consultation as to the possibility of uniting the fragments, they agreed to give a crown for the article, and drove off with their prize. The tailor then gave the boy one shilling, and appropriated four to himself.
(J. Waylen. History of Marlborough. 1853)

Old Coaching Tales
Beckhampton lies immediately beyond, a pretty, almost model hamlet, where the road forks to Devizes and Calne, respectively, in both cases shedding all sign of enclosure, and facing for many miles the bleak and lonely down. This is the stage that old-time travellers between London and Bath held in such pious horror,
both for the snowdrifts and the highwaymen.
A rugged old coaching inn still looks the part it must have played in so important an oasis.
Otherwise Beckhampton harbours few people, but those devoted to training of the thoroughbred and the cult of the greyhound.
Tom Dobell rode this country at one time. There is an exploit of his performed near this very spot.
Now Tom was the illegitimate son of a Welsh magnate and a Cardiganshire peasant woman.. His courage, quick wit, and eccentricity,
made him a favourite with the gentry there, and, indeed, has gained him local immortality.
On this occasion he was riding to London with a sum of gold for one of his patrons, disguised as a rustic Welsh clown, and mounted on a sorry pony.
He had reached Beckhampton, and in the inn there discovered, in suspicious converse with the landlady, an obvious highwayman, who
regarded him with unmistakable interest. Tom, greatly put to it, proceeded to pull some gold out of his saddle-pocket before their eyes, and then pressed it back again as if for greater security. He then rode away, and as quickly as possible transferred the cash to his pocket. In due course he perceived the
highwayman following him, and as he approached, jumped off his horse, ungirthed his saddle, and flung it conspicuously into a pond of water in a field by the roadside and rode slowly on. The highwayman, secure, so he fancied, of his prize, hitched up his horse, and adventured the pond in pursuit of the well-stored saddle.
Tom, who had in the mean time remained within sight, now rode back, as if to beg consideration, to where the highwayman's horse was tied, when, leaping suddenly on its back, he galloped away to Marlborough, not only with his cash in hand, but a thoroughbred horse into the bargain.
The welsh chronicle says that the horse was identified as Tom Dobell's, and that the people of Marlborough made a hero of Tom and feted him royally.
he sold the horse for a good sum, and reassuming his disguise, reached London in safety.
(A.G. Bradley. Round about Wiltshire. 1907)

Joined : 19 Jan 2008 Posts : 215

Chance

I am a bit surprised by the History Centre staff not coming up with anything.

As you can access the History Centre perhaps you might make an enquiry at Chippenham Museum, they have an assistant/deputy curator that would certainly give you some pointers on your approach to this.

Otherwise you might plan for a day in the Wiltshire Heritage Museum Library, Tues-Sat, not the first Sat in the month! There are certainly a couple of volumes on Wilts Highwaymen, there is stuff on the Cherhill (nude) gang (I seem to recall some Rebbecca Riot references too), they have a full set of Wiltshire Notes & Queries which has all sorts in, and of course they have a card index to Wilts Arch Mag (WAM) which will throw up lots of possibilities. They also have maps that are not in the History Centre, and much more besides.

One thing - when accessing general works like Marsh and the book of Cherhill (Blackmore?) use them as guides & don't take what you see as read - look for primary sources to check or back up what is suggested. An example is Plenderleath coming out with Dr Christopher Allsopp having cut the Cherhill horse using a megaphone and flags on sticks - there is no evidence of Allsopp having anything to do with the horse and if you have ever been up there you will know this could not be done with fluttering flags and even with a megaphone on a still day instructions couldn't be heard distinctly enough.

Best of luck with this.

Subject: Re: The hill remembered for Morgan Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:37 pm

"of course they have a card index to Wilts Arch Mag (WAM) which will throw up lots of possibilities."

please be carefull not to drop the box of cards pale

PeteG

Joined : 19 Jan 2008 Posts : 215