On a seemingly peaceful Sunday, 24 March 1861, Joseph Bishop, the sixty-year-old occupier of Lyatts Farm, was engrossed in milking his small herd of cows with his son, Charles, and worker, Lewis Delamont. In a sudden and shocking turn of events, they were set upon and beaten by three young men, who were wild with drink after leaving a nearby unlicenced cider shop.[1]

The next day, at Yeovil County Police Court, Henry Stephens, William Gillingham, and John Hill, labourers of East Coker, were charged with carrying out the assault. The magistrates fined Stephens 10s and costs and Gillingham and Hill 5s and costs.

They probably gave Stephens the stiffer fine because he was the oldest at twenty-one. He was also well-built. When he appeared in court again in 1862, this time on a theft charge, the newspaper reporter described him as “a strong, athletic young man.” [2]He may indeed have been the main perpetrator because, later that year, he was found guilty of assaulting another man.[3]

The other two may have been less culpable. Gillingham was nineteen, and Hill was only sixteen, and they had no later convictions.

The subsequent life experiences of the three young men were very different. John Hill died at East Coker two years later.[4] William Gillingham emigrated to Guernsey in 1861 or 1862, where he worked as a labourer in the gas works. He married on the island and had nine children.[5] Henry Stephens remained at East Coker except for a brief interlude in Yeovil. He married twice and had six children with his first wife.[6] Possibly less volatile as he grew older, he became an estate worker, resided in a small house at Burton Barton and lived until he was eighty-five.[7]

The illustration is of an advert for Joseph Bishop’s farm sale in January 1875, which included fourteen dairy cows.

References

[1] RG9, piece 1640, folio 22, page 10; Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 27 March 1861, p.4. Joseph Bishop was born on 26 April 1800 (North Perrott baptism register).

[2] Sherborne Mercury, 4 November 1862, p.5.

[3] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 13 November 1861, p.5.

[4] East Coker burial register;

[5] RG14, piece 34795.

[6] Family reconstitution using census records.

[7] RG11, piece 2392, folio 13, page 19; RG12, piece 1895, folio 17, page 5; RG13, piece 2297, folio 9, page 9; RG14, piece 14378; RG15, piece 11307, schedule 26; Civil Registration Death Indexes.