The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable by Carol Baxter

Author:Carol Baxter [Baxter, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Victorian murder mystery, Poisoning, True-life crime, Scientific Revolution, Quaker, Great Western Railway, Telegraph, Information Age, Victorian England
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Published: 2013-07-23T23:00:00+00:00

John’s family and Quaker friends didn’t forsake him during his weeks in Aylesbury Gaol, although some newspapers reported otherwise. His wife and stepdaughter visited the day after his incarceration and regularly journeyed there afterwards. Sarah always spoke cheerfully and confidently of his acquittal, both to John himself and to others of her acquaintance.

Many of her friends, having weighed the evidence, cautioned her to consider the worst, to prepare herself in case he was convicted. She immediately escorted them to the door. ‘How could you suppose my husband to be so great a sinner?’ she demanded, before closing it behind them.

‘Of course, latterly,’ observed the Weekly Dispatch, ‘she has had few friendly visits of this nature.’

Quaker friends from Berkhampstead also visited John, and Mr Sherriff allowed them to meet with him privately. ‘Their communication greatly tendered him – poor Man!’ wrote another friend. ‘Whether he is cleared by law or otherwise, his situation is deplorable.’

Some Quakers distanced themselves, of course, declaring righteously, indignantly, that John wasn’t in fact a Quaker, that while he might wear the garb of a Friend he had been expelled long ago and repeatedly spurned when he applied for re-admission. Once, twice, thrice they denied him.

Britain crowed with disdain. The Quakers and their ‘expulsions’! The man professed the Quaker faith, wore the Quaker garb, spouted the Quaker speech, worshipped at Quaker services, registered his children births in Quaker registers and buried his family in Quaker burial grounds. He had built a Quaker meeting house, was welcomed at Quaker dining tables, slept in Quaker lodging houses and provided free hospitality to those attending Quaker monthly and quarterly meetings. Not a Quaker?

‘Thus it always is,’ rebuked one newspaper reader. ‘No sooner is a Quaker charged with any offence than out comes a notice that he is “no longer a member of the Society”. But what sort of Christianity is this? One of the first duties of religion is the reformation of the wicked. Yet here is a body, calling themselves Christians, making a merit of casting forth the sinner to perish without help to repentance and salvation!’

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