preachers third

'An abominable and most detestable crime' IN comes a real mystery character, the Rev SAMUEL PERRY who was put in Chelmsford Gaol in March 1790 for a "most serious offence". Church records say that he stayed there until his death in 1795 at the age of 65. His offence is never described in these records, so for what had the poor chap had been jailed for the last five years of his life? He was still in great favour with members of his congregation. They even took him food parcels in prison. In dusty parchments in the Public Record Office the allegation is recorded. The charge itself shows exactly how the world viewed the offence in 1790, and why it was never described by chapel historians "The jurors for our Lord the King, upon their oath, present that Samuel Perry late of the parish of Weathersfield in the county of Essex, gentleman, on the 14th of June in the 29th year of our sovereign lord George III, King of Britain, with force of arms unlawfully and wickedly did lay hand upon on Joseph Stammers
			Interior of the URC chapel. Once the galleries were filled with children at crowded services.
with intent to commit the abominable and most horrid detestable and sodomitical crime, amongst Christians not to be named, called Buggery with him the said Joseph Stammers...against the order of Nature then and there diabolically and feloniously to commit and perpetrate to the great displeasure of Almighty God, to the great scandal of all human kind, to the evil example of all others in the like law offending, and against the grace of our said Lord the king's crown and dignity."Joseph Stammers was similarly charged and acquitted. And so, surprisingly was Samuel Perry! The clerk to the court was obviously confused, too. At first, in the court roll, he writes "Jurors say Guilty". Then he puts an insert mark in the line and writes above it the word "not" and adds "discharged". That this was the actual verdict is borne out by a note on the back of the Assize Calendar (the list of prisoners being tried). It says: "Samuel Perry - -acquitted and discharged."
	SO this couldn't have been the reason Samuel Perry languished in Chelmsford goal for so long. Was there some later charge? There is no record of one but in 1794 the Assize Calendar lists the prisoners brought out of Chelmsford gaol to have their sentences reviewed. And there is Samuel Perry's name. "Samuel Perry, convicted of a misdemeanour. Let him remain in gaol for the space of 12 calendar months and once during that time be placed in and upon the pillory on a market day at Braintree, in this county, for the space of one hour between the hours of eleven and two in the day." Some day out for poor Rev Perry that must have been, standing there helpless with his arms and head thrust through holes in the planks for every market drunk and passer-by to jeer at him and throw rubbish in his face. At the Lent Assizes they brought him up again, but still the court had no pity: "'Samuel Perry, to remain according to his former sentence." Was the man who had ministered to Wethersfield's dissenting flock for almost thirty years just a sad old man? Or was he a martyr to unjust accusation, used as an excuse to bring him before the court for religious reasons? Most likely the latter. A later minister, Rev Peter Sibree, records in his diary: "Before I left Wethersfield I was witness of the deaths of two of Mr Perry's malicious calumniators, who ended their days in wretchedness and loathsome poverty." Poor unfortunate Rev Perry could well have been the victim of a political fit-up.
Pulpit and organ in Wethersfield United Reformed Church

back		Click picture to enlarge