Part of the Earley family tree (Great-great-great-uncle)
Family background and early life
Henry Fountain Bignell was born in the tiny village of Lee, Buckinghamshire on 26 December 1846. He was the seventh (of twelve) children of David Bignell (1805–1877), an agricultural labourer, and his wife, Louisa née Fountain (c.1816–1899.
By the 1851 census, the family (David and Louisa and six children) were living in the hamlet of Chartridge, near Chesham, about three miles east of Lee. Henry’s two eldest siblings had left home and were working elsewhere. Living with their parents were Sarah (aged 12), Rebecca (aged 10), Ann (aged 8), Emmanuel (aged 6), Henry (aged 4) and Louisa (aged 1).
Ten years later, Henry (now 14) was still living with his parents at Chartridge, along with his eldest sister, Susannah (now married) and five younger siblings.
RUN-INS WITH THE LAW
Drunken behaviour
Henry’s first reported court appearance was on 28 May 1867 when he came before the Chesham magistrates charged with being drunk and riotous, and using insulting language at Chesham on 22 May. PC Pitkin came across Henry in a drunken state and had tried to persuade him to go home quietly. Henry refused and was taken into custody. At the hearing, the charge was proven; the police gave Henry a “bad character” as Henry had a previous conviction. He was committed to jail for seven days with hard labour. [There is no published report of the earlier incident.]
Larceny – wheat
Henry (and several members of his family) were back in front of the Chesham magistrates the following March.
On Saturday, 1 March 1868, Henry Lazenby, a Chartridge farmer, went into his barn and found that a small window, referred to as a “bunt hole”, had been broken open. On looking around the barn, he discovered that nine bushels of mixed red and white wheat, valued at four pounds, were missing.
The police were called, and they soon found a line of spilled grain leading to the Bignell’s house about 60 yards away, with further grain in the yard of the Portobello beerhouse, where David Bignell was now the licensee. More grain and a sack of flour were found inside the house. When Louisa Bignell was interrogated by the police, she claimed to have bought the flour from Joseph Deeley, a baker in Chesham.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Bignell (Henry’s brother) had taken a sack of grain by horse and cart to Joseph Salt, a miller at Cholesbury, about four miles away, and waited for it to be ground, before taking it away.
Emmanuel and Henry Bignell were brought before the magistrates charged with larceny, while Louisa and David Bignell were charged with receiving stolen property. At the preliminary hearing on 4 March, it was proven that the two brothers had been drinking in the Portobello on Friday evening, although they had claimed to be elsewhere at the time of the break in. Joseph Deeley, the baker, attested that he had not sold the flour to the Bignells – his records showed that the last time they had bought flour from him was in April the previous year. The samples of wheat found in the field and around the family home and beerhouse were examined and found to be similar to that which was missing. All four members of the family were committed to trial at the Aylesbury assizes.
At the Assizes the following week, the charges against David and Louisa Bignell were dropped. Henry and Emanuel Bignell were found guilty of larceny, and were both sentenced to nine months imprisonment with hard labour.
Larceny – boots
On leaving prison, Henry appears not to have returned to the family home. At the 1871 census, he was living with his sister, Susannah, and her husband, George Bourchier (a French polisher) in Kilburn Lane, Kensal Green in north London, where he was working as a labourer. Shortly after, Henry moved to Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire, where he had found employment as a farm labourer and carter.
On the morning of Thursday 15 May 1873, Henry was on his way to Slough with his horse and cart, and he called in at The Plough Inn in Stoke Poges for refreshment. He returned later that day, when the cart was laden with hay. Henry entered the house and went into the kitchen for a pail which he used to give the horse some water, before returning it to the kitchen.
The following morning, the landlord of The Plough, James Beard, discovered that a pair of boots was missing from the kitchen. He asked his wife if she knew where the boots were, and she said that apart from herself, the only person who had been in the kitchen that day was Henry Bignell.
Police Constable Bailey investigated the disappearance of the boots and, from “information received” he visited Eliza Gregory at her mother’s home in Cowley Peachey, about 7 miles east, near Uxbridge. She told the constable that Henry had left a pair of boots with her on Thursday evening, which she had kept in her room. The boots were handed over to the constable, who confirmed they matched the description of those that were missing.
PC Bailey then went to Henry’s lodgings at Iver Heath and arrested him. On 21 May, Henry appeared before the Slough magistrates on a charge of stealing the boots, valued at 16s. At the remand hearing, Henry asked for bail, but this was opposed by Police Superintendent Dunham, who advised the bench that Henry was considered a “dangerous character” who had previous convictions.
The quarter sessions were held at Aylesbury County Court, with the Duke of Buckingham presiding. Henry was found guilty and was sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment with hard labour, and to be kept under police surveillance for three years.
Larceny – fowl
Two years later, aged 28, Henry was living at Chadwell’s Cottages in Swallow Street, Iver Heath and was employed by his neighbour, Thomas Timms, a hay dealer.
On 13 May 1875, Henry and another carter, John Poulton, were en route from Slough to Chalfont St Peter to pick up a load of sanfoin hay. At the start of the trip, they passed through Langley Marish where they saw some fowl in the road outside the estate of John Bramley-Moore, J.P.
Henry was standing, driving the cart and threw a stone at one of the birds, knocking it over. Henry jumped down and snatched the bird up, breaking its neck, before putting it in a sack and tossing it into the wagon, where John Poulton was sitting.
On reaching Chalfont, they loaded the hay, before having a beer. They spent the night at Chalfont and next morning they delivered the hay to Harman’s Brewery at Uxbridge. On the way to Uxbridge, they were met by Thomas Brewster, a fellow employee of Timms, with a second horse to help pull the heavily laden wagon up a steep hill near the junction of the Aylesbury and Oxford roads. At the brewery, they were met by Thomas Timms who helped unload the hay. When the wagon was empty, Henry said to Brewster: “Chuck up that sack. I’ve got something in it.”
The group then made their way home to Iver Heath where they stopped at The Prince of Wales beerhouse where Henry and Timms had an argument about a debt. Henry collected his sack, jumped down and walked home. At this point, John Poulton told Timms what had happened at Langley Marish and that the sack contained the dead fowl.
Timms and Henry had had a fight the previous week, leading to Henry taking out an assault case against Timms, which Timms offered to settle for a payment of £2. According to witnesses, Timms had said to Henry Bignell: “I’ll soon have you in limbo.”
To obtain revenge on Henry, Timms informed the police; Henry was quickly arrested and came before the Slough magistrates on 26 May, charged with stealing a fowl, valued at 3 shillings.
At the hearing, Henry was committed for trial at the next assizes. Henry applied for bail, which was supported by Police Inspector Sutton who said that Henry was still under police surveillance following the previous case, and had always reported himself to the police regularly. Despite this, bail was denied by the bench as “there were circumstances which made [the chairman] doubtful about granting it”.
The trial was held at the Spring Assizes at Aylesbury on 28 June, again under the chairmanship of the Duke of Buckingham. The only additional evidence came from William Bradbury, the under-gardener to John Bramley-Moore. He told the court that the birds were allowed to wander freely and would often cross the road to reach the common. He checked the birds on the morning of 13 May when they were all present; he didn’t check them again until 18 May, when one was missing. The description of the hen missing matched that of the bird found at Henry’s home.
In his summing up, counsel for the defence advised the jury that, in order to convict Henry, they must be satisfied that “he took the fowl with felonious intent”. In his opinion, the other witnesses were unreliable in view of the dispute between Henry and Thomas Timms. The Duke of Buckingham said that the only question for the jury to consider was whether Henry was the person who threw the stone and killed the fowl, and “appropriated it for his own purposes”.
The jury initially found Henry guilty, but the foreman advised the judge that they had doubts about the ownership of the bird. The duke advised the jury that they must “find that the fowl was the property of [Mr Bramley-Moore] or they must acquit the prisoner”. Despite two witnesses being recalled for further examination, the jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
Later life and death
For the remainder of his life, Henry seems to have kept out of trouble, and continued to live at Chadwell’s Row in Iver Heath until his death. Thomas Timms was still living nearby in both the 1881 and 1891 censuses.
On the evening of 6 January 1897, a few days after his 50th birthday, Henry and his colleague, Edward Dunton, were taking two wagons of hay for their employer, a Mr Field, from Maidenhead along the Bath road through Slough. Although it was dark and there were no lights, Henry rode at the top of the load as was his custom.
As they passed through Salt Hill and approached the Three Tuns PH, with Edward Dunton’s wagon about 20 yards in front, Henry asked his friend to stop for a drink. Dunton said that he wanted to get on, so continued. A few minutes later, he realised that Henry’s wagon was still behind him, but apparently with no driver. He stopped and ran back to the pub, by which time Henry’s body had been discovered by passers-by.
At this time Henry was still alive, and he was carried into the pub, but died almost immediately of his injuries. His body had been found, surrounded by a pile of hay and straw, close to some trees. It appeared that the wagon’s wheels had hit the base of a tree, causing the load to be dislodged, bringing Henry down with it.
The police and a doctor were sent for straight away. Mr Herbert Fraser, a registered surgeon, carried out a post mortem; his finding was that a wheel of the wagon had passed straight up Henry’s abdomen and over his chest, and as result nearly all the ribs on the right side of the body were broken, and the lungs were seriously damaged. There was also much bruising and cuts to the face and forehead, although the bones in the head were not fractured.
The Coroner’s inquest was held the following day at the Three Tuns; the jury’s verdict was that Henry had been run over by his own wagon and had been killed by misadventure.
Henry Bignell was never married and had no children. He left a will, appointing his brother Emanuel as executor: the estate was valued at £518.