*Ø* Blogmanac August 16, 1660 | The Campden Wonder
The strange case of William Harrison
On August 16, 1660, a 70-year-old rent collector (manager of Viscountess Campden’s estates at Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England), William Harrison, disappeared from Chipping Campden and only his hat, comb and ‘collar band’, or scarf, were found. His servant, John Perry, confessed to his murder and implicated his mother Joan (who was thought to be a witch) and his brother Richard. All three were hanged, although a body was never found.
Fully two years later, the ‘murdered’ William Harrison returned to Chipping Campden, with a fantastic story, which he laid out in a sworn letter to Sir Thomas Overbury, a magistrate of the county of Gloucester. Harrison wrote that he had been kidnapped by two armed horsemen, who stabbed him through the side and thigh with swords. They had taken him on a long journey through England to Deal, where they had put him on a ship.
The ship was captured by Turkish pirates who sold the old man into slavery in Smyrna, Turkey. Many months later, Harrison's Turkish master freed him on his death-bed, and Harrison made his way back to England via Portugal.
No true solution to the ‘Campden Wonder’ has ever been forthcoming, and questions remain such as why John Perry confessed, and why a septuagenarian would be bought and sold as a slave. Many possible explanations have been put forward in numerous plays, pamphlets, poems and novels. A website with a forensic bent now exists that is devoted to the remarkable case, with a modern-English paraphrase of the original pamphlet by Overbury (1676) posted at this page.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
The strange case of William Harrison
On August 16, 1660, a 70-year-old rent collector (manager of Viscountess Campden’s estates at Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England), William Harrison, disappeared from Chipping Campden and only his hat, comb and ‘collar band’, or scarf, were found. His servant, John Perry, confessed to his murder and implicated his mother Joan (who was thought to be a witch) and his brother Richard. All three were hanged, although a body was never found.
Fully two years later, the ‘murdered’ William Harrison returned to Chipping Campden, with a fantastic story, which he laid out in a sworn letter to Sir Thomas Overbury, a magistrate of the county of Gloucester. Harrison wrote that he had been kidnapped by two armed horsemen, who stabbed him through the side and thigh with swords. They had taken him on a long journey through England to Deal, where they had put him on a ship.
The ship was captured by Turkish pirates who sold the old man into slavery in Smyrna, Turkey. Many months later, Harrison's Turkish master freed him on his death-bed, and Harrison made his way back to England via Portugal.
No true solution to the ‘Campden Wonder’ has ever been forthcoming, and questions remain such as why John Perry confessed, and why a septuagenarian would be bought and sold as a slave. Many possible explanations have been put forward in numerous plays, pamphlets, poems and novels. A website with a forensic bent now exists that is devoted to the remarkable case, with a modern-English paraphrase of the original pamphlet by Overbury (1676) posted at this page.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
Pip Wilson posted item above at 3:00 AM | Permalink
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home