by Bernard Phillips

Page Four of Six

The Consequences continued . . . .

Once ashore, he had been cared for by the Rev. Holloway of Brancaster and the Rev. Browning of Titchwell.  But all his property and money had disappeared during the "unloading" of the ship.

There followed several local expert witnesses.  Coastguard William Green said he had seen the Earl of Wemyss aground on the "scurves", the hard outcrops of peat and mud, the remains of an ancient forest, about 400 yards offshore.  He and his men had tried to wade out to the ship in the middle of the night.  They had no boat available at Brancaster and it would have taken too long to bring one by road from their station at Burnham Overy.

John Lubbock, shipwright, said "She was copper fastened and as fine a vessel of that description as I ever saw".  Her skylights were smashed and the pounding on the "scurves" had sprung her garboard strake.

"Reeve put his hand under the lower part of her dress, between her gown and petticoat, and pull the chain downwards.  There was fastened to the chain a dark coloured bag".
"Are you sure of this?", asked the magistrates.
"When Reeve withdrew his hand from the lady's dress I saw the bag in it".
"Did he take anything else from that lady?"
"Yes.  He took one or perhaps two rings from her fingers".
"Anything else?".
"I saw him take one of the drop earrings from her ears".
"Did you notice anything about the ears?".
"Yes.  It was red and bleeding".
"Did you help load the bodies into the waggon?".
"Yes, Sir".
"Did you notice anything about them?".
"Yes sir, they were still warm".
"How did Newman Reeve treat the other bodies?".
"He examined each one as it was laid on deck.  In all I saw him take four rings".
"What about Mr. Brown"s body?".

"The water in the cabin was two feet from the deckhead.  I could see the bodies where they lay.  Eight of them were huddled together in one berth.  Their faces were partially above water.  The body of the stout lady was in the after berth.

I drew up the bodies and gave them to others to be placed upon the deck.   One body had a reticule hanging from its right arm.  The reticule fell from the arm into the water.  I fished it out.  Mr. Reeve said, "Give me that bag".  I saw him open it as he went aft".

Charles Large added, "I saw Newman Reeve take a ribbon from the body of the stout lady.  The ribbon was fastened to a light coloured chain and it would not come away.

"He pulled the watch chain which broke, then he opened the trousers and got the watch out of his fob.  He also took a box and some silver and something from one of the pockets".

Commander McHardy of the Burnham coastguards did not give evidence but he sent a confidential report to Lord Melbourne.  He described how Hannah Pike had attempted to steal a gold watch from one of the bodies she was laying out in Brancaster church and had charged Mr. Pyne £3 for the clothes she had stripped from his wife's corpse (considered the 'perks' of the wise woman).
"A disgraceful occurrence in my opinion", wrote Commander McHardy, "took place on the part of a person in a respectable situation in life (a representative of the Lord of the Manor) by his claiming and taking from the dead bodies, while on board the vessel, their ornaments and money from a mistaken idea of his authority.

"This will show you the great difficulty the coastguard crew had in such a neighbourhood, where I believe little moral honesty exists, when between 50 and 100 men had been employed to clear the ship, unfortunately on a Sunday (an idle day with the lower classes)".

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