Stories Unlocked Corringham – by Paul Howitt-Cowan

Miss Peele of Corringham - Rags to Riches and to Love In the Sheffield Times, dated March 1850, there appeared an obituary, entitled, 'Romantic History’. The article was brought to St Laurence’s Church during a recent West Lindsey Churches Festival and created much interest, to the extent that on first reading it appeared fiction, however, it is completely factual on research. Anna Peele, was the daughter of John Peele a farmer in Corringham, eking out an existence. He was a horses dealer however they had fallen on hard times having experienced much better times. Anna was their only daughter and she was determined, like Dick Wittington, to seek her fortune. Poverty was not for her. She therefore became a dressmaker firstly in Gainsborough and then in Hull. Her luck began to change when she became a housemaid in London, to an aristocratic family. One of the sons fell head over heels over her and they were married. She had indeed arrived, mixing with London high society. A few years later, she astonished her previous companions by appearing in her carriage with livery servants in the character of chere amie to Mr Henry Fauntelroy, then a flourishing banker in London. But all was not to be well, and Mr Fauntelroy was convicted of forgery of the Bank of England and paid the penalty with his life on 30 of November 1824. He was the last person to be hanged for forgery.

Affected by the ruin, but not participating in the crime of Mr Fauntelroy, our heroine struggled bravely with her fate & generally maintained a fair appearance in society both in London & Paris. And whilst on the continent she married the Duke of Palata of Italy. At this time the fortunes of her family had reduced them to occupants of a small cottage in Morton, near Gainsborough and age, rendering her father incapable of physical work, earned his crust as a humble rural postman. However, the Duchess of Palata looked after her parents and ensured that they were comfortable. She once paid a visit to her parents as the dowager Duchess of Palata, the Duke having predeceased her, having paid the debt of nature. And she did all she could do, to advance her female relatives. Her fortunes took another twist, when she fell in love with a son of an Irish clergyman of a good family. She once more visited Gainsborough and the scenes of her youth. After making an allowance to her mother, to be paid monthly (to prevent some avaricious persons from defrauding her of it) she again departed for Italy, in good health but died shortly afterwards. Her life gives credence to the saying that ‘truth is yet more strange than fiction’!

Tragic Encounters Laid to Rest In the late 19c, there lived at Somerby Park, on the edge of Gainsborough, Miss Mary Beckett, the daughter of Sir Thomas Beckett who died in 1872 aged 90. Mary Beckett was a spinster, a substantial land owner, residing at Somerby with a staff of twelve servants. Her younger sister Elizabeth, was Lady Bacon who until her untimely death had lived at Thonock Hall. In the 1880’s both Mary & Elizabeth invested £10,000

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  (equivalent to £20, 000 in today’s money) in beautifying Corringham Church and engaged G.F. Bodley & Thomas Garner to undertake the restoration, which is stunning after almost 140 years! On Wednesday 18 of August 1897, the idyllic peace of Somerby was to be broken. Mary Beckett required an urgent message to be carried to Corringham. Thomas Dean, who was her trusted servant usually acted as her factotum and was duly fetched. However, Thomas was discovered in the stable block, where he lived above the horses, and found worse for wear that afternoon in a drunken state. And despite this, Thomas refused to allow anyone else to act as Miss Beckett’s messenger. He duly mounted his horse and made his way, at speed down the twisting lane that was the approach to Somerby Park. His fellow servants begged him not to go, however he refused not hear of it. The lane was lined with trees, sturdy oaks and several had branches, spanning the drive way. Thomas was galloping at speed, failing to duck his head, he hit one of the low lying branches. The force of which did not dismount him off his horse. He was slumped in his saddle & the horse continued to made headway, until it came to the farmstead, Wood house Farm, on Corringham Road. It was the young son of its tenant farmer, Mr George Laming who gave the cry that all was not well. And Thomas’s lifeless body slid off the horse outside the front door of the dwelling. Thomas’s body was brought back to Somerby Hall in a cart along with his horse in tow. That evening, Dr John Passmore, of Gainsborough, performed a post mortem, which revealed that he had indeed died

as a result of a severe head injury, which had killed him instantly. Thomas was a single man, aged 59. And Mary Beckett arranged for him to be buried in Corringham church yard & with a gravestone made of pink granite, which she paid for. Was it guilt that made her lavish such spending on the final resting place of her servant, who may have still been alive had it not been for that urgent message into the village? Or was it that Thomas was her secret admirer, who indulged her in cards in the stable block during those wintry nights! When Mary died, she was interred close to his grave. And despite her wealth, she has a headstone that cannot compare with that of Thomas Dean. Her stone is vulnerable to the weather & erosion, however Thomas has granite, which has permeability. The inscription on his grave reads as clearly as the day it was made, whereas Mary’s simple inscription is indecipherable with age. I wonder - was Mary making a statement that despite their stations in life; she being a baronet’s daughter and he a servant, that ‘love’ indeed transcends the social divide. Miss Mary Beckett was to outlive him by another eighteen years, dying on Sunday the 21 February 1915, aged 87. There was ten years between them. And what of the nature of message that had been the cause of this tragic episode? No mention was made of it whatsoever.

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