PAST CRIMESthemselves. Women also often acted as pawnbrokers and received stolen
items, paying in cash, kind or drink for them.^3
Evidence of a fraud has been found at the Museum of London. In 1912 in
Cheapside, a hoard of five hundred pieces of jewellery was discovered,
probably the stock of a local tradesman. Investigations have revealed that the
hoard, buried during the Civil War at some time between 1640 and 1666,
could have belonged to Thomas Sympson. Sympson’s family was known to
have been suspected of receiving stolen goods taken from Gerrard Pulman, a
fellow jeweller who had been murdered while travelling to Persia in 1631.
Among the gems hidden at Cheapside, the Museum has discovered fake balas
rubies–pieces of rock crystal that had been carefully cut, and then dyed red.
These fakes could have been passed off as the real thing for up to £8,000.
Little is known about the workings of the jewellery trade at the time–it was a
very clandestine business, as traders and workmen were afraid of being
robbed or threatened by criminals.
Royal and noble murder
There were many murders and assassinations among the aristocracy in this
period, such as the murder of Mary Queen of Scots’husband Lord Darnley in
- The twentyoneyearold had been staying at lodgings in Edinburgh,
convalescing from an illness, probably syphilis. The queen visited him there
on that evening and then returned to Holyroodhouse. At two in the morning,
gunpowder that had been packed into the cellars below Darnley’s rooms
exploded and destroyed the house. The next day, Darnley’s body, and that of
his servant, were found in the garden next door–with no signs of burns or
bruises. People immediately believed they had been strangled before the
explosion. The Earl of Bothwell was suspected, as was Mary herself, but the
truth has never been established.
Another notorious murder took place at Calverley Old Hall in Yorkshire, of
which the Tudor hall and chapel still survive. In 1604, Sir Walter Calverley
was taken by a fit of insane rage, and ran through the hall. He murdered two
of his sons and tried to kill his wife, who was saved when his knife skidded
off the metal stays of her corset. She fainted, and Calverley thought he had
succeeded in murdering her. He set off on horseback to find his youngest son,
who had been taken out by his wet nurse, but the horse tripped over a rabbit
hole and fell on top of Sir Walter. His distraught servants caught up with him
and bound him, and he was sent first to prison in Wakefield and then to York.
He would not enter a plea, and was then tried for contempt of court. His
punishment was to be pressed. This form of execution involved laying the