1814 Armed Burglars

(Extract from Chapter XVI, Fragments of Two Centuries – Glimpses of Country Life when George III was King by Alfred Kingston, 1893)

The armed burglar was in evidence during the last and early years of the present century as a terror to householders, with this difference from the present system, that the offenders generally went in gangs. One notable event of this kind is connected with the residence of Squire Wortham in Melbourn Street, Royston. The party, approaching from the Dog Kennel Lane in rear of the premises, disturbed the housekeeper, a Mrs. Cannon. She in her turn called out to Old Matt, the huntsman, but that worthy slept so soundly that she could not wake him; meanwhile the burglars seemed about to effect an entrance, when the redoubtable Mrs. Cannon secured a blunderbuss and, firing out of the window in the direction of the visitors, they made off. It was generally believed that the housekeeper shot one of the burglars, and years afterwards this was verified in a curious way by one of the party who, just before he died, made a confession to Mr. Stamford, then living at the Old Palace (note), to the effect that he was one of the party and that one of them was shot.

Note – The Old Palace was in fact the hunting lodge of James I. On his journey south from Scotland to London, after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, he was escorted to Royston by the county’s High Sheriff on 30th April 1603 and stayed at the Priory, returning to the town on other occasions to hunt.