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Perry, Rev. Jevon J. Muschamp.
The Edlingham Burglary or Circumstantial Evidence.
Publisher: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, London;
Date of Publication: 1889
Stock Code: 10235
FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp. [8], 303, [1], 32 catalogue. Publishers’ decorative blue cloth with gilt titles to spine, blocked in black, light blue, beige and pink to upper board showing 3 scenes from the tale within. Cover cloth scuffed with wear to spine tips and corners; boards bruised to edge. A slightly shaken copy with weak inner hinges, but holding. Endpapers foxed & toned, with ownership inscription in pencil to front paste-down and repaired closed tear ffep. No annotations. A Good copy. The Edlingham Burglary case was a Victorian miscarriage of justice, and a subject of great public interest. Jevon James Muschamp Perry was the Vicar at St Paul’s Church in Alnwick, and his account here tells the story of the case, written in the third person as he originally intended publishing under a pseudonym. Edlingham, a small village in the wild moors of Northumberland between Rothbury and Alnwick, was the setting for a burglary at the Vicarage in 1879, in which Rev. Buckle and his daughter were fired upon and injured in the struggle but manage to scare off their two assailants. Two men were arrested for the crime, Irish labourers Michael Brannagan and Peter Murphy, who were apprehended by the police in a separate local incident the same night which fitted with the time of the burglary; eventually tried and convicted, they spent over nine years in Dartmoor Gaol for a crime they didn’t commit. Locals were suspicious that the real perpetrators were notorious local poacher Charles Richardson and sidekick Geordie Egdell and eventually the Author was able to persuade Egdell to confess to the crime, though he refused to name his accomplice. At the time, the only way to secure the release of the innocent men was for another to confess to the crime. However, it was clear to Richardson that if Egdell was tried, his own role would be revealed, so he also made a confession in order to minimise his likely future sentence. In the event the two villains were treated as heroes for admitting their crimes, albeit nearly a decade too late to save the others from wrongful imprisonment, and received only five years in prison themselves. This case led directly to sweeping changes in the law of Criminal Appeal which resulted in the modern system essentially still in existence today, which would never have happened unless Rev Perry had persuaded his lost sheep Egdell to come clean. Scarce. £175.00