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The article below, the following reference material and poem relate to the article which appeared in the Autumn 2010 edition of the Newsletter.
A Friend, not a Highwayman
On the evening of Wednesday, October 21, 1789, Captain Cowell, Coldstream Guards, and two ladies, were returning to Old Buckenham from Norwich when ‘they were attacked by a single foot-pad, near Hetherset, but the Captain obliged the villain to retreat precipitately; diligent search was afterwards made for him, but without success’.
Later enquiries by the captain and his servant resulted in the identity of this foot-pad: one Robert Everett, of Wymondham. Captain Cowell complained to a local magistrate, Sir Thomas Beevor, of Hethel. It appears that Sir Thomas was surprised to hear that Everett could have been engaged in an attempted highway robbery, as rather than having Everett apprehended, he wrote him a letter informing him that ‘business of consequence had been communicated to him’ in which Everett ‘was materially concerned’, and that he wished to see Everett ‘as soon as convenient’. Everett rode over to Hethel the afternoon he received the letter, heard the allegations, and appointed to meet the captain before Sir Thomas the following Monday. On that day Robert Everett, 'accompanied by several respectable neighbours' went back to Hethel, where he met Captain and Mrs. Cowell. The events of the evening in question were related by both parties.
Robert Everett explained that he had been riding from Norwich to Wymondham, and as the evening had been dark, and he had a ‘considerable property’ about him, he wished to keep up with a carriage bearing lamps, ‘for the sake of the light, little suspecting that he should be taken for a highwayman’. On the journey he chatted with the postilion as far as Hetherset King's Head, where the carriage stopped, and the captain ‘in a peremptory tone of voice’ challenged him. Everett rode off towards Wymondham, perhaps fortunately for his health, as the captain procured from the landlord of the King's Head ‘a brace of pistols and a fusee [flint-lock musket] loaded four bullets deep’, and also hired the landlord as guard for the carriage party. Everett did not see them again, but later heard that Captain Cowell had stopped on his journey at Wymondham Bridewell to beg further assistance to protect the party against a highwayman. The keeper of the Bridewell was ill in bed, and unable to help, so the captain and ladies continued to their destination protected by only their two servants, the landlord, and three firearms!
The postilion confirmed that Everett had neither molested his master, nor treated him uncivilly. The gallant captain, however, obstinately refused to give up his suspicious opinion, and declared that if he had had fire-arms and Mrs. Cowell had not been present, he would have shot Everett. Sir Thomas decided that every suspicion, injurious to the character of Robert Everett, was entirely wiped off. Everett wrote a letter to both Norwich weekly newspapers, detailing the circumstances, and leaving it to the public to judge why, ‘in a dark evening, if a person returning from Norwich, and a carriage with lamps passes him, he may not take advantage of the light, without being in imminent danger of having four bullets sent through his body’.
A week later some wag penned a three verse poem, satirising Friend Robert's adventure, and the folly of being led by a wand'ring beam. The poet must have known Everett's religious persuasion.
Robert Everett was born c.1744, and moved to Wymondham around the year 1759. He was under the wing of Simon Bale, a Wymondham shopkeeper, until 1770 when his mentor relinquished the business to him. Robert was demonstrably a trusted and respectable man: in 1776 he was authorised by the Norwich and Norfolk Bank to exchange deficient gold coinage, and the same year was involved in settling the affairs of a deceased Hingham surgeon. Several times over the years he was an executor, and was also a trustee of the estates of a Wymondham surgeon and a Wymondham farmer when they got into financial difficulties. Robert was a Quaker, and in 1782 at a Quakers’ Meeting in Derbyshire he married Sarah Frith of Sheffield. Four children were born to them by 1788. Robert was a draper and grocer, but his business life was not confined to the retail of drapery and grocery: he was agent at Wymondham for the Norwich General Assurance Office (fire insurance); he sold cast iron plough shares, various patented medicines, Japan blacking, etc; and was engaged by a Yorkshire firm as their agent to buy wool at Wymondham and Norwich. He went to the city on Saturdays where he transacted business at the White Swan. In the first decade of the nineteenth century he was referred to as Robert Everett, merchant, and from 1810, an indication of his financial and social standing, as ‘gentleman’. In 1813, Mary Francis, for obtaining money under false pretences from Robert's shop at Wymondham with intent to defraud, was sentenced to be imprisoned for six months. Later in 1813 Robert sold his business to his nephew, William Everett. Owning several houses in the Market Place, Wymondham, including a ‘mansion’, Robert Everett had among his tenants Gamaliel Ransome, solicitor, and Spruce, shoemaker. Robert also owned land in Wymondham, with agricultural buildings and cottages. He died in 1834 aged 90 and was interred in the burial ground of the Society of Friends at Wymondham.
John Herne: Wymondham Town Archive
Sources of Reference used in above article:-
The Norfolk Chronicle: or, The Norwich Gazette: Apr 27, 1776; Sept 28, 1776; Aug 24, 1782; Dec 1, 1792; March 24, 1804; Feb 6, 1808; June 15, 1811; Feb 27 & March 27, 1813; Jan 1, 1814; Dec 27, 1834; June 4, 1836.
The Norwich Mercury: Apr 16, 1785; Dec 24, 1786; June 9, 1787; Oct 31 & Nov 7, 1789; Jan 5, 1793; Oct 6, 1810.
The Universal British Directory, vol.4, 1793-98
Wymondham Town Archive: Probate copy will of Jeremiah Wiffen, 1780; Land Tax Assessments, Market Street, Wymondham, 1822. Norfolk Record Office Wymondham Monthly Meeting, copy register of births 1783-88.
In the ‘Norwich Mercury’ newspaper, Saturday, November 7, 1789, was printed: Verses occasioned by reading the Letter signed Robert Everett, in the Norwich Mercury of last Saturday:-
Friend Robert, thou can’st well discern
That man has wisdom yet to learn,
For where does wisdom centre?
Just leap’d from death’s terrific jaw,
Some grave instruction thou May’s draw
From thy most strange adventure.
Caught by a carnal wand’ring beam,
Which threw a momentary gleam
Athwart the shades of night,
Why didst thou leave the good old way,
And, led by FOLLY’s glare astray,
Neglect thy inward lighy?
Then darken'd in thy erring mind,
What warring passions press'd behind,
And hung upon thy rear,-
Blood-thirsty rage, and jealous pride,
With each chimera wild beside,
And silent palsied fear.