During a little tete-a tete with the lovely NMJ and Anna MR the topic of death masks arose (no, dears, don't ask). Anyroadup, I mentioned that in the local museum at Bury St Edmunds there is the death mask of the man who murdered Maria Marten of the Red Barn. Lo and behold, Anna MR, who is a 'thesp' amongst other delights, says she has played said rogue on the stage.
However, she has never seen the 'face' of the scoundrel whose persona she inhabited so, my dear Anna, this is just for you:
On May 18 1827 Maria Marten, 26 year old daughter of mole catcher Thomas Marten, left her father's cottage at Polstead for the last time. She said a tearful farewell to her young son, her sister and her stepmother, then set out to meet William Corder, her 24 year old lover, in the Red Barn. At his request she went dressed as a man. Her family never saw or heard from her again. In April the following year Thomas Marten was prompted by his wife to search the Red Barn. He discovered a shallow grave which contained a body, recognisable from the clothing as that of Maria. Shortly afterwards, William Corder was arrested in London. He was taken to Polstead for the inquest and sent to Bury St Edmunds to stand trial.
Corder's trial took place on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 of August 1828. Throughout the trial he claimed his innocence. Nevertheless he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. His body was to be anatomised (dissected).
Shortly before the sentence was carried out, Corder confessed. He was executed on the Monday August 11, at the county gaol in Bury St Edmunds. Despite heavy rain
thousands of spectators attended. The body was taken to the Shire Hall, where it was
cut open and laid out on show.
Thousands of people filed past to view it before it was removed for dissection at the West Suffolk Hospital.
The skeleton was kept, and the scalp and part of the skin were preserved.
The surgeon, George Creed, later had an account of the trial bound in leather made from Corder's skin.
8 comments:
Great post. I wonder what Anna will make of the face she played.
I too am fascinated by death-masks. When I was in Melbourne many years ago I went to a museum to view Ned Kelly's death mask (and I have a photo of it in my album!)
Of course I also visited Lenin's body last week which was dead fascinating.
Good God, Cusp, that is truly gruesome - so thank you hugely for obliging me so handsomely. Man. I am a little lost for words. I have, however, only just (well, an hour or so ago) waffled incoherently to you over at my house, so you don't miss out on very much. I have also posted that memory triggered off by something you said about street people, about the dude called Horace. I stole your title but almost credited you for it. I am a fair and square sort of a title-thief, you'll find, Cusp.
Anyway - first visit, big hello, lovely blog, will be back. Greetings from the Northern Lands, Cusp.
x
(Okay - I thought I posted it, but am not sure if it went through - it would look, to me, like it didn't, so will try again - if, however, you have several repeats from me, do please wipe them out so I don't look like a complete eejit. Ta)
A gruesome little tale indeed! I'm assuming the play your friend was in explored what happened between Mr. Corder and Miss Marten. I know my imagination is going wild thinking about all the sordid possibilities.
And mole catcher...I never knew there was such a vocation. ::grin::
Well thank you, all, for your interest in this horrid little tale from Suffolk (and Welocme, Welcome, dear Anna MR to a post that was suuplied in particular pour vous ---or can I say 'toi' now that we're better acquainted ?)
This tale is incredibly well known locally but has also been taken up all over the world. There's the play 'Murder in the Red Barn', a film in 1935 and several musicians and pop singers have taken it up as a theme, including Tom Waits---a grizzly voice so suited to a grizzly tale.
More recently, it was only in 2005 that Corder's remains were cremated and properly laid to rest and even more recently --- in February this year --- there was a huge hoo-hah locally because one of Corder's relatives turned up and said they wanted their ancestor's hand and scalp back to cremate/bury and also they wanted the Moyse's Hall Museum (which used to be the Town Gaol) to take the book, bound in his skin, out of display and returned to them. In the end I believe other rellies said leave well alone --- so everything remains as it was.
What a horrid, horrid business and fascinating how the whole thing seesm to capture people's imagination years and years after the event
Absolutely facinating, my dear, and just right for the time of year. I think it isn't just the gruesomeness of this kind of tale that draws, but stories like this take you to the edge of human experience - the dark edge to be sure, but it sets you wondering: what lies beneath, and so on.
Yikes!
Wow! What a great tale! I was going to say "Waste not, want not!" and leave it at that, but brevity is not my strong point... It's tales like these that make me think, just for a second, that "we",by which I mean humanity, have made some so-called progress...then I remember that things like this do still happen, albeit not too often in the UK or Australia...I hope (gulp!)
And kahless, as an Australian, I too have seen Ned Kelly's death mask, and I always remember being surprised by how he looked...not how I had envisioned one of our folk heroes at all.
Yikes ! and Wow ! indeed Amanada and Seahorse. Horrid isn't it. Personally, although I have great respect for history I do think they should have taken the wretched book off display and returned it to the relatives for them to do with as they wished.
Added to that there's even a lot of conjecture about what actually did happen on the fateful night and whether Corder was guilt.y
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