Online Zoom support group Monday 30th November
I managed to join on time for once (not that it matters if you’re late!) and the group were discussing masks, or rather the lack of people wearing them, in shops and hospitals.
Read moreThomas Wright and the City of London
Thomas Wright took a diligent role in civic affairs at a time when the City was developing rapidly and confidently. The Seven Years War had just ended, paving the way for Britain’s global expansion.
Read moreSupport From learning to care
Online Zoom Support Group 16th November: As usual, I was met with smiles and waves from my fellow members who were deep in discussion about foot problems.
Read moreJohnny Morris - volunteer and art director, Bell House
Johnny with Angus Hanton
A tribute to Johnny Morris, volunteer and art director at Bell House, from Fabienne and Angus Hanton.
Johnny died of a brain tumour six weeks ago this Sunday. At 60 he wasn’t old and was very much younger than this in his outlook. He is sorely missed by the many Bell House volunteers with whom he worked.
Read moreTheft at Bell House
On Saturday 2 December 1769, Thomas Wright was the victim of theft in his new house at Dulwich. James Simpson was accused of stealing a woollen coat, value twenty shillings. Wright’s coachman, Rubon Cannicot, gave evidence at the Old Bailey:
The coachhouse where the theft took place
‘I am coachman to Thomas Wright; he lives at Dulwich; our coach was locked up, and the great coat on the coach box. The key was left in the door, on the outside; the yard gate was all fast, and the yard is walled all round; whoever got the coat must get over the wall. I know nothing of the prisoner, I never saw him to my knowledge before I saw him here at the bar, it, (the coat) was missing last Saturday morning.’
Was this the coat stolen from Thomas?
Simpson took the coat to Cheapside, offering it to a clothes-dealer called Hugh Riley. Riley and Simpson then went to a pub in Paternoster-row where Riley offered Simpson fourteen shillings for the coat but would not pay until Simpson could prove it was his to sell. Riley was also a watchman for the City police force and becoming suspicious the coat was stolen, took Simpson to the lord mayor. Rubon Cannicot (the coachman) accurately described the coat to the lord mayor ‘before he saw it’. The prisoner’s defence:
‘My brother was a coachman; I had this coat of him; he was coachman to Mr Hutchinson in Southampton. I offered it to this man; (I) am bricklayer; my brother has been dead some time; I am a Guernsey man.’
Simpson was found guilty and transported to the American colonies. Simpson must have reflected on his bad luck that when he stole a coat five miles from London he then tried to sell it a stone’s throw from Thomas Wright’s business, a place where its livery was likely to be recognised and that the person he offered it to was a member of the City's own police force.