True Crime Collection

Campden Wonder

On 16th August 1660 a 70 year old man named William Harrison left his home in Chipping Campden, intending to walk 2 miles to the village of Charingworth. When he did not return home at the expected time his wife sent his manservant John Perry to look for him. Neither William or John had returned by the next morning.

Edward Harrison, Williams's son, was then sent out to look for the pair and on his way to Charingworth he met John Perry. The servant said that he had not been able to find his master, and he and Edward continued to Ebrington, where they questioned one of the tenants whom William had been going to see. The tenant said that William had been there the previous night. Edward and John then went to the village of Paxford, but their search proved fruitless.

Edward and John then headed back to Chipping Campden. During the journey they heard that some items belonging to William had been discovered on the main road between Chipping Campden and Ebrington. These included a hat, a shirt and a neckband. Although the hat had been slashed by a sharp implement, and the shirt and the neckband were covered in blood, there was no sign of the body of William.

Under questioning John Perry said that he knew William had been murdered, but claimed to be innocent of the crime. He then said that his mother, Joan, and his brother, Richard, had killed William for his money and hidden the body. Joan and Richard denied that they had had anything to do with William's disappearance, but John continued to say that they were guilty, claiming they had dumped the body in a millpond. The pond was dredged, but no body was found.

The first court hearings dealt with charges linked to a plot to steal money from William Harrison. Despite his mother and brother pleading "not guilty", John Perry's testimony convinced the jury based on the following:

1. John seemed to have no apparent reason to be lying about the matter.
2. John claimed that he was the one who suggested the robbery to Richard.
3. John told the court that Joan and Richard had already stolen £140 from William Harrison's house the previous year. (This was a very tidy sum of money in 1660 England, equivalent to £28,361.86 in 2019).
4. John had lied about being attacked by robbers a few weeks before William's disappearance.

The defendants had all changed their pleas to guilty, because as first time offenders they were granted a free pardon under the Indemnity and Oblivion Act of 1660. Stratmann states that this was a bad piece of advice by the lawyers for the defendants. However, at the time, the judge refused to prosecute the 3 for murder as there was no body.

In Spring 1661 the court reconvened to hear the charge of murder and, because of the earlier guilty plea to the robbery, they were now considered to be criminals. This time John joined his mother and brother in pleading not guilty in the killing of William Harrison. The servant claimed that his original testimony had been false by reason of insanity. Nevertheless, the jury found all 3 of the Perrys guilty and they were sentenced to death.

The 3 Perrys were hanged together on Broadway Hill in Gloucestershire, and Broadway Tower now stands on the very site of their hanging. On the scaffold Richard and John reiterated that they were entirely innocent of killing William Harrison. As their mother was also suspected of being a witch, she was executed first in case she had cast a spell on her sons which was preventing them from confessing.

In 1662 William returned to England aboard a ship from Lisbon. He claimed that he had been abducted, wounded, had his pockets stuffed with money and been spirited away on horses from England via Deal port in Kent, transferred to a Turkish ship and sold into slavery in the Ottoman Empire. William said that after about a year and three quarters his master had died and that he then went to a port and stowed away on a Portuguese ship, finally returning to Dover by way of Lisbon.

The case led to the popular belief that England had a criminal law of 'no body, no murder'. Morton states that this is a misconception and that no such law existed.

Linda Stratmann, in her book Gloucestershire Murders, states that William's story makes no sense. Who would abduct a 70 year old man, stuff his pockets with money and sell him into slavery for a few pounds? Why did nobody notice him being taken on horseback from Chipping Campden to Deal? She also points out that his claims that his attackers wounded him in the thigh and side with a sword, then nursed him back to health, makes no sense either.

John Masefield wrote 2 plays on the subject: The Campden Wonder and Mrs Harrison. The latter dealt with the popular myth that William's wife committed suicide on learning that her husband was alive.