Note 206b — NOTES ON PARISHES ROUND HORNCASTLE. (continued 5)

One of the gang was hanged on March 27, 1829; the two above-named on March 19, the next year, 1830; a fourth was captured two years later, but escaped hanging, as it was pleaded on his behalf, that he had prevented Timothy Brammar, a reckless fellow, from shooting Mr. Elsey, or ill-treating the maids. He, however, had formerly been a servant at the house, knew the premises well, and was said to have planned the whole proceedings; he was transported. There were said to be ten men in the gang, all “bankers,” i.e., “navvies.” Mr. T. Mitchell, parish clerk of Woodhall, informs me that two of the men confined in the stables were named Henry Oldfield and George Croft; names frequently appearing in the parish registers and still common in the neighbourhood. George Croft died at Langton, January 18, 1878. Henry Oldfield’s daughter, still living (1904), says that she remembers her mother stating that she saw six of the men hanged, at one time or another, and heard the trial of the last two, when the judge remarked “What, the case from Halstead Hall; shall we ever have done with it?” Most of these particulars are given in “Records of Woodhall Spa” (1899), and for them I am indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Longstaff, now residing at Halstead Hall.