In a summer Sunday evening in 1840, 23 year old dressmaker Patience Martin and her younger sister Maria decided to walk from their homes in Marlow to Cookham Dean, via Quarry Woods. It was a favourite place for a Sunday stroll and the young women had often made the journey. They were accompanied by their friend Harriet Clark. It should have been an enjoyable way to spend a beautiful evening, but the women could not have anticipated the horror that awaited them.
Patience was described as an especially beautiful young lady. She worked at the baby linen warehouse, a not particularly well paid job. Unmarried, she lived with her parents John and Harriett and her sister Maria in Dean Street. They were not a well off family. John was working as a agricultural labourer at this time.
On arrival at Cookham Dean, the women walked across the common, before going into the beer house of Mr Copas. There they shared a pint between all three of them. This was a common thing to do, especially for woman. They then walked to another pub on the common. On going inside they were greeted by three young Marlow men whom they knew. (Robert Moore, Thomas Eustace, and John Frane) All three worked for the Rolls family. Some rumours suggest that Moore was the "paramour" of Patience. Perhaps their meeting was not quite a coincidence, but it is only a rumour. Moore was married but living seperately from his wife who he said needed constant watching due to ill health - she was "subject to fits". The men invited Patience and her companions to take a little beer with them, they would then join the women for the journey back to Marlow. So far, so peaceful.
As they left the beer house a short while later, at 9.30pm, they were accosted by 4 men. (Richard alias "Daisy" Smith, Henry Harding age 19, John Taylor 26 and William Bishop, 22, all described as labourers of Bisham). Bishop grabbed at Patience and suggested he would walk home with her. Patience naturally objected as she said he was some one she only knew by sight and had never had as much as a brief conversation with before. On this, Bishops companion Smith, who was clearly out to make a nuisance of himself, challenged Moore to a fight. Moore dismissed this request as he said Sunday was not "a proper day for fighting" and carried on walking, the others now a little way ahead. They were followed by the 4 troublemaker's, who again challenged Moore to a fight. Moore refused again, and was then knocked to the ground by Smith.
Our party hurried on their way to Marlow but discovered a group of 20-25 men and some women blocking their path which lead from a lane off the common, over a stile and into Quarry Wood. This group were obviously just as much in a belligerent mood as the previous lot, and would not let Patience and the others pass. Patience said that at this point she was very frightened and wanted to retreat to the relative safety of one of the pubs they had left. But they could not get through the crowd in that direction either. After 15 minutes of insults and arguements, one of the gang said if Patience's party would shake his hand, they would be allowed to pass. This they wisely decided to do. But they had not got far into the woods when Smith, Harding, Bishop and Taylor ran after them. Harriet, Patience and Robert were all knocked to the ground by the thugs. Harriet got up quickly, aided by Eustace and it seems these two now ran off, leaving Patience and Robert in the rear. This is when things turned really ugly. Patience was the focus of the group's malevolence, perhaps in punishment for refusing the attention of Bishop. She was raped at knifepoint, first by Smith then by Harding with the others holding her down by the shoulders. Robert was punched to the ground at least three times while trying to rescue her. Harriet was screaming murder, and her cries were heard at Cookham Dean...but no one went to investigate them. Harriet heard the cries too, but Eustace told her to go on to Marlow and summon help. Robert knew he was outnumbered, and retreated a little distance to deal with a bloodied face. He then decided to try a trick of shouting loudly and pretending to be in a conversation with another as he went back towards Patience. He hoped the gang would assume he was part of a larger group and be frightened off. As it happened they had left by the time he came to her. He did his best to help the distraught Patience home, her bonnet ripped and shoes missing. As they left the woods, they must have hoped to have left their attackers behind them. But as they went to cross the meadows at Bisham, they were approached by a man who turned out to be Smith, although he had apparently made some attempt to disguise himself by swapping his jacket and speaking differently. Patience however recognised him and screamed. Smith was apparently insulted that Robert had knocked off his hat when the latter was attempting to rescue Patience, and wished to demand Robert's as a replacement! Robert was yet again knocked to the floor, and Patience assaulted. Her screams this time were heard by a farm worker...who went home and put his horses away before investigating the source of the sound. Frane who was a carter, also put his horses away before returning. As it was, Patience had got free and made it with Robert back towards Marlow, where they were finally met by Eustace and Frane who had returned to find Patience. These two men admitted to have feared being overwhelmed by the larger party they had left at the Quarry stile and were perhaps waiting for help from Marlow that never arrived. The following morning warrants were issued for the arrest of the 4 men, but Richard Smith Aka Daisy had fled, and was never bought to trial. The others were apprehended within a couple of days, and bought before the authorities at the Berkshire Summer Assizes.
Harriet had, on arriving at her home, done the most extraordinary thing of going to bed without calling anyone to her friends and sisters aid. This was seized on by the men's defence at the trial as evidence that Harriet did not think her sister really in danger, despite admitting hearing Patience specifically scream that she was being murdered. The lawyers suggested that the 3 Marlow couples had all intended to meet and then pair off for immoral purposes. The Cookham gang had gone after them in the spirit of causing mischief and had at most committed a minor assault. The evidence of rape was "only" based on Patience's say so they said, ignoring the collaboration of Moore, and others who saw Patience's torn clothes and distressed state.
The reason we have covered this case in detail the because it demonstrates the difficulty women such as Patience faced when becoming a victim of sexual violence. Patience Martin must have felt on trial herself when a righteous juror at the trial stood up and asked if she was in the habit of going to a public house on a Sabbath? She replied she did so sometimes. The public houses were legally open at the time she was there. The newspapers gave Patience credit for the calm, clear and intelligent way that she gave her evidence. It was they said done in a fashion becoming such a serious crime, and they said she looked "most respectable." The men's defence were however keen to make another fact known..had not Patience given birth to an illegitimate child some time before? She "admitted" that she had. The men were not asked about their previous relations of course.
The jury were told they could find the men guilty of assault if they did not believe all the evidence. After two hours of deliberation, the jury declared all the men guilty of their respective offences. Extraordinarily in our eyes, they were recommended to mercy by the male jury based on the perceived "loose" character of Patience. The judge does not seem particularly impressed by this request, but said he would honour it. Interestingly he did so partly because of the general lack of appetite for capital punishment. He said that despite the peculiar behaviour of sister Harriet, he had rarely seen evidence given so "conclusively". He could not think of some prisoners that more deserved to feel the full weight of the law for their act of "shameless brutality". He therefore recorded a sentence of death for all three present, but immediately commuted it to transportation for life on the condition the men were put to hard labour in a chain gang until the end of their lives. They would be "compelled to endure a life of the hardest labour upon very strict regulation."
Patience's character may have been smeared at the trial, but it was nothing compared to what came afterwards. The case stood out for its brutality and was reported in newspapers from the length and breadth of the country. The guilty men were taken to Reading gaol. From there, they wrote letters asking for further mercy. Their excuse? They were drunk. It is telling that the fact Patience had been in a public house on a Sunday was considered evidence against her, but correspondingly, the prisoners who had done the same could consider using the fact to get a lighter punishment. Somewhat strangely, the convicted men also said that a group of local unnamed farmers were behind the "malicious prosecution", the latter party prejudiced against them. I presume this is a reference to the fact that Harding had been suspected of, but not convicted, of poaching previously. A total of 59 people from Marlow also signed a petition on the mens behalf, using the excuse of Harding's youth, and lack of previous conviction to ask for leniency. And of course they said Patience had a "depraved" character and was in fact a prostitute. This was something even the men's defence had not suggested, probably because it would also have suggested the prisoners had been or wished to be her clients. Both Patience, and Moore also signed a letter asking the judge to be merciful - while this may seem strange to us, it is not at all uncommon in similar cases in the period. They were certainly not asking for the men to go unpunished. The stated reasons for Patience and Roberts appeal is not given, but something like an awareness of the hardship dependents faced with a son or brother sentenced to life overseas, or suggestion of a general wish to rise above a situation and show Christian mercy is often given in similar situations. The judge reviewing the case upheld the convictions in entirety and refused the appeals except to grant that Harding could be merely incarcerated for life, without the added chain gang participation, in light of his youth. As was standard, the gaolers were asked to report on the prisoners conduct since arriving under their care. Harding was rated good, Bishop bad and Taylor "very bad".
All three men were transported in the same ship, the Lady Raffles. This left for Van Diemens land in Australia on the 30th November 1840, and arrived there on the 17 March 1841. A total of 331 convicts were abroad on its departure. (They had the company of Marlow resident Charles East who was transported for 14 years - read about him here)
As for Patience, she died sadly young. She continued as a dress maker or related occupations. In 1846 she married cordwainer Anthony Savin(s) of Cookham Dean. She died just 5 years later aged only 38. I do not know what happened to her illegitimate child, the youngster does not seem to have been living with her at the time of her attack or subsequent marriage.
Written and researched by Kathryn Day, with additional research by Charlotte Day.
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Sources include
https://convictrecords.com.au/ships/lady-raffles/1840. Accessed May 2020
Home Office Convict Petitions, series 11, Harding et al, Reference: HO 18/31/10, National Archives Kew.
Census 1841,1851.
The Examiner, 2 August 1840 volume, digitised by Google.
The Spectator, Vol 13, 1840, digitised by Google.
Morning Herald 21 July 1840
Bells Weekly Messenger July 1840
Bucks Gazette 4 July 1840
Berkshire Chronicle 27 June 1840