WHERE DID THE MONEY GO? WILLIAM HOULDEN MORLEY

William Houlden Morley of Medlam near Revesby Bridge was a mid-Victorian parish official who got himself into rather a lot of trouble – but seems to have been treated far more leniently than he might have been had he been a working-class miscreant!

Morley was born at Revesby in 1824 and married at Wood Enderby in 1847. The first problem we hear of was that in March 1881 a sale of stock and equipment was being held at Medlam ‘under a distress of rent’. In other words, Morley was subject to an action for rent arrears and needed to gain some cash.

At the end of the month Morley’s troubles increased when a warrant of distress was issued against him for non-payment of the Poor Law monies due to the Horncastle Union. This was for £45, so it represented the poor rate money that he had collected as Revesby’s overseer of the poor and not paid in. This problem escalated, so at the end of May 1881 his case was heard at Horncastle magistrates’ court – by which time the money owed had increased to £52-16-11½d. The magistrates ordered Morley to pay it, plus costs – but there is no record that he did.

Also in June, Morley was summonsed by Thomas Addison, who was Revesby’s Surveyor of Highways. Here again it would appear that Morley had collected the rates but not paid them over – this time to the tune of £216-11-8¾d. The magistrates rather optimistically ordered him to pay back double.

Morley seems to have lost his farm and moved to Lakenheath in the Breckland region. In April 1883 he was declared bankrupt and his assets liquidated. Yet somehow he rebuilt his life and for many years was the landlord of the Chequers Inn at Worlington in Suffolk. He died there age 74 in 1898, ‘with the respect of all the villagers’. One doubts he would have had the same verdict in Revesby, but it is remarkable that he escaped any charge of fraud or theft.

ADRIAN GRAY MA

Historical Adviser

Pilgrims & Prophets Christian Heritage Tours