The Tale of Thomas Helliker – A Tale of Woe and Tragedy – The Trowbridge Martyr
Prologue
I have previously only known the name Semington from information boards on the Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal: a junction with the Kennet and Avon Canal. This is how ‘Heritage’ works: it fixes your view on space and time; it gives the past meaning. But ‘Counter-Heritage’ remembers those who are ignored, forgotten or misrepresented. It gives a different and radical meaning to the past.
Act the First
‘The orthography is irrelevant, madam.
Helliker, Hilliker, Hiliker, Elliker,
The spelling matters not a jot, madam,
Illiteracy does not mask identity,
We know who the shearman’s apprentice was
At Mr Nash’s Littleton Mill,
Semington, 22nd July 1802;
He was there in the riot, tumult and arson;
Mr. Heath says he saw Helliker brandish a pistol
And intimidate the loyal night watchman;
Mr. Heath had previous heard Helliker
Offer thanks and gratitude for the wrecking
Of honest men’s machinery and livelihoods;
And did not Mr. Heath identify Helliker
After the miscreant’s arrest in Trowbridge,
Last August the third?’
Act the Second
‘What say you, madam?
Helliker was the only mill hand there,
Standing in the line for Heath’s inspection,
And so, his identification was
Designed, fore-planned and inevitable?
Shut your calumnious mouth, madam.
You have been reading that wretch William Godwin’s
Scurrilous Caleb Williams, no doubt.’
Act the Third
‘Predictably, the rogue denied the offence,
I correctly and consequently informed him:
“You have been recognised and it will go bad for you.”
I told him to desist pitiful falsehood:
How convenient that he and Joseph Warren
Should inebriately lock themselves in a kitchen
And so not be present on the night of the attack!
What a tale of drunken coincidence!
More far fetched than the travels of Gulliver!’
Act the Fourth
‘Sir, even if you believe the reasons
Why Thomas could not have been present
At the Semington conflagration
To be hyperbolic invention,
He is not the felon with the pistol.
He knows full well who that person was, sir,
But his sense of honour doth mean silence;
Mr. Heath, however, values a reward
Far above any love of honour or truth;
He is the calumniator, sir,
Not Thomas Helliker.’
Act the Fifth
‘He shall be tried in Salisbury City
According to the due process of the law,
And, no doubt, be found accordingly guilty,
And sentenced to death by hanging,
Rather than transportation to Botany Bay,
Or Van Diemen’s Land, though I have no doubt
That many who share his name will make that voyage.’
Signed: Mr. Jones
Act the Sixth
‘The jury deliberated about ten minutes, during which time Helliker was in great agitation. When at length they pronounced him guilty, he appeared as if relieved from a torturing suspense, and to assume a degree of fortitude to encounter his fate and which he retained when the sentence of death was pronounced. He is a good-looking youth, only nineteen years old. He is left for execution.’
Act the Seventh
‘Sir, he was not quite nineteen at his trial.
They hanged him on the day of his nineteenth birthday.,
The 22nd March 1803.
We went to Fisherton Gaol in Salisbury,
To bring his body home to Trowbridge,
To St James’s Churchyard;
All the way over Salisbury Plain we carried him,
That cart was never accompanied
By such solemnity and ceremony, sir,
As on that long, arduous and melancholy journey.
May God have mercy on Thomas’ soul.
And God will.
He is a martyr.
The Trowbridge Martyr.
But Mr. Jones, Mr. Heath, and the judge at Salisbury Assizes,
And the gentlemen of the jury, and the executioner
May not find God so merciful.
God may not bestow his mercy upon their beleaguered souls.
Did you not all think that this good-looking youth
Ill-fitted the description issued by
R. Bowsher, Solicitor of Bath,
August 10th 1802?
Viz: “middle-sized, black eyes, thin face, teeth large in front and wide apart, sharp nose, black hair tied behind and dressed in a blue jacket.”
A description whose provenance lay
In fleeting glimpses of figures rushing
In disguise, through smoke and flame-filled flashes
Of blinding, disconcerting light.
Or a description whose provenance lay
In the realms of an imagination
Curdled by the lure of sovereign reward.’
Act the Eighth
‘Dear Father and Mother and Brothers and Sister and all my Relations, this is my Last Night. In the middle of the Last night I write this letter. Give all my love to my Uncle George – and all the Best of his family and dear Father. I think some have been the Ruin of my Body, but I hope the Lord will save my soul and that they will put up a tomb stone at my grave – to be a warning to All young men. To be a warning against bad Advice, which has been my fate. And for my Brothers to be good to you both, for it is a Bad thing to forget you. When you read this I hope my soul will be At Rest for ever and ever. Remembered me to Mrs. Baily and Mr. Townsend and W Flicker. Dear Father and mother, this give my Brothers Joseph and think of me when he swears and I hope in God it may Do good to him to leave of fear – well for ever and ever yours, Thomas Hiliker
March-21-1803, My Dear Brothers I hope this will Be A warning to you _ consider my untimely Fate Being cut off in the prime of which I hope will be A Warning to All young men like me and for the Love of God Almighty let my fate Be Always in your memory. To think that before I knew what life was, [I] was out of to Everlasting, I hope, happiness. I thank God I find myself very easy in mind and I hope the Lord God will Receive my Soul. So more Remember my Last Fate Thomas Hiliker, March 21st 1803’
Act the Ninth
‘Sacred to the memory of THOMAS HELLIKER. The thread of whose life was cut off in the bloom of youth. He exchanged mortality for immortality March 22 1803 in the 19th year of his life.
The fatal catastrophe which led to this unfortunate event is too awful to describe suffice it to say that he met death with the greatest fortitude and resignation on mind; considering his youth he may be said to have but few equals. He died a true penitent. Being very anxious in his last moments that others might take a timely warning and avoid evil company.
This tomb was erected at his earnest request by the cloth making factories of the counties of York, Wilts, and Somerset as a token of their love to him and veneration for his memory.’
Act the Tenth
‘This tomb was formerly placed over the remains of
Thomas Helliker
At a time of great disturbance throughout the manufacturing towns of this county. He was
condemned for an offence against the law of which he was afterwards believed to be innocent
and determined to die rather than give testimony which would have saved his own life, but
forfeited the lives of others.
Some of the cloth-workers of this town being so desirous to perpetuate the remembrance of such
an heroic act of self sacrifice have restored this memorial in the year of our Lord 1876.’
Act the Eleventh
Thomas’ final letter can be viewed at Trowbridge Museum. It was one of one hundred objects chosen in the BBC-British Museum A History of the World project.
Epilogue
I have previously only known the name Semington from information boards on the Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal: a junction with the Kennet and Avon Canal. This is how ‘Heritage’ works: it fixes your view on space and time; it gives the past meaning. But ‘Counter-Heritage’ remembers those who are ignored, forgotten or misrepresented. It gives a different and radical meaning to the past.