Arden House, in Abbey Street Faversham,
Kent, was the location for the infamous murder of it's owner, Thomas Arden in
1551 by his wife Alice. It is the only residential building left over from the
great Faversham Abbey founded in 1147 by King Stephen as his intended resting
place, and used by the likes of Cardinal Wolsey when he visited the abbey. It
was huge by even today's standards, covering over 32,000 sq ft. It lasted less
than 100 years, its end came in 1538 when King Henry VIII dissolved the church
and monasteries and demolished the great church sending the stone back to France
to reinforce Calais, then in English hands.
Arden House was purchased by Thomas
Arden, whilst he worked for the government office that was selling off the
monastic property to the highest bidder's. Thomas, a former Mayor and Controller
of the Port of Faversham, was a man obsessed with money-making, adding to his
property portfolio as he added more and more of the Abbey site to it. Today
Thomas would probably be accused of being an insider trader so to speak. So
obsessed was he with money-making, he neglected his wife Alice, the daughter of
wealthy John Brigantine and Alice Squire. Alice was described as "young, tall
and well favoured of shape and countenance". Alice, fed up with Thomas's
neglect, began an affair with a tailor, Richard Mosbye, and then plotted to kill
her husband Thomas. Although the affair was carried on rather openly, Thomas
chose to turn a blind eye, unwilling to sever links with Alice's wealthy family.
In time Alice began to loathe her
husband more and more and indeed made an unsuccessful attempt to poison him.
Alice found a willing accomplice in a Mr Green, someone with a grievance against
Thomas Arden over land he claimed Thomas had stolen from him in one of his
'dodgy' land deals at the former Abbey site. Green and Thomas had even come to
blows in public over the matter and Green was more than willing to murder
Thomas. Since neither were experienced in murder, they sought out a mercenary,
with the help of a local goldsmith, George Bradshaw. They were introduced to a
veteran soldier named Black Will, who was apparently getting by as a highwayman
locally, and would kill Thomas for the sum of ten pounds.
After numerous failed attempts the
murder took place here in Thomas's own house (Arden House) on 14th February
1551. It was reported thus by Holinshed in the Chamber Book of Days;
"The wicked wife then laid a plot for
murdering her husband in his own house. She procured the services of Mosbye's
sister, Cicely Pounder, and two of Arden's own servants, Michael Saunderson and
Elizabeth Stafford. On a particular day selected Sunday, Black Will was hidden
in a closet at the end of Arden's parlour. After supper, Arden sat down to play
some kind of game with Mosbye; Green stood at Arden's back, holding a candle in
his hand, to shadow Black Will, when he should come out and the other
conspirators had their clue. At a given signal in the game, Black Will came with
a napkyn in his hand came behind Arden's back and thre the said napkyn over his
head and face, ad strangled him; and forthwith Mosbye stept to him and strake
him with a tailor's great pressing iron upon the scull to the braine, and
immediately drew out his dagger, which was groat and broad, and therewith cut
the said Arden's throat."
Mosbye and Black Will transferred Arden
to his counting house. There Will finished him off. Alice, wishing to make sure
he was indeed dead stabbed him seven or eight times herself. She paid Black Will
his ten pounds and allowed him to take Thomas's rings and coin purse. Green then
provided him with a horse to make good his escape. Alice then had the parlour
cleaned and the blood wiped up. The knife and cloth were then discarded. When
everything was prepared, guests started arriving foe a delayed supper. They
included Mosbye's sister, Cicely. Alice feigned ignorance at the reasons her
husband was taking so long to return home. Alice made sure to keep her guests
around as long as possible while constantly reminding them of the suspicious
absence of her husband. Then she sent most of the servants out to look for their
master. Meanwhile Alice, her daughter Margaret Arden, Cicely Pounder and the
maid Elizabeth Stafford would transport the corpse of Thomas outside the house.
they "carried it out into a field adjoining to the churchyard, and to his own
garden wall, through which he went to church". they laid it down "about ten
paces from the door of that garden", making it seem as if Thomas was murdered
outside.
The Newgate Calendar gives a rather different account. That night, Alice made a
show of her supposed worry for her spouse's disappearance. She had her servants
search for him late into the night, wept and lamented, alerted the neighbours.
At last the local mayor was informed and a town-wide search was contacted. When
the corpse was discovered, the people involved with the search started doubting
the innocence of Alice. It was a cold winter night and there was fresh
snow on the ground. But the body was only dressed in "its night-gown and slippers".
Making it unlikely he was going about his business in town when killed. The
fresh snow had preserved footprints of
several people in the distance between the location of the body and the
residence of the Arden's, making it plain the body had been transported from the
house to its current position.
Suspicions immediately fell on Alice. She was confronted by the mayor and "very
strictly examined" on the murder of her husband. She initially denied any
knowledge of the deed. But the people of the town contacted further searches
near the house. Discovering hair and blood of the victim, the bloody knife and
the cloth. Discarded but poorly hidden. Alice was at length forced to confess to
her guilt. Also naming her associates. The two Arden ladies (mother and
daughter), the servant and the maid were immediately arrested and sent to
prison. Mosbye was not present. He was found sleeping at the "Flower-de-Luce",
the house of Adam Fowle which he frequented. With blood found on his stockings
and coin purse, this
conspirator was also arrested.
A bit more controversial was the arrest of George Bradshaw. He was mentioned in
the correspondence between Alice and Green as the man who introduced then to
Black Will. The goldsmith was then accused of being the "procurer of Black
Will". He was otherwise unconnected to the case. The rest of the accused claimed
to have never met the man, much less conversed or conspired with him. His
protests of innocence failed to convince the court however.
Alice Arden was found guilty of the crime of murder (Petty Treason) and burnt
at the stake in Canterbury. The crime caused a sensation and her
execution was a huge event attended by people from many distant towns. It is
reported that she went bravely to the stake which had been set up in a field
outside the city. The execution took place at one o'clock in the afternoon and
was over by three. Alice went out on foot dressed in a black gown and knelt
praying for a few minutes in front of the stake. Then she was helped to her feet
by a priest and she removed her shoes, her black gown and her petticoat and
dressed in a simple black, sleeveless shift she was led to the stake and climbed
onto a stool called the trivett that stood in front of it. Chains were fastened
around her waist, thighs, knees, ankles and chest to hold her firm, and her
wrists were chained together behind the stake. At this point the executioner
removed the stool on which Alice was standing and she was left hanging in the
chains about three feet above the ground. Wood bundled together in fagots was
pushed quickly under her and set alight. At first she remained calm and coughed
a little with the smoke but when the flames reached her feet she lost control of
herself and cried out piteously while struggling to escape. Alice was not
strangled during the execution as was sometimes done in those days and she
suffered the full horror of her sentence as small amounts of wood were added to
the fire to burn her slowly to death. Reports at the time suggest that she
survived at the stake for over and hour before dying. Her co-conspirators were
all rounded up and executed by various means and at different locations.
Michael Saunderson was " drawn and hanged,
(or hanged in chains) at Feversham". Elizabeth Stafford, the maid, was
burned at the stake in Faversham. She did not meet her end with the composure of
her mistress and was dragged howling and screaming to the stake. It took three
men to chain her to it although she was a slim girl and only 16 years old. She
too was burned alive rather than being strangled during the execution but
mercifully seems to have died more quickly than Alice, the execution being over
within an hour. Richard Mosbye and
Cicely Pounder, brother and sister, were hanged at Smithfield, George
Bradshaw was hanged in chains at Canterbury.
There are two accounts given on the fate of John Green. Holinshed simply
mentions that Green was hung at Faversham. The
Newgate Calendar has him evading arrest for some years. He was eventually caught
and "hanged in chains in the highway between
Ospringe and Boughton". Before he died, Green attempted to clear the name
of Bradshaw proclaiming the innocence of the long-dead goldsmith.
Black Will ended his life on a scaffold. Holinshed mentions that Will "escaped
for many years, but was at length taken, and 'brent on a seaffolde at
Flushing'". This could be Flushing in
Cornwall, however, The Newgate Calendar agrees on the manner of death but
places the execution at Flushing
Zeeland (Holland).
Adam Fowle
was also implicated and incarcerated for some time at Marshalsea
Prison in Southwark London. He alone was found innocent and discharged.
The Chamber Book of Days mentions the event entering local legend. "It was long
said that no grass would grow on the spot where Arden’s dead body was found;
some, in accordance with the superstitions of
the times, attributed this to the murder; while others declared that 'the field
he hadde cruelly taken from a widow woman, who had curst him most bitterly, even
to his face, wishing that all the world might wonder on him."
In 1592, the events were dramatized in the play "Arden of Faversham",
being entered
into the Register of the Stationers
Company on 3rd April 1592, and printed later that year by Edward
White. The paternity of the play has been long disputed, with William
Shakespeare himself being the most prominent candidate put forward, along
with Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe.
The play was later adapted by George Lillo,
notable as perhaps the earliest surviving example of a
"domestic tragedy". The play is
occasionally performed in the gardens of Arden's House, a very rare example of
an Elizabethan play which can be performed in it's actual setting.