Joseph Hedley

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An 1826 postcard showing an illustration of "Joe the Quilter's" Cottage, Homers house.[1]

Joseph Hedley (also known as Joe the Quilter, 1749/1750 – 3 January 1826) was a Quilter from Northumberland. He is known for his murder, which occurred on the 3rd of January, 1826, and whose culprit remains unknown.

Life[]

Joseph Hedley, born at some point in 1749/1750 in Northumberland.[2] Little is known about his early life except what scant information is given in his obituaries, which are more interested in contrasting the peacefulness of his late life with his grisly murder.[3] It is know that he trained as a tailor, probably taking an apprenticeship in the craft. However, for an unknown reason he gave up the craft for that of Quilt making.[4][5]

"His quilts with country fame was crowned,
"So neatly stitched, and all the ground
"Adorned with flowers or figured round."

A. Wright, Section of a contemporary ballad [6][7]

While much of the nations quilting industry was in decline during the second half of the 18th century, in part due to the industrial revolution, Northumberland quilters in general and Joe the Quilter in particular managed to buck this trend.[8] During his life he was known as a highly skilled craftsman, designing and quilting in both linen and cotton, with extremely fine details executed down to a quarter of an inch.[9] Many of his designs show a propensity towards flowers, chains and diamond shapes, becoming especially associated with a pattern known as 'Old Joe's chain'.[10][2] Such was his reputation that he created quilts for customers as far away as America and Ireland.[2]

In 1773, at the age of 23, Hedley married Isabel Thompson, a woman 25 years his elder, and moved into a typical 2 roomed 'squatter' cottage in Warden Parish, called "Homer's House".[11] the cottage was on the road between Warden church and Chollerford, over-looking the Tyne.[12] The Hedley's kept a small garden, containing vegetables and herbs and had kept a variety of animals.[13] As Isabel aged, Joseph would spent many of his prime years caring for her and when she died he was left almost destitute.[14] He was generally well liked by the local community but his seclusion made him liable with it being reported that he would have starved during a severe snow storm in 1823, had it not been for a Hexham clergyman wading through snow drifts to bring him food when other attempts to reach him had failed.[12]

Murder[]

Reward notice, signed in the name of Robert Peel, offering a reward of 100 guineas for evidence in the case.[15]

On the evening of Thursday, 3 January 1826 he was murdered in his home by an unknown attacker. Hedley was 76 years old.[16][17] That afternoon he had been at Walwick Grange and had received charitable aid from the farmer there. During the evening a variety of visitors called on him and all recall him being in good health, with the last person to see him alive being a peddler[a] from Stamfordham asking for directions. An hour later when a Mr. Smith of Haughton Castle rode past he noted Joe's cottage was dark and silent. Despite passes by and herdsman noting the strangeness of the cottage being locked up and silent over the next few days, it wasn't until the Saturday that further inquiry was undertaken.[19]

On the afternoon of the 7th alarmed neighbours burst open the locked door to Hedley's home. His body was found in a small inner room with more than 40 wounds inflicted to his face and neck. There seemed to have been a struggle outside the cottage as his clogs and some scraps of cloths were discovered on the other side of the road, with some at the time theorising this showed that Hedley had been attempting to flee to the nearest residence, Wall Mill.[b] There was also signs of struggle inside the cottage and several garden tools were suspected to have been used as murder weapons by those at the scene.[21][20]

Little motive could be discerned for such a violent act. The only possible explanation seems to be that the his murders believed rumours that Hedley had some secret fortune despite the fact that Joe was known to be receiving parish aid. This interpretation is backed up by the fact that the perpetrators appear to have rummaged through the old man's draws, evidently in search of something.[21][20]

A 100 guineas reward was put up by the local parish and a full pardon promised by Robert Peel for any accomplice who came forward.[22][20] Despite this, all efforts to find the culprits came to naught. Several arrests were made in the immediate aftermath but no one was prosecuted, and from time to time afterwards, purported confessions were made but all have been discounted as fabrications.[20]

Legacy[]

The recreation of Joe the Quilter's cottage at Beamish Museum

The life and death of Joe the Quilter was remembered in a contemporary ballad by A. Wright, which inspired the Richard Dawson song "Joe The Quilt Maker" from his album Glass Trunk.[7][23] Due to the brutality of his death and subsequent reaction in newspapers around the country, a lot more is recorded about Joseph Hedley's life and living conditions than is usual for a person of his social standing in the Georgian era.[24]

Hedley's cottage was demolished in 1872 and its location forgotten until archaeologists led by the Beamish Museum, using an 1826 postcard and old maps of the area, excavated the site.[14][17] The museum used a floor plan and information from the time to reconstruct the cottage, opening it to visitors in 2018.[25]

References[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ The peddlers of Northumberland would have been well known to Hedley as they were the primary way that craftsman such as him would have bought their materials, with cloth peddlers calling into individual farms. Such traders were still working in Northumberland into the 20th Century.[18]
  2. ^ Wall Mill was about a quarter of a mile from Homers House[20]

Citations[]

  1. ^ Smith 2021, p. 53.
  2. ^ a b c Hexham Courant 2015.
  3. ^ Smith 2021, p. 9.
  4. ^ Monthly chronicle 1887, p. 221.
  5. ^ Smith 2021, p. 12.
  6. ^ Richardson 1846, p. 320.
  7. ^ a b Monthly chronicle 1887, p. 224.
  8. ^ Smith 2021, pp. 66–67.
  9. ^ Rae 1996, pp. 18–20.
  10. ^ Rae 1996, p. 20.
  11. ^ Smith 2021, pp. 48–52.
  12. ^ a b Monthly chronicle 1887, p. 222.
  13. ^ Smith 2021, pp. 52–53, 70.
  14. ^ a b Lloyd 2018.
  15. ^ Smith 2021, p. 148.
  16. ^ BBC News 2018.
  17. ^ a b Lobell 2016.
  18. ^ Rae 1996, p. 48.
  19. ^ Monthly chronicle 1887, pp. 222–223.
  20. ^ a b c d e Monthly chronicle 1887, p. 223.
  21. ^ a b Caledonian Mercury 1826.
  22. ^ Northumberland Archives 2017.
  23. ^ Spragg 2015.
  24. ^ Beamish Exhibit.
  25. ^ Williams & Meechan 2018.

Bibliography[]

  • "Northumberland cottage linked to 1826 murder rebuilt". BBC news. 21 July 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  • "The Quilter's Cottage". Beamish. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  • "Horrid Murder". The Caledonian Mercury. 16 January 1826. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  • "Grisly killing of Joe the Quilter". Hexham Courant. 29 July 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  • "Joe the Quilter". Monthly chronicle of north-country lore and legend. Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 1 (5): 221–224. July 1887. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  • "The Murder of Joe the Quilter". Northumberland Archives. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  • Lloyd, Chris (2 August 2018). "How Joe the Quilter was found with his "throat cut from ear to ear"". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  • Lobell, Jarrett A. (June 2016). "The Death of Joe the Quilter". Archaeology. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  • Rae, Janet (1996). The Quilts of the British Isles. Deirdre McDonald Books. ISBN 978-1-898094-14-2.
  • Richardson, Moses Aaron (1846). The Borderer's Table Book: Or, Gatherings of the Local History and Romance of the English and Scottish Border. Vol. 3. Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  • Smith, Robert (3 August 2021). A Horrid Deed: The Life and Death of Joe the Quilter. Guardbridge Books. ISBN 978-1-911486-63-3.
  • Spragg, Andrew (14 December 2015). "Richard Dawson: The Magic Bridge/The Glass Trunk (Reissues)". Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  • Williams, Victoria; Meechan, Simon (20 July 2018). "Murdered Georgian quilter's cottage lovingly rebuilt brick by brick at Beamish Museum". Retrieved 13 November 2021.
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