John Roberts Chanter - Barnstaple

John Chanter's (1816-1895) first work containing a map was published in 1865; the map being a plan of the town of Barnstaple. Sketches of Some Striking Incidents in the History of Barnstaple was printed and sold by E J Arnold of High Street, Barnstaple and was a summarised history of the chief events of the town. This was the substance of a lecture that Chanter had given to the Literary & Scientific Institution of Barnstaple in March 1865. In 1866 Chanter compiled his Sketches of the Literary History of Barnstaple which again was printed and sold locally by E J Arnold. This was the bringing together of various Papers that Chanter had read at the Literary Institution.

The Striking Incidents is a rather dry affair but has an interesting account of the Danes´ involvement in the founding of Barnstaple. The Plan of Barnstaple described below is drawn with the intention of showing the limits of the castle and Castle Green, much owing to the original attempts of the Danes to fortify their landing place. The second structure highlighted is the site of the fort during the Civil Wars.

In Chanter´s later literary work he refers back to the fact that he had mentioned a murder trial held when the Assizes had to meet in Barnstaple in his Striking Incidents. In Literary History he describes the murder and how it was both sensationalised and how it contributed to Fake News at the time.

These entries serve to throw light on a disputed point in traditional history, the statement of one of our Judges (Judge Glanville) having pronounced sentence of death on his own daughter for murder. The event was one which made a great sensation at the time, and gave rise to a drama, and likewise to a great number of ballads and broadsides, published in all parts of the kingdom, “The lamentable tragedy of Page, of Plymouth.”

The following is an abridged version as he wrote it: The story had been spread that Judge Glanville´s daughter, Ulalia, was attracted to a young man of Tavistock, George Strangwidge, lieutenant. His letters were intercepted by the father who disapproved of the friendship. An old miser of Plymouth, named Page, obtained her father 's good will and Ulalia´s hand while George was at away sea. On her marriage she took her maid from Tavistock, but the husband was stingy and dismissed his servants so his wife and her maid were made to do all the work themselves.

When George Strangwidge returned from sea, the two young lovers found out that his letters had been intercepted. The maid and the mistress then plotted to get rid of the old gentleman, to which Strangwidge apparently consented with great reluctance. Page lived in Woolster Street, in Plymouth, and a woman neighbour looking out, saw a young gentleman under Page’s window, and heard him say, "for God 's sake stay your hand.”

A female voice replied, “Tis too late, the deed is done.” The following morning believing old Page to have died suddenly in the night he was buried. On the testimony, however, of the neighbour, the body was disinterred, and it appeared that he had actually been strangled. Consequently, his wife, the maid, and Strangwidge were arrested, tried, and executed. Since that time the story had been in circulation that Judge Glanville, her own father, tried her and pronounced her sentence. Chanter unravels fact from fiction: in his Striking Incidents he had mentioned the writings of Philip Wyot (reporting the events of 1590) as not only confirms the truth of the legend, but incidentally proves that her father did not try or condemn her.

Owing to the plague in Exeter, the assizes were held at Barnstaple, and only one, Judge Lord Anderson, came to try the prisoners. “The gibbet was set up on Castle Green, and XVIII prisoners hanged, whereof III of Plymouth, for a murder.” (Chanter writes IIII in Striking Incidents.) The execution is corroborated by parish registers which have entries George Strangwith and Ulalya Page as two of those executed on that day.

As well as dispersing a bit of Fake News Chanter also mentions that a number of Ballads, e.g. The lament of Master Page ’s wife of Plymouth were printed (and possibly sung) and told the story of one who being enforced by her parents to wed him against her will, did most wickedly consent to his murther, for the love of George Strangwidge, for which fact she suffered death at Barnstaple. Written with her own hands, a little before her death."

Chanter: On reading these old broad sheet ballads I was struck by the extreme similarity, both of their style and matter and getting up, to the broad sheets that are even now frequently printed and hawked about for sale, in markets and country places.

Broad sheets of this character, unfortunately, are still in great request among the younger population of our rural parishes, and form what is commonly called “Seven Dials Literature" and it is only surprising that purchasers should still be found for such consummate trash.

Chanter - History of Barnstaple

Size: 260 x 220 mm. No scale.

Plan of Barnstaple (Aa). The simple sketch map shows the town in outline only with the sites of fortifications. Note below title: The Red lines show the Sites of the Castle and Ancient walls, BARBICAN and also the FORT of the Civil war.

1. 1865 Sketches of Some Striking Incidents in the History of Barnstaple ... By J R Chanter
Barnstaple. E J Arnold. 1865.     KB, BL.

See also:

The story of Mrs Page can be found at the North Devon Museum site https://talesfromthearchives.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/the-tale-of-ulalia-page/

The North Devon Museum has the painting of Chanter illustrated and it can be viewed at https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/