Murdered in the line of duty – The Whimsey Inn, Oldbury, 1828

WILLIAM Steventon alias ‘Billy Sugar’, a miner, aged 31, described as ‘a large powerful man of a ferocious disposition’, was generally known to carry a knife.

There had been six or seven warrants over the previous two years, for debts, but great reluctance to take him was shown by the officers of the Oldbury Court of Requests, where claims of under £5 were heard.

John Horton, Serjeant of the Oldbury Court of Requests, and keeper of the gaol belonging to the court, a ‘mild and respectable man, with a pregnant wife and five children,’ on the evening of Monday, 31st March 1828, heard that Stevenson was at the Whimsey Inn, Halesowen Street, Oldbury, and went there to take him into custody.

Drinking

He found him drinking with several companions, and, perhaps surprisingly, Steventon agreed to be taken into custody, if he should be allowed to go home and change his shirt.

Horton reluctantly agreed to this, and Steventon went home. When he returned to the public house, he sat for a few minutes, then suddenly rose, ran Horton through with a ‘short sword,’ said to have been 20 inches long, and calmly walked out of the public house unhindered; he then disappeared. John Horton died on the following Wednesday.

Inquest

On Thursday 10th April 1828, an inquest was held before George Hinchliffe, coroner, and after hearing the evidence the jury immediately returned a verdict of wilful murder, and a reward of 30 guineas, a considerable sum in those days, was offered for his capture.

Although it was rumoured that Steventon was being sheltered locally by members of his family, he was apprehended on 23rd April, at a village near Pontypool, Monmouthshire, brought back to Oldbury, and then taken to Salop county gaol on a coroners’ warrant.

At the Shropshire Assizes, on Friday, 1st August, before Mr. Justice Gazelee, Steventon stood in the dock indicted for the wilful murder of John Horton.

Among the witnesses who testified, was Samuel Holland, the licensee of the Whimsey Inn, who told the court how on reaching home on the night of 31st March he found several persons sitting in the kitchen, among them were the prisoner and John Horton, the latter appeared to be intoxicated, but Steventon was perfectly sober.

After hearing the evidence and the judge having summed up, the

Right: Contemporary report from a local newspaper of the reward for the arrest of Billy Sugar

jury, without hesitation, returned a verdict of guilty; he was sentenced to death, to be carried out on the following Monday.

Knife

Whilst in prison, Steventon acknowledged the sentence was just and admitted carrying a knife, but claimed the act was not premeditated; he declared that ‘he was unconscious at the moment he was justified, and he hoped God would forgive him, because he had offended from the want of education and knowledge, he had never read the bible or heard anything about the scriptures.’

Crowd

At 12 o’clock, noon, on Monday, 4th August, in front of a large crowd, reported to be ‘an immense multitude,’ Steventon, along with three other men were hanged.

Their bodies were given for dissection.