The local historian E.H.Gooch who in his vanity has one of the largest tombstones in Spalding cemetery translated the following tombstone from Latin into English in the Baptist Chapel burial ground:
“To the memory of Thomas Ives of Spalding in the County of Lincoln. Draper.
Who died on the 16th of September in the Year of Redemption 1725. Aged 58. Esteemed by all who knew him. More especially by his beloved wife Margaret who died on 6th November 1740, aged 68.
Traveller, who’er thou art, cast hither a favourable look.
Where the sacred remains solicit some little stay nor grudge a falling tear the Christian female whose body resteth here enshrined was banished from these earthly regions by the barbarous and ungrateful hand of that bloodthirsty ruffian, who not far from hence justly expiates his horrid crime in deserved chains hung up. He, while she one evening with fatal security waited her absent maid’s return oh, unhappy time, seizing the fatal opportunity, gave the signal of the maid’s return by gently knocking on the door. Thus he deluded the unsuspecting victim and while she herself lift up the latch impetuously the villain rushed in.”[1]
The murderer was William Tyler, a local thatcher who’s parents lived in Spalding. It was alleged that he was in a relationship with the maid and used that to get access to the house. The maid denied this and without proof she was acquitted, but retained in Spalding gaol until the sentence could be delivered at Lincoln as a capital crime.
The motive appears to have been robbery and was reported thus:
“ We hear from Spalding in Lincolnshire that on Tuesday the 10th between seven and eight in the evening Mrs Ives, a widow gentlewoman of that place, about 64 years of age, was barbarously murdered in her own house, her skull being broke, and her throat cut in three or four places, besides a mortal wound under her ear. The house was robbed of money, plate, linen etc to a considerable value. One Tyler, a thatcher, is taken for said murder and he has confessed that an infamous woman of Spalding was concerned with him, she was secured in Spalding jail, and he Monday last sent to Lincoln jail.”[2]
William Tyler was popularly believed to be hung on 1st March 1742 in Spalding Market Place. However, I am reliably informed by local historian Pat Wensor that he was in fact hanged at Lincoln Prison, which ties in with where he was held after trial. However his body was hanged in chains (gibbeted) at a Pinchbeck drain side at a place called Sharps Bridge which crosses the Vernatts Drain such was the heinous nature of his crime.
[1] EH Gooch History of Spalding page 282
[2] Derby Mercury 3rd Dec 1741
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