Dark evenings with no electric light called for scary stories to be told. The main versions I know of this one are
1. Verse - a ballad
(Printed in 1775 in John Watson's History & Antiquities of Halifax - the earliest text of it that I am directly aware of. This runs to 124 stanzas of four lines each. There is also a version which is a few stanzas shorter).
The lady cry'd, and shriek'd withal,When as from her they ledHer dearest knight into the hall,And there cut off his head.
(In "Hallifax and its Gibbet-Law", [first] printed for William Bently, 1708) Unfortunately in the printed edition there is no clue about where that text came from.
3. Prose - headed "The Discourse of the Slaughter of Eland, Beaumont, Lockwood, Quarmby etc (Published in various places / versions). In our archive is a manuscript of the "Discourse" version written on foolscap and dated 1810........
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| The introductory page (NB number of years from the murders is very wrong) (Box 1/212) |
In short, these texts have been copied and copied and copied. Moreover, until J.M.Kaye published a detailed account of it in the YAJ in 1979, all previous published comment on it seems to have assumed or thought that it was all true or at least based on truth.
The story is in several parts
1. The haughtiness of Sir John Eland, and the murder by him and his henchmen of Quarmby of Quarmby, Lockwood of Lockwood, and Sir Robert Beaumont of Crosland.
2. How Sir Robert's eldest son Adam and young Quarmby and young Lockwood spent the next few years and how they killed Sir John in revenge.
3. How Adam and his companions lived as outlaws in Lancashire and how they returned and killed Sir John's son and grandson.
4. What happened after this. In some versions how Quarmby and Lockwood met their ends. How Adam escaped to France and became a Knight of Rhodes serving there and/or in Hungary.
The Facts
Fact - Sir Robert Beaumont of Crosland was not murdered, at least there is no evidence of that. It is likely that he died about 1330. The story of his murder must be fiction.
Fact - Sir Robert had several sons. They included Adam, who was not the eldest. Adam and his eldest brother John were engaged in criminal activities.
Fact - Sir John Eland was killed in 1350 by an Adam Beaumont (likely to be Sir Robert's son) and his associates. The next year another John Eland was murdered also perhaps by the same gang.
Fact - Adam disappears from the records. It seems he was not brought to justice. The story of his serving in Rhodes or Hungary sounds like fiction.
Our MS
The 1810 Discourse copy in this archive was in the ownership of George Beaumont in the 1890s, for it is kept in an envelope which was sent as a registered letter to him at East Bridgford in 1897, along with a letter from William Cochrane, Aspley Hall, Nottingham, dated January 26, '97, returning the "Old Manuscript you so kindly lent me some weeks since."
I don't know who wrote it out, and I am not sure even if it is all in the same handwriting.
The Discourse text in this archive actually says "Roads" rather than "Rhodes."
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| The last page of the MS (Box 1/212) |
........... "and afterwards Adam Beaumont had his dwelling sometimes at the Roads and sometimes at Hungary and here he ended his life." He ended his life hungry? He is supposed to have written a letter to a friend, Jenkyns Dyson or Dixon, at "the Hole House," Almondbury - so did anyone ever see this letter? (I think its a real place - Hoyle House maybe).
The "Revenge" version includes this passage which I am fairly sure holds foreigners and a culture of Catholic crusades, in high contempt:-
...... after a few Nights and Days he [Adam] was safely Landed within the Realm of France; And being now upon a Shore, and within a Kingdom that usually Rates Honour at its utmost Value, and in that grand Stage of Remark, this Young Gentleman gave such visible Testimonies of his Noble Extract, and true Personal Valour, that he had not long remained in those Parts, till Men of Worth and Grandeur had made Observations upon his Brave and Generous Conduct; and that first brought him into the Acquaintance, and afterwards into the Service, of the Knights of Rhodes, to Fight under them in no mean Command, in Defence of the Christian Faith within the Kingdom of Hungary, which was then very Powerfully Invaded with a vast Army of Turkish Infidels. In this Great and Stupendous Adventure, he gave most large Proofs of his almost invincible Strength, and most Undaunted Courage. In these Dangerous Wars and Prodigious Battles it was, that our English Hero arrived to great Fame and Dignity amongst those Celebrated Champions of our Holy Faith; and amongst whom some have not been afraid to say, that the Name of Beaumont is to be found Registered amongst the Knights of Rhodes.
See E. Cobham Brewer, The Reader's Handbook of Allusions (nineteenth century)... Knight of the Roads: a foot-pad or highwayman; so termed by a pun on the military order entitled "The Knights of Rhodes." A Hungarian: one half-starved.
Conclusions
J.M. Kaye's well-researched article shows clearly that the Beaumont brothers (Sir Robert's sons, perhaps especially John and Adam) were criminally associated with people called Lockwood, amongst others.
Anyone interested should not be distracted by the old publications or local websites, but should read Kaye in YAJ vol. 51 (1979) pp. 61-79. His conclusion is that the ballad was composed as a warning to the Yorkshire gentry of the 1530s about their criminal practices.
In this Archive, in the Eland Feud file which I found in my uncle's desk after his death in 1998, are some letters from John Kaye in the 1970s before his research found a publisher.
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