In this part of our fresh look at the Monmouth Rebellion, the focus this week is on how Weymouth and Melcombe Regis became involved.

Last week we heard how the rebels who were recruited by the Duke of Monmouth after he landed at Lyme Regis in 1685 were punished - beheaded, their bodies quartered and displayed around Lyme.

Even though no-one from Weymouth or Melcombe joined the rebel army, the rebellion didn’t leave the town uninvolved.

Very soon after Monmouth’s landing at Lyme Regis to depose of King James II, a copy of his Proclamation arrived in Weymouth and Melcombe. What happened next thoroughly alarmed the town authorities.

William Wiseman, a 14 year old apprentice barber surgeon read out the proclamation to a crowd which had assembled - from the reaction of the authorities it can only be assumed that he was trying to incite support for the rebellion. They had him arrested and sent to gaol in Dorchester to await trial and punishment.

The authorities’ swift and harsh reaction to Wiseman’s action is understandable. The Civil War experience will have been within many of their memories and very firmly in their minds. At that time Weymouth had supported the King, and Melcombe Parliament; the division within the borough had led to much bitter fighting, 250 dead and considerable destruction of property (The Crabchurch Conspiracy).

There had been much long-term bitterness and the scars had only been healed with the passage of time.

The last thing wanted now was for the town to divide along Monmouth/King James lines and violence breaking out again. The prompt and harsh treatment of Wiseman made it clear to local residents that any of them thinking of getting involved and taking sides could expect similar treatment. It would appear that it had the desired result.

Wiseman appeared before Judge Jeffreys at the Dorchester Assize, where he was sentenced to be whipped for having read the Proclamation. The sentence was carried out by the gaoler, who having concern for Wiseman’s youth, administered the whipping as lightly as he thought he could get away with.

But a Clergyman called Blanchard took exception and said to the gaoler: ‘...he would do his business for him with the Lord Chief Justice, for shamming his sentence in not whipping him half enough...’ to which the gaoler replied:’...you talk of the cruelties of the popish priests, but commend me to Church of England priest for cruelty...’(1)

Clearly Blanchard took his complaint to Jeffreys, who ordered that the boy be whipped again on the following day. This time the whipping was so severe that it was feared the boy would die. That he didn’t is clear, for after Jeffreys departed, Wiseman was taken back to Melcombe and whipped through the town, after which his sentence terminated.

What happened to him subsequently is unknown, but in later years there was a Dr Wiseman known to be living in Weymouth; given that he was apprenticed as a barber surgeon, it is conceivable that this is the same person. He died in January 1744.

*Next week we look at how Weymouth discovered it had not yet finished with the rebellion and then faced

The Dorchester Assize - the arrival of the infamous Judge Jeffreys.

George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem, has been notorious for more than three centuries as The Hanging Judge or Bloody Jeffreys. Even today it is a name synonymous with blood-lust and excessive cruelty.

Jeffreys being in no mood for clemency, handed down death sentences to 251 rebels, although, only 74 of these sentences were actually carried out. Although Weymouth and Melcombe Regis played no part in the rebellion, a demonstration was to be made locally by erecting gallows at Greenhill.

GREG SCHOFIELD