Please join us on 19th September 2022 for an early morning visit to Somerset County Museum in Taunton to honour the ancestors involved in the Battle of Sedgemoor and Bloody Assizes, 1685.
‘Of more than 500 prisoners brought before the court on 18th and 19th September, 144 were hanged and their remains displayed around the county.’
The Zoyland Heritage Centre asks. ‘Perhaps one of your ancestors was one of the 1000’s of ‘rebels’ who were killed, or one of the 320 who were executed or one of the 800 transported as bonded slaves?’
Related work included:
- Psychopomp and ceremonial work at the Battle site on 2nd September 2022.
- A trip to Winchester on 25th August 2022. The trials started here on 25 August 1685. We remembered Dame Alice Lyle who was beheaded for harbouring battle fugitives.
- A visit to Burnham-on-Sea and Thorngrove on 9th September 2022. These places were the home of my 5th great grand-mother and grand-father. They likely carried inter-generational trauma related to the battle and its aftermath.
More Details
‘She (the author) could not spot a Chapman, Aldridge, Coward, Farnham, Clinton or Terrett amongst the names of those who sailed on the Jamaica Merchant or who were tried to be hanged by Judge Jeffreys. But there were other family surnames. Robert Jones was hanged at Minehead and John, William and Jonas Browne along with a Michael Powell were transported to the Caribbean. There were Allens. John, Richard and Thomas who sailed on the ‘Happy Return’ to Barbados and Ship John (destination not recorded) along with Henry Allen who was fined and whipped at Dorchester and Robert Allen who was convicted to be hanged in Somerton.’