Dr Richard Petty

• General Notes
  • @NI885@
    Taken from http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~petyt/petytbiog.h Dr. Richard Petty, c1735-1766
    
    Richard Petty was born at Colne in Lancashire about the year 1735. His father, John Petty who hailed from Dent, was almost certainly relat ed to the Pettys of Craven.
    
    John married Mary Walton at Colne in 1732. Through his marriage John Pet ty became the landlord of the Hole in the Wall Inn on the High Street in C olne, which Mary had inherited from her father George Walton. At that period cock fighting was a popular pastime and cockpits were oft en attached to inns. This was the case at the Hole in the Wall, in June 17 64 there was a notice announcing a cockfight ‘Yorkshire versus Lancashir e’ at Petty’s Pit, Colne. It is clear that Richard Petty was familiar with cock fighting and, indee d, was very interested in it and the gambling that was associated with i t. This interest was to lead in some ways to his death in 1766.
    
    Richard was an apothecary and practised as a doctor at Grassingto n. It is probable that he took over the practice of John Hawkridge who des cribed himself as a Surgeon, Man Midwife and Apothecary. Mr Hawkridge le ft Grassington in 1765 and moved to Otley.
    
    On Easter Tuesday, 1st April 1766, Dr. Petty, Tom Lee; the landlord of t he Blue Anchor Inn at Grassington and others attended the cockfights at Ke ttlewell. It is thought that the Doctor had been lucky and had won a lar ge amount of money. Petty and Lee left the cockfight together to make the ir way back to Grassington. They called at several inns and at their la st port of call at Henry Ellis’s inn at Conistone they were reported to ha ve drunk a pint of rum between them and were pretty well intoxicated. Th ey then mounted their horses to ride back to Grassington. Dr. Petty was ne ver seen alive again.
    
    On 2nd April the inhabitants were beginning to worry about the disappearan ce of Dr. Petty and the next day they asked Tom Lee to search for hi m. On the 4th April Dr. Petty’s father, John, was sent for from Colne a nd he paid the expenses of the search for his son. On the 15th April Tom Lee was committed to York Castle on suspicion of mur dering Dr. Petty. At this stage the body of Dr. Petty had not been found b ut early in May 1766 Ann Grieve was by the River Wharfe at Burnsall and s aw something strange in the water, she went for assistance and with the he lp of William Grieve and William Airton they recovered the body of Richa rd Petty. He was fully clothed but his clothes had the appearance of havi ng been buried in earth before he had been thrown into the river. An inque st was formally opened with evidence of identification so that the funer al could proceed. An entry in the Burnsal Parish Register reads ‘3rd May 1 766 Richard Petty, who was found in the water, (buried) by Mr. Knowles’. T he inquest was resumed on 19th May and the jury found ‘the said Richard Pe tty was murdered by the said Thomas Lee or some other person or persons un known’.
    
    At the Summer Assize held at York in July 1766 Thomas Lee was charged befo re a Grand Jury with the murder of Richard Petty. The Grand Jury acquitt ed Lee of the murder because of the lack of convincing evidence but becau se a Grand Jury hearing is not a trial, and there is accordingly no acquit tal or conviction, the accused could be tried at a later date if new evide nce turned up. Tom Lee was released, and returned to Grassington, at the s ame time John Burnup, his servant, who is rumoured to have heard incrimina ting conversations between Lee, his wife and others, left his employment a nd moved to Durham. Two years later Burnup’s conscience got the bett er of him and following a statement to the authorities Thomas Lee was comm itted to York Castle on 27th March 1768 on suspicion of murdering Richa rd Petty two years earlier. The trial was held at York in July 1768 when L ee and John Bownass were charged with the murder, whilst John Burnup and J ohn Tulley were charged with being concerned in the removal of Dr. Petty ’s body, in order to conceal a murder. Evidence was given that Dr. Petty w as murdered at Grass Wood Gate, money was stolen from his pockets and t he body laid among some reeds in Grass Wood. After the murder they moved t he body three different times, and lastly, about five weeks after the eve nt threw Dr. Petty’s remains into the river to make it appear that he h ad drowned. Lee was found guilty and the other three were acquitted. Lee w as hanged at York on Monday 28th July 1768 and his body was taken to Grass ington and the body was hung on a gibbet near the scene of the murder. Ma ny accounts of this murder have been published but the most accurate by f ar is the one published by R. Geoffrey Rowley in 1982.