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A pamphlet from 1624 describes a very intriguing, if brutal, account of the murder of a man from a small Somerset village called Old Cleeve. Mr Trat was the curate (parish priest) of Old Cleeve during the early 17th century. The pamphlet explains in a very gruesome manner how Mr Trat met his end, resulting in the execution of a number of people who were thought to be involved in his murder, and subsequently hanged at Stone Gallows in Taunton in 1624.
The very interesting pamphlet from 1624 (pictured) gives us a fascinating insight into the horrific event. The front cover reads:
‘The crying murther contayning the cruell and most horrible butchery of Mr.Trat, curate of old Cleave; who was first murthered as he trauailed upon the high way, then was brought home to his house and there was quartered and disemboweled: his quarters and bowels being afterwards perboyled and salted up, in a most strange and fearefull manner. For this the judgement of my Lord chiefe Baron Tanfield, young Peter Smethwicke, Andrew Baker, Cyrill Austen, and Alice Walker, were executed this last summer Assizes, the 24. of July, at Stone Gallowes, neere Taunton in Summerset-shire (1624).’
It appears that Peter Smethwicke and the curate had an ongoing dispute. Following a suspicious incident that led to the death of Mr Trats wife by drowning, the Smethwicke family claimed that Trat was responsible for her murder. The reputation of the priest was unharmed following this accusation and Peter Smethwicke was left to think up another plan to bring the reputation of the curate into disrepute. It was not long before the next plan was put in to action. Trat was lured out for supper one evening and while he was away someone (presumably working with Smethwicke) broke into his house and stolen his clerical gown. They then proceeded to carry out, ‘some injury to a county woman’. Clearly the hope was that the woman would see the clerical gown and Trat would be blamed for the incident.
Again, the curate survived this ordeal with his reputation intact. It was at this point that the Smethwickes hatched an elaborate plan to finally rid them of Mr Trat and their ongoing troubles. And this is where the story gets really interesting, and gruesome! The contemporary record tells us that, ‘he was ambushed and killed. His body was then taken back to his own house, and there it was dismembered. […] Poor Trat’s head and genitals were removed and burned. His arms and legs were disjointed and placed […] in large earthenware jars’.
Although successful in murdering the curate, it seems that bad planning and the fact that too many people became involved led to the arrest of Smethwicke and his accomplices. As pointed out earlier they were executed for their crimes in Taunton in 1624.
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