Page 134 - Redditch People

Redditch People

Moses Shrimpton

Villain

Moses Shrimpton was born about 1820 in Long
Crendon, Buckinghamshire and his parents were
George Shrimpton and Elizabeth nee Munday. From
an early age, Moses Shrimpton, enjoyed the
reputation of being a most desperate character as he
had many convictions for poaching and assault.

On the 25th April 1885 Moses Shrimpton was - 1885
convicted of the wilful murder of P.C. James Davies
and was sentenced to hang at the Worcestershire Picture of Moses Shrimpton taken
Spring Assizes on May 7th. He was executed on Whit from the book ‘My Experiences as
Monday, 25th May 1885. an Executioner’ by James Berry

Source/Researched by: British Newspaper Archives

Life and Times of Moses Shrimpton

Moses Shrimpton was born about 1820 in Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire and his
parents were George Shrimpton, born in Long Crendon and Elizabeth nee Munday.

By the 1851 census Moses was aged.30, Needle Maker and lodged in Wapping, Redditch
with Mary Ann Mogg nee Hemming whom he married in 1851 and had 3 children with.
For some years he followed the trade of a needle file maker, and was employed at the
works of Messrs. G. Townsend & Co., Hunt End, near Redditch. Mary Ann died in 1862
and Moses then married Ann Shakel in 1865 in Redditch.

From an early age, Moses Shrimpton, enjoyed the reputation of being a most desperate
character as he had many convictions for poaching and for assault On one such occasion
in 1868 he was one of a band of poachers who followed their unlawful calling in a wood
near Yardley, where they were surprised by some gamekeepers and policemen, and a
desperate encounter ensued, in the course of which, Shrimpton struck one of the
constables named Haynes over the head with a gun with sufficient violence to bend the
barrel. For this he was convicted and sentenced to five years penal servitude. On the
1871 census Moses was a convict aged 50, now classed as a Blacksmith and serving his
time at Her Majesty’s Prison, Postsea.

On the 25th April 1885 Moses Shrimpton was convicted of the wilful murder of P.C.
Davies and sentenced to hang, at the Worcestershire Spring Assizes on May 7th and
hanged on Whit Monday, 25th May 1885.

His victim, James Davies, was born in 1851 in Stourbridge, Worcestershire and he
married Elizabeth Burness 17th May 1875 in Stourbridge and they had 3 children. On
the 1881 census James Davies aged 29, Police Officer, lived with his wife Elizabeth and
family at the Police Station. Beoley.

Page: 134 © RLHS 2015