By now the thought of standing on the ground beneath which protest the remains of some notorious character, though never felt entirely with comfort or accustom, must be, at least, not unusual. Rather the opposite. Such a feeling and such thoughts are inescapable in walking through a graveyard and stopping, here, and there, to inquire into the names, occupations and means of death of those who catch your eye. The thought, however, that beneath you at this very moment may be the skeletal remains of not only the owner of the name above, but of several dead cats, I can entirely accept as just a bit too uncomfortable and I forgive you for taking a cautious step backwards.
You are standing over the notorious Colonel Francis Charteris.
The prize for "most despised in their life time" has an unsettling wealth of candidates in this small Edinburgh graveyard. Their sheer number speaks of that bipolarity affecting the city through its history, mentioned in a previous blog, for the number representative of those rakes, thieves, scoundrels, villains and murderers that haunt this place are balanced by many infamous names known for their high achievements in the enlightenment.
But the former tend not to boast of their past crimes and it takes a keen eye to eek them out from the mass. The rewards, if you're on the mark, are a delightful tingle up your spine.
We've already met that most notorious character, John Porteous and we shall soon meet a great many others. The man above whom you now stand, Francis Charteris, in no uncertain terms, was a seriously twisted, wicked individual - well in for the running to gain the coveted "most despised in their life time" award.
So hated was he that for all his crimes, upon his death and burial in Greyfriars the hearse upon which his coffin was conveyed to the grave was ambushed and savagely attacked by a crowd of angry protesters. The coffin was, eventually, rested from the furious hands of the mob and hastily dropped into its grave. The last rights afforded all Christians was stopped short as the minister was hauled away, dared to even try and bless the beast in the whole in the ground before him. His coffin was showered with spit and curses, faeces, rocks, clods of filth, butcher's offal, horse manure and as many as a dozen dead cats and rats rained down on the hated man amid jeers and triumphant exclamations.
The grave diggers, who had retreated to a safe distance along with the minister, returned to hastily cover up the grave pit, under the indignant eyes of the still remaining crowd.
What is now a hardly recognisable act would have been, in 1732, instantly called sabotage - the crowd had gathered to rob the Colonel Charteris of what they saw as his unworthy Christian soul. In miring his grave with filth and removing the minister from the usual burial ceremony, they ensured the colonel did not receive a christian burial, damning him for an eternity in hell; where they believed he belonged.
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| Colonel Francis Charteris on Trial |
Why such a horrendous act of vandalism on a man who was already dead?
Francis Charteris was born in Edinburgh to a well connected family in Edinburgh in 1675 and as soon as was possible did rapidly build a ruthless reputation for being a vile and heinous animal. Known for a profligate liar, a cheat and a fraud, a virulent bully who was a tyrant to women and anyone who crossed his path he was despised throughout London society, where he spent most of his time. He was seen by many as a despicable Caligula-like figure, some totally deprived and insane lecher, whose malice was matched only by his intense greed.
His dishonesty and his unquenchable greed for power and wealth made him a notorious gambler - from which he amassed an enormous fortune. Even his army records are riddled with so many crimes, debauches, infringements of etiquette, and protocol as to revile this man. Despite managing to lie, cheat, and steal his way up to the rank of Colonel he was, no less, dismissed from service four times! Once, for cheating at a game of cards, and once for accepting bribes.
But the crowning glory to this despicable scoundrel's rise was, alas, also his downfall.
Back in his London home, Charteris engaged in his favourite pass-time: a game played between himself and his black crowd of equally sinister and influential friends whereby advertisements would be put out for young maids to enter into their service, where they would then be bribed into having sex with them.
No one knows for how long Charteris engaged in this sick sport, or how deep ran his accomplices through society. What is known, however, is the fate of one poor woman who answered the call, and lived to regret it for the rest of her life.
On the 24th October 1729 the fifty-four year old and by now quite obese Colonel Charteris hired one Anne Bond to work for his household on Hanover Square in London. So infamous was his reputation that Charteris had to disguise his name, leaving miss Bond believing that her new employer was called "Colonel Harvey", a friendly veteran in need of a new maid. Soon, however, miss Bond saw cracks in Harvey's exterior; after just three days of employment, a time of growing, lascivious advances and proposals the terrified Anne Bond discovered Harvey's true identity as the notorious Colonel Charteris.
In fear for her life, the horror-struck Bond tried to escape the lecherous colonel and, had he not stationed his servants at the exits with orders to stop her leaving, she might have succeeded.
Trapped in his household, Charteris raped young miss Bond in an act of brutal violence. Covering his tracks after the crime with his characteristic dishonesty he had the broken young maid stripped, whipped, accused her of theft and had her thrown, disgraced, onto the streets.
But this vile man hadn't counted on Anne Bond's strength, nor on the solidarity she would find with some of the colonel's ex-employees, no doubt sympathetic through similar fates at the scoundrel's wicked hands. Miss Bond lodged a complaint with the authorities and, the authorities having amassed an enormous file on the colonel by this time, she was relieved when they took up her petition and prepared to prosecute. Colonel Francis Charteris was arrested the next day and was taken to the infamous Newgate prison in London to await trial.
The trial was a success and this heinous criminal was found guilty and sentenced to hang. The official report read at the end of the trial held in the old bailey reads:
"Francis Charteris , of St. George's Hanover-Square , Esq ; was indicted, for that he, not having the Fear of God before his Eyes, but being moved by the Instigation of the Devil, did on the 10th of November last, Ravish, and Carnally know Anne Bond , Spinster , against the Will of the said Anne Bond, against the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King, his Crown and Dignity, and against the Statute in that Case made and provided .To this Indictment, the prisoner pleaded not Guilty; and for his Trial, put himself upon God and his Country, &c.(The original can be found here: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?div=t17300228-69 )
After a long Hearing he was found Guilty of the Indictment. Death ."
A happy ending for all his victims? Justice for miss Anne Bond? So everyone thought, and, indeed, celebrated the news of the hated colonel's demise throughout the country. His trial stirred up a media storm in its day. So, on the 10th April 1730, when the King granted Charteris a royal pardon and he was set free from Newgate prison, you can imagine the furore amongst the population.
That anger at this man having escaped his deserved fate at the end of a swinging rope was still present in Edinburgh two years later, 1732. Charteris had returned to his native Edinburgh, some said to escape his growing vulnerability from the countless enemies he'd made in London and to hide from the media frenzy that his trial had stirred up. But the trial and his stay in the notoriously inhospitable Newgate prison had taken its toll on the greying colonel Charteris, he was not a well man.
Colonel Charteris died from his illness on 24th February 1732. The people, robbed once already of a stab at real justice when his royal pardon saved his neck were not now going to let a second opportunity slip them by. His funeral escort was ambushed in Greyfriar's Kirkyard and his grave vandalised, and desanctified.
I know that all you see when you look at the tombstone before you is a name; there is nothing there of this despicable man's heinous life. But now you know. And you know that beneath your feet lies a coffin stuck with the decayed remains of rats and cats thrown their in revulsion of this villainous criminal.
Look around you - he is but one of many of the obscure names you see in their hundreds looking back at you, all with sinister pasts of their own.
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