HISTORY OF HARTING. 197 



murder, about 2 a.m., the smugglers retreated to 

 Pescod's Barn, in Caryll's property, the usual resort 

 of vagabonds for shelter ; but Ann Pescod did not 

 admit them, as her father was ill. The murder was 

 not discovered for some time after, when one of the 

 gang tried for another charge, turned king's evidence. 

 As a mark of the spurious sympathy felt by some 

 for the smugglers on this occasion, and of the terror 

 that they inspired in others, it is stated that only two 

 magistrates ventured to attend at the Chichester ex- 

 aminations, and to take evidence against them. The 

 two heroes were the Duke of Richmond and Mr. Wm. 

 Rickman, grandfather to Mr. John Rickman, Clerk 

 of the House of Commons.* Sir Matthew Fetherston- 

 haugh was foreman of the grand jury that tried the 

 prisoners. Six of them were hung in various places 

 on the Broile, near Chichester, on Selsea Bill, and 

 on Rake Common. 



We may now trace the history of Wm. Combleach, 

 as it is detailed in the Caryll Records. He was 

 gardener to Caryll, and had continued at Lady Holt 

 when Mr. Matthews took it. After the murder, he 

 imprudently told Joseph, a servant at Lady Holt, 

 that when Jackson and Carter called him in the 

 night, they said " they had met with two men who 

 had a mind to kill them ; but that they had made 

 an end of them, and being wearied and fatigued, they 

 desired to lie down upon his (William's) bed for 

 awhile, which he permitted 'em to do, as they were 

 men he had known from a child." As this tale, which 

 probably originated in William's desire to obtain 



Mr. John Rickman, Clerk of the House of Commons, 

 Author of the Census, and of the present system of voting in 

 the House ; married a young lady of Harting, in 1805 Miss 

 Postlethwaite. The Register of the marriage referred to, shews 

 that "John Rickman, Esq., and Miss Susanna Postlethwaite, 

 were married at Harting Church, 3 Oct., 1805. Witnesses 

 Jos. Postlethwaite and Mary Anne Tourle." The Postlethwaite 

 family appear to have settled at East Harting, about the year 1802. 



