At twenty past one in the afternoon of Sunday 9th July 1882, Henry Luxon, poacher turned water-bailiff known to the Exe fishermen as "Lumpy", saw five local lads ( all with good Devon names viz: Luxton, Pinn, Heard, Sanders and Edworthy) go away from Topsham in a boat. They had with them a bass-net. Lumpy gave them ten minutes start and then rowed himself across the Exe to Turf, where he left his boat and walked cautiously along the banks of the Exe to watch them shoot their net. They were at a place betweem Starcross and Powderham known as "the Canal". Four of them shot the net and one, Edworthy, was on the road as a lookout. Lumpy climbed into a tree to observe them and thought he saw them catch a small salmon and kill it and place it in the boat. The stalwart bailiff climbed down from his tree and was seen. "Here's Lumpy!" was the cry. The bailiff thereupon read his warrant to them and demanded to search the boat but the famous five pushed off until there was "about ten fathoms" of water between them and the bailiff. After a while, and some name-calling, the poachers offered to let Lumpy search their boat but Lumpy was quite sure that a dead salmon had by then gone overboard. He took their net and walked back to the Turf.
When the case came to court, at the Castle of Exeter, the charge was netting a salmon on a Sunday. The five defendants' lawyer, Mr Friend, contended that the case had failed through want of proof but the Bench had no doubt that the case had been proved and fined each defendant 18s. 6d., including expenses. (about £120 in today's money,) and confiscated their net,
"Lumpy" is a great name for a water-bailiff. In Devon it is the adjective given to the sea when it is troublesome.
Source: Exeter and Plymouth Gazette. 12th July, 1882.
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