A BODYSNATCHING, EXETER, 1826.

 Mr. Cooke was a surgeon of the city of Exeter who gave anatomical lectures.   He was short of a body to practice on.   He lived close to Saint David's churchyard.   

Elizabeth Taylor lived and died in the parish of Saint David's and was buried on a cold, dusky November evening in 1826.  

Giles Yard, who lived in Mary Arches Lane, was seen by Reynolds the sexton walking up and down in the churchyard.   The grave was there, open, ready for Mrs Taylor's funeral which took place about 5 o' clock when it was not quite dark and the moon was shining.  In his evidence to the Exeter Assizes, in March 1827, the sexton said:

"I went back the next morning and found the coffin  nearly on one side and all the earth out of the grave;  the bran was on the outside of the grave, and the body gone;  I observed tracks and heavy footsteps."

Reynolds informed  Thomas Jerrard,  Elizabeth Taylor's son, that his mother's body had been snatched.   Thomas went to the churchyard the next morning at seven o' clock and, he, four months later, testified to the Assize Court:

"It was hardly light, and (I) found the grave open - the coffin was also open and the body gone  - there had been a frost in the night and I found tracks towards Mr. Cooke's house - I afterwards went for a warrant to search his house-  I went with the officers there between 10 and 11 o' clock - I saw two persons there,  (the second was presumably Giles Yard)  one of whom I believe was Mr. Cooke - the constables went into the house first - I went upstairs, being sent for, and saw the body of my mother on the table, it was covered with a cloth."

At the instance of the parish of Saint David's, Thomas Jerrard brought his action against Cooke and Yard at the March Assizes.  They were charged with breaking and entering the churchyard, (curious?) and wilfully and indecently carying away the body of Elizabeth Taylor.   The jury found them both guilty.  

They were sentenced at the Court of King's Bench in May.  Cooke, who had been on bail, benefitted from an affidavit from Mr. Abernethy,  the celebrated Exeter surgeon,which advised that he, Cooke, had  a high character for science, morality,  and humanity. William Cooke was sentenced to pay a fine of £100.   Giles Yard, who, probably had been imprisoned since November, did not, as far as I can see, make the newspapers.   It would seem that it was thought nobody in Exeter much cared what had happened to him.

I find no mention of what happened to Elizabeth Taylor's body.  Perhaps it was reinterred but Cooke gave his lecture later in November 1826 and maybe Elizabeth's corpse was on the demonstration table.

Sources:  The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 24th March and 27th May 1827.