The Town of Ramsgate, 25 October 2024. Photo © Marion Bondage/ Haunted Bench Photo Archive
"Not far from Aldgate is the Town of Ramsgate, in Wapping High Street — a little, low-pitched waterside inn, adjoining Wapping Old Stairs. This is the house where Judge Jeffreys was caught. It was then called the Red Cow. On the flight of James II, Jeffreys decided that it would be wise to follow the Royal example, and so, disguised as a seaman, he came to Wapping to find a ship for Hamburg. He mistook his time, and having several hours to wait, he went to the Red Cow for refreshment. He had shaved off his eyebrows, and was wearing a seaman's suit black with coal-dust. His face also was grimed, and he had every reason for thinking himself secure. But his was a face that, by reason of his words and behaviour to those in his power, stamped itself upon the memory. While taking his refreshment in the Red Cow, he stood at the window, and, by that fatality which often dogs the wicked in life as well as in Sunday-school stories, an attorney whom he had once bullied in court passed by. The attorney gave but one glance, and then roused the neighbourhood with the news that Jeffreys was in their hands. In a few moments the house was surrounded by a crowd of many hundreds, and Jeffreys was only saved from lynching by the arrival of a volunteer company, who arrested him and carried him to the Tower where he died miserably but peacefully."
— Thomas Burke, 'The English Inn', Longmans, Green & Co., 1930
Thomas Burke on 'The Town of Ramsgate,' #Wapping, in 'The English Inn,' Longmans, Green & Co., 1930. #BloodyJeffreys
