"I Hope I Haven't Offended You."

St. Michael's, Coningsby

Everyone mentions the clock. The world's largest (working) one-hand clock is painted in white on the tower of St. Michael's church in the Lincolnshire village of Coningsby. The local terrain is so flat, the clock can be read from two miles away. The church is 15th century, the clock was added in the 17th. The interior of the church was restored in the Victorian years by the Rev. Mark Garfit, rector in Coningsby from 1863-1872. The Garfits were a numerous and prominent family in the county; well-represented in the banking and clergy professions.

In March 1867, Rev. Garfit had been regularly visiting a bedridden old man who lived in some cottages clustered over the wall behind the rectory paddock. A young couple lived next door: George Baker, a shoemaker, and his young wife, Mary. At the time, however, George was in the parish workhouse. In late March, he was freed and returned home to hear a terrible story from his wife. She told him that Rev. Garfit had called at their cottage, while she was making bread, and urged her to let him have her "just once." Mary said the rector put his hands on her in an indecent way and "pressed me hard against the table, and hurt my body." She resisted and he went away, begging her not to tell anyone.

On 24 March, the Rev. Mr. Garfit got the first letter from George Baker. "My wife has disclosed all. I don't see why I should cloak your sins. It's a disgusting affair." The rector ignored the letter and received a second one, with a demand for £50 or the Bishop would be informed. "You exposed your person and unlawfully took hold of my wife with intent to force her." Baker said he had prepared a circular for the newspapers and to post in the village, entitled, "The Intended Whoredom of the Rev. Mark Garfit, Coningsby, with a Mrs George Baker, of the same place." In several hundred words, Baker related how the rector told Mary Baker that he had taken a liking to her and he would pay her any amount of money to have her just once. She shouldn't worry; the sin would be all his. When she said she would have none of it, he assaulted her. He kissed her roughly and left, saying, "I hope I haven't offended you."

The rector's wife also got a letter. Baker wrote to Mrs. Garfit to say how sorry he was for the scandal but the rector had confessed, offering £20 to end it. The Garfits tried to ignored the Bakers. One day, seeing the rector in the churchyard, George yelled over the wall, "Do you mean to settle this affair?" Getting no response, Baker said he would go to the police.

On 5 May, at the County Court in Lincoln, Mrs. Baker summonsed the rector of Coningsby on a charge of indecent assault. Before the magistrates, she told her story. Under cross-examination, she was challenged on many of the details of her account. She hadn't called out for help because there was no one around. The Bakers, however, lived in a cluster of cottages. Mrs. Coupland, next door, for instance, testified she heard nothing. The Rev. Mr. Garfit denied any such incident had ever taken place. Mr. Tweed, his counsel, called it a blatant effort at extortion by the penniless Bakers. The magistrates unanimously (there were only two and one was a brother clergyman) dismissed the charge against Garfit and declared that he walked out without the "slightest stain" on his character.

Skeptics would say that, of course, posh magistrates, including another clergyman, would side with the accused. Could Garfit have sued Baker for libel or slander? Libel, no. The letters were private and the threatened document was never published. But George Baker was charged with extortion at the Assizes held in Lincoln Castle that July. The rector, under oath, again denied any misconduct with Mrs. Baker. A guilty verdict came quickly. Justice Lush denounced such an infamous crime and George Baker got five years penal servitude. Mary Baker was never charged because, under the legal theory of the time, the wife was presumed to be acting under the direction of her husband.

The Rev. Garfit remained at the rectory in Coningsby until his death in October 1872. 

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Photo: Geograph (Creative Commons)