A Civil War Love Story

Throughout the course of history there have been many stories about relationships that have survived the ages – both fictional and actual. In a literary sense there can’t be many stories as well-known as Romeo and Juliet and in a historical sense we live in a country where a King - Edward VIII – gave up the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorcee at a time when remarriage after divorce was opposed by the Church of England, in 1936.

With all that taken into account though, there surely can’t be a relationship that began in England, or elsewhere for that matter, that can trace back its origins and say that on the very first day they met one of them hit the other in the head with a small rock!

The story begins in 1647 during the English Civil War when a regiment of troopers in service of Parliament marched over St. Mary’s Bridge in Derby on their way to Nottingham. To the side of the bridge as they did, they observed a young girl by the side of the river ladling water into her pail. Perhaps predictably, the troopers felt the need to shout “jokes” to the girl. Though we have no record of what they said, it’s probably fair to say that in that era her age – she was fifteen – was no barrier to the jokes being somewhat coarse.

Of course, amongst all groups of rowdy men we always seem to have those who take things even further than the others - and this regiment of troopers certainly had one of these.

Dismounting his horse, this particular man thought it would be funny to throw a large stone into the river near the girl to give her a scare.

Showing appalling aim for a military man, the rock flew through the air until its trajectory took it directly into the poor young girl’s head. With cries, tears and blood abounding, the girl fled home and the soldier rushed from the scene to the front of the regiment to avoid any potential consequences.

It is fair to say that this event preyed a great deal on the soldier’s mind – particularly the fact that he didn’t know how the young girl had fared once she ran off. It was, after all, more than possible that she could have died.

Though he rode in the regiment for a further eleven years, once he left – and out of all the places he could choose from – he came to Derby.

Whilst in Derby he courted and married a young woman and in the course of their conversations something became clear – the very woman he had met in Derby was once the young girl whose head he had hit with a rock!

It seems that his remorse and her forgiving nature helped them overcome that knowledge and they lived happily together on Bridge Gate having ten children together.

And how has this story survived almost four hundred years so we can still recount it today?

The answer is that they were the great grandparents of William Hutton – the Derby-born historian and poet who wrote his History of Derby in 1791 – a man whose statue is one of the four that are still watching over Derby to this day on the old Boots Building.

Though he didn’t recount their names, he did at least leave us with a most curious tale to enjoy – as he did with many other stories in his 1791 History of Derby.

Thank you, William!