Davidson's Monument

Found via a search of Historic England's own listings for the word 'murdered'. DATE DISCREPANCY: the monument itself and Historic England's listing both give 1848, but a detailed local-history account (sourced from what reads like original inquest records) and a Geograph caption both independently give 1849 - worth resolving from a primary record before treating either as settled; the narrative below uses the account's own date. Thomas Davidson, game watcher for Sir James Graham of Netherby Hall for over twenty years, was a reformed poacher himself, which made him particularly effective - and resented. On 8 November, he went to check the remote moors around Christenbury Crags and didn't return; his brother John found his body two days later at Wyses Fauld, strangled with his own neckerchief, with footprints of three other people nearby. Suspicion fell on Joseph Hogg, a notorious poacher Davidson had given evidence against just weeks earlier (Hogg was fined and had publicly threatened him in court), Hogg's cousin Nichol Hogg, and a third man, Andrew Turnbull, who had been poaching with them that day. At the coroner's inquest, Turnbull turned witness and gave a detailed confession: the group had spotted Davidson approaching, fled, and when he caught up, Joseph Hogg struck him down and, with Nichol's help, beat and strangled him while Turnbull (by his own account) held back; the three then robbed the body of its money before splitting up. The inquest jury found all three guilty of murder and committal warrants were issued for trial at the next Assizes - but the night after being told this, Turnbull hanged himself in his cell with a towel, leaving charcoal messages on the cell walls protesting his own innocence ('The two Hoggs are guilty, I am innocent') while addressing his wife Jemima with apparent tenderness. He was buried, at his own dying wish unfulfilled due to cost, in a Carlisle cemetery with no family present. The outcome of the Hogg cousins' own trial was not established from the source used here (see sources_needing_access).