The Cawston Duel Stone

NOT A MURDER STONE technically, but legally closer to one than you might expect - see the LEGAL NOTE below. A consensual (if illegal) duel between two willing gentlemen, not a killing of an unwilling victim, which sets it apart from every other entry here. Matches the Facebook commenter's memory closely, including the location right by a former inn, now a garage, on the Holt Road at Cawston. Sir Henry Hobart, 4th Baronet, of Blickling Hall and former MP for King's Lynn, challenged Oliver Le Neve, a lawyer and country squire of Great Witchingham Hall, after losing his parliamentary seat in the 1698 election - Hobart blamed the loss on rumours Le Neve had allegedly spread that he'd been a coward at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The two fought illegally (without the neutral 'seconds' normally required to ensure fair conditions) at dawn on 20 August 1698, reportedly witnessed only by a terrified servant girl hiding in the bushes. Hobart, despite being the more renowned swordsman, was mortally wounded by the left-handed Le Neve and died the next day at Blickling Hall - it's remembered as the last duel ever fought in Norfolk. LEGAL NOTE: killing in a duel was already treated as murder under English law at the time, not a later reclassification - Le Neve fled to Holland immediately afterward to avoid arrest, only returning in 1700 to stand trial for murder at Thetford Assizes, where he was acquitted (helped by having become something of a Tory political hero in the interim). The heart-shaped stone urn was erected by Hobart's widow; National Trust sources give 1698 (shortly after), while Historic England's listing attributes it to W. Wiggell-Bulwer of Wood Dalling in 1770 - this date discrepancy is unresolved between sources. It's Grade II listed (Historic England 1050952) and now in the care of the National Trust. ORIGINAL DOCUMENT FOUND AND QUOTED IN FULL: the Norfolk Record Office blog (already listed below, now read in full) reproduces the actual 1698 letter of challenge held in their archive (NRO, FX210/1) - Oliver Le Neve's own handwritten reply accepting Hobart's challenge, dated 20 August 1698, transcribed in full on the page. It also adds tactical detail on the duel itself: Hobart struck first, wounding Le Neve's arm, but his sword became entangled in Le Neve's coat, leaving him disarmed and open to the fatal counter-thrust - which fills out (rather than contradicts) the 'despite being the more renowned swordsman' line above.