Having access to various online newspaper archives i have been trying to see if any of my ancestors have appeared in print, for example if Richard Genner loss in combat was listed. So far i haven't found anything like that but i did find a rather interesting story involving a "Richard Genner" back in 1811. I don't think he is a relation, though you never know. My Grandmother always said she was related to Dr Jenner of smallpox fame.
In the "Hull Packet and Original Weekly Commercial, Literary and General Advertiser" is a story entitled "Extraordinary Case" and it recounts the news that the sons of the respected farmer Richard Genner of Mayersfield, Sussex found a letter in the road addressed to their father. The letter was titled "Fire! Murder! and Revenge!" and threatened to destroy the parson's and churchwarden's homes and the farms of the area. The sons said they saw the letter being dropped by the Reverend Bingham after he had given a service in the parish and was on horseback to another.
We then read that Bingham's home caught fire and that he blamed the foresters for it. However investigators found his explanation of intruders suspicious and placed some men nearby to keep a watch on Bingham and in doing so they found he had a hidden room at his home where all his papers and other valuables were being kept safe. Bingham was committed to trial for fraud. A later newspaper article reports that he was also indited with writing the threatening letter to Jenner.
Sounds like an ideal plot for a BBC period piece to me.
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