Description

On February 11, 1800, Thomas Webb, an elderly and impoverished pedlar from the village of Swanmore, was walking near Kings Corner. He was ambushed by three soldiers from the Talbot Fencibles, a regiment that was barracked in Botley at the time. The soldiers robbed him of his few shillings, stabbed him with a bayonet, threw him into a ditch, and stamped on him.  Incredibly, despite his horrific injuries, Webb managed to drag himself to a nearby cottage for help. A local surgeon was called and extracted six inches of a bayonet blade from the old man's body. Webb survived just long enough to recount what had happened to him.  Private John Diggins was tried at the Winchester Assizes, found guilty of the murder, and sentenced to hang. The other two soldiers were acquitted due to a lack of evidence. As the stone notes, Diggins' body was then "gibbeted"—hung in chains to rot in public view on Curdridge Common as a grisly deterrent to others. A dark piece of folklore has clung to the monument since the late 19th century. According to local legend, the authorities actually hanged the wrong man. The story claims that one of the acquitted soldiers was the true murderer, but in the chaotic aftermath of the attack, he secretly swapped his bloodied bayonet into Diggins' scabbard to frame his comrade.  The legend states that the real killer finally confessed to the crime on his deathbed 21 years later. While historians generally dismiss this twist as a myth, it remains a popular and lingering part of the Murder Stone's lore.