The pub's website [visit link] tells us a
bit about Camden Town and Mother Black Cap:
"In the Early 18th century, the area known today
as Camden Town, was little more than a coaching inn and a handful of
buildings. The River Fleet, now diverted underground,was still an open
stream, and the area was ideal territory for highwaymen, and was dangerous
for travellers after dark.
It wasn't until 1791 when Charles Pratt, Earl
Camden started full scale development of his estate, that the area became
know as Camden Town.
Other developers acquired land, and with the
completion of the Regents canal in 1820, Camden Town was a major stage in
the transporting of goods from the industrial Midlands to the London
docks.
The railways added further impetus to Camden
Town's development, with the North London Railway, originally called the
East and West India Docks and Birmingham Junction railway, being opened in
1850, and the London Underground Station opened in 1907 by David Lloyd
George.
The story behind the name of The Black cap is
still hotly disputed, especially as the World's End pub opposite was
called Mother Red Cap for some 250 years, but here is what most people
believe to be the reason The Black Cap is so called.
Licensing records show the Mother Black Cap as far
back as 1751.
The first Mother Red Cap (there were two) had a
child at 15 by a man called Gipsy George. George was hanged at Tyburn for
stealing sheep. She then took up with a man called Darby, who disappeared
after a few months of drunken quarrelling and was never seen again. Then
her parents were convicted of killing a girl by black magic and were
hanged. She took up with a third lover call Picher, who before long was
found in her oven, burnt to a cinder.
She went on trial for his murder but was
acquitted, after a witness declared that he often took refuge in the oven
to escape her cruel tongue, and could well have been burnt by accident.
She then became something of a recluse, but was occasionally seen in the
lanes and hedgerows, collecting herbs and berries.
During the Civil War, she gave shelter to a
fugitive, who knocked at her door one night begging for shelter. He had
money and stopped with her for a few years, even though, from time to
time, they were heard quarrelling. When he died there were whispers that
she had poisoned him, but nothing was ever proved.
When she was seen, she was always wearing an ugly
grey cap and a grey shawl, and her huge black cat was never far behind. By
this time people were convinced she was a witch, and most were too
frightened to go near her, her only visitors being Moll Cut-purse the
highwaywoman and a few brave souls wanting their fortunes told or to be
cured of some ill by one of her strange brews.
The night she died, people declared that they saw
the devil walk into her cottage, but no one saw him come out. She was
found the next morning, sitting by a pot on the fire of one of her
potions, her cat beside her. When the cat was given some of the contents
to drink, its hair fell off in two hours, and the cat died soon
after.
The second Mother Red Cap was far more cheerful.
She turned the place into an inn and brewed a rather potent ale
there.
Proof that the web is a wonderful tool, the Camden
Historical Society received an email from Gordon Thomas of Lara, Victoria,
Australia, giving details of the conviction and transportation of his
great-great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Bumpstead, for stealing pewter
pots from the Black Cap and Wheatsheaf pubs in Camden Town in 1830. For
stealing these five pots she was transported for seven years with her six
children to Hobart, Tasmania. The Old Bailey record of the trial on 15
April 1830 gives the names of the publicans of the Black Cap and
Wheatsheaf as Edward (or Edmund) Butt and James Scull
respectively.
This email has since been received by
us....
'Hi Jimmy,
I'm also a direct decendant of
Elizabeth Bumpstead that is mentioned on your web site. (my ggg
grandmother) Yes she stole four pewter pots in 1830 and was sentenced to 7
yrs in Tasmania. She arrived with 5 children on board the convict
transport "Mellish". One of her daughters, (also Elizabeth, is my direct
line. Elizabeth Junior was only 5 yrs old during the voyage. She married
another convict, George Clements who had spent time at the infamous prison
of Port Arthur. (I have a wonderful old photo of Eliz Jnr and her convict
husband George). When they gained their freedom, they sailed to New
Zealand to shake off their past and became quite successful. After George
died, Elizabeth and her children moved back to Australia (Sydney).
Elizabeth Bumpstead Snr that stole from the Black Cat, had at least one
more child after she arrived in Tasmania as a convict with her 5 kids. .
There is a record "heavily pregnant". Other records here were "drunk &
disorderly". Oh well, you can't choose your rels, yet without this lady I
wouldn't be here and I'm proud of the convict past. The convict records
prove her to be quite a character. Good on her.
When I get over to UK for a holiday, you can bet that
I'm going to have a beer or two at the Black Cap and sit & imagine my
great great great grandmother at that very spot being caught nicking the
pewter. As she said at her trial...she was widowed and had five mouths to
feed. If I get over there, I hope you don't try to hit me up for the cost
of the cutlery. I think she paid the dues for the
family.'"