What Am I Getting Myself Into?

A historian friend of mine, though to be fair, is a long-time family friend of Will's, dropped some interesting reading material off at my house today.

It is the first part of chapter one of Roy Moxham's new book Tea: Addition, Exploitation and Empire. The note from the friend reads:

"See pp 10 FF.
1. William- did you know about them?
2. Miriam-- I think you should know about what you're marrying into. "

So, I am eating my lunch, all intrigued about this reading material. What do I read?

There was a gang in England in 1747 called the Hawkhurst Gang-- Hawkhurst being the area where I am getting married in a few weeks time and from where Will's family is from. This gang was smugglers of all sorts of things, but their most valuable contraband: Tea.

The chapter (which you can read on Amazon) goes on to discribe how gang members broke into the customs house to steal back the previously retrieved tea. When two villagers, who recognized one of the smugglers, started to talk, the members of the Hawkhurst Gang came back and brutally and barbaically murdered these two villagers. Stuff like burying alive one person, and horse-whipping, hanging, and dropping the other down the well and when he still wasn't dead, throwing rocks into the well until he was silent. At least 7 members of the Hawkhurst Gang were brought to justice in the coming months, with punishments of hanging, and being chained up for the dead bodies to be displayed.

Um, maybe I don't know what I am getting myself into and I should quickly do some genelogy into Will's family.... and so glad I was reading all these gruesome details over lunch. I am so not hungry now.