Coiners of Cragg Vale
Description of the rise and gruesome fall of the Yorkshire Coiners, from Cragg Vale near Mytholmroyd
Author: Calderdale MBC
Date: not dated
Location: Mytholmroyd
Format: Historical Account
Document ID: 101711
Library ID:
In the 1760s "King" David Hartley and his associates clipped gold coins and moulded the gold into counterfeit ones, often French, Spanish or Portuguese, which were accepted currency. When an Excise officer, William Deighton, was too pressing in his investigations the gang took fright and shot him on 9th November 1769. A successful Halifax solicitor, Robert Parker, then took up the case for the prosecution and the criminals were arrested. Robert Thomas and Matthew Normington were executed for the murder, and David Hartley and James Oldfield received the death penalty for clipping and diminishing the gold coins of the realm.
