The players

William Henry Barber was born in Tonbridge, Kent, on 13 October 1807. He was illegitimate although his father was thought to be a gentleman. He was articled at an early age to Messrs Scoones solicitors and did well. He qualified as a solicitor around 1838 and set up his own firm that year - in London. Eventually, he took a partner, the oddly named Merrick Bircham Bircham, and their firm was Barber & Bircham of 28 New Bridge Street, just off Blackfriars Bridge, in the City of London.

William seems never to have married although it is said that he had a child each with two different sisters, who worked as servants at his home.

Joshua Fletcher was born into a farming family of Five Houses Farm, Deeping St James , Lincolnshire, in 1793. He qualified as a surgeon and moved to London where he practised and had a chemist's shop. He married Jane Lawrence, the daughter of licensee at the Bull inn, Market Deeping. The wedding was at St Clement Danes in Westminster on 9 February 1821.They had three children, Mary Ann, John and Jane (known as Janey). Joshua was widowed when Jane senior died of liver disease on 6 November 1841. After being rebuffed by Georgiana Richards,he remarried in December 1842. His his second wife was Sarah Playne Washbourn, who broke off an engagement with an aspiring solicitor - who re-appeared much later in her life. Joshua and Sarah had a daughter, Margaret Susan, born in a fateful year for him: 1844.

The Richards family came originally from Falmouth where Thomas Richards was ‘the steward of a Lisbon government packet.’ He married Susannah Crane and eventually tried to set up as a trader in Portugal. The venture failed. When Thomas died, Susannah returned to England. Their daughter Georgiana (born 1802) later became close to Joshua and his family. She married Josiah Dorey and is often referred to in press coverage as Mrs Dorey. In 1823, the 17 year-old Lydia (born about 1806) married William Sanders, a fishmonger in Bristol. They had 4 children. Eventually, Susannah, Georgiana, Lydia and William Sanders were to be caught up in Joshua's web of activities. And they were Infidels...