Revd Thomas Le Mesurier, vicar of Haughton-le-Skerne, became the centre of national attention when he punched a 14-year-old boy so hard in the mouth that he lost a tooth.
In 1804, Le Mesurier had been the private chaplain and advisor to Lord Sidmouth, the former Tory prime minister notorious for praising the troops that, in 1819, had killed fifteen working-class protestors during the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester.
Because of Le Mesurier’s right-wing affiliations and because Durham’s Whig MP, John ‘Radical Jack’ Lambton supported many of the protestors’ demands, the massacre became an issue during the 1820 election in Darlington. One Wednesday in Lent, a pro-Lambton parade passed through Haughton and the chants of ‘Lambton forever!’ were so loud that they could be heard in the church. Le Mesurier, in his flowing black robes, dashed out and confronted Robert Richardson, the son of a shoemaker.
‘Forgetting his own character, and the temper of his profession, he struck a blow which brought blood to the mouth of the plaintiff and loosed one of his teeth,’ said The Times. ‘A clergyman ought to have found a different mode of stopping the mouth of a boy of 14.’
In court, the only debate was whether Richardson had ‘jockled’ his tooth out to exaggerate his injuries. The punching parson was found guilty, and fined £10.
(‘Memories’, The Northern Echo, 2010)