JOSEPH HOOLEY ATTRACTED TROUBLE LIKE A MAGNET. Throughout his long life,
women were his downfall and authority, in its various guises, led him to
hardship and severe discipline.
Born in the little village of Wollaton in July 1757, the son of Samuel
and Elizabeth Hooley, he craved adventure from an early age. When he was a
youth of 17 his father indentured him as an apprentice to John Flinders, a
Basford framework knitter, but Joseph was never happy and was regularly
chastised for "not minding his work" and having his head "filled with unhealthy
imaginings" concerning the exploits of local hero Sir Hugh Willoughby - the
famous Wollaton adventurer and explorer who had died two centuries earlier.
On completing his six-year apprenticeship, Joseph enlisted into the
Marines and was immediately sent to Chatham where he served as a soldier under
the brilliant Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney. Much to his satisfaction he
saw exciting action against the Spanish and French Fleets in and around the West
Indies and was bitterly disappointed when Peace was declared in 1783.
On his discharge from the Marines, at Plymouth, he went seeking work
and for the next three years appears to have settled down as a framework knitter
in London - but it couldn’t last! He had the wanderlust and was soon
travelling to Dublin, where he stayed for several years before returning to
Nottingham to work for John Barker, a framework knitter in St. Ann's Street.
Two years later Joseph was in Newark and a couple of years after
that he moved on to Gainsborough where he met trouble head on!
The Press Gang captured him in Gainsborough and in no time at all he
found himself serving as an impressed man aboard the Man of War "Ardent". He
worked constantly under the lash of authority, eventually escaping the slavery
and barbaric treatment doled out by the officers and crew three and a half years
later. They discharged him with a broken leg! On shore his leg mended
but, ever after, he walked with a limp as a permanent reminder of the time he
served aboard the Man of War "Ardent".
Joseph might have been forgiven for thinking that after the
hardships of the last few years things would now begin to settle down. But,
not a bit of it; his troubles were only just beginning.
When he was fit, he returned to London, where, almost immediately,
he was kidnapped by agents of the East India Company. He was placed aboard a
Merchantman and despatched to the rocky island of St Helena where he was put to
hard, backbreaking work. He didn't allow it to break his spirit, however, and
after six tough years on the island he was eventually released, sent to East
India House in London and then discharged.
After life on St. Helena (an island soon to be associated with the
exile and death of Napoleon) Joseph Hooley found life exceedingly quiet and took
to the open road as a quack doctor hawking medicines, pills, potions and
anything else that he could sell. Many were the times that he was run out of
a town or village after a dissatisfied customer had complained that the cure was
worse than the hurt or that the remedy had done more harm than good!
Tiring of life on the open road, Joseph finally came to Southwell in
Nottinghamshire, where, setting up his medicines on a street corner, he soon
attracted the usual crowd of barrackers, hecklers and genuine sufferers.
Looking around the assembly as he was extolling the virtues of a particular
potion, he was instantly attracted by the attentions of a comely young
woman. Afterwards, when the crowd had dispersed and the remedies had been
packed away, Joseph was delighted to find that his female admirer had remained
behind. Over ale in a nearby tavern, he discovered that she was called
Elizabeth and was soon telling her that, at the age of 45, he had now had his
fill of seeing the world and was ready to settle down - for a time!
They married and the happy couple went to live in Newark, but soon
moved on to Gainsborough. Finally, ending up in Mansfield town, Joseph found
the call of the open road irresistible and he took to his heels - abandoning his
wife Elizabeth in the process.
His freedom, however, was destined to be short lived! Within a few
weeks the army stepped in and Joseph was arrested as a deserter! He soon
discovered that he had exchanged one set of shackles for another as he was force
marched to Ireland where he remained a whole year subject to the strictest
military discipline.
On his eventual discharge, Joseph returned to England and in
Leicester, quite by chance, he met Jane Johnson, a woman he had known in St
Helena. She was completely alone having been returned to England by the East
India Company without her husband. They began to live together as a couple
and spent the next few years travelling around the country until Joseph fell
sick in Wolverhampton. The Parish authorities there, not wishing to take on
the added burden of supporting a sick, out of work vagrant, were quick to return
him to Wollaton so that he would become a charge on the rates of the Parish
where he had been born.
When he was well again he went to Newark, but his arrival with Jane
caused a great stir because the locals knew that she wasn't his real wife. He
was immediately clapped into gaol and then returned to Wollaton again as an
undesirable by Parish officials.
Some time later Joseph parted company with Jane and over the years
that followed, he took up with a succession of other women until, tired of
wandering, weary of bickering and of falling out over women, he died completely
worn out at the age of 78.
They buried him as a pauper in Wollaton, in the Parish where he had
been born - the self same parish that was associated with the Willoughby family
who numbered amongst their ancestors the famous explorer Hugh Willoughby - who
had inspired the wanderings of Joseph Hooley all those years ago.
