James Blomfield Rush, Executed 1849, a brass medalet, unsigned, bust left, rev. legend, 26mm (BHM 2350); together with other miscellaneous medalets (52), mostly brass [53]. First fine and very rare, others generally very fine (£50-70)

Provenance:
From the stock-in-trade of the late Barry Greenaway.

James Blomfield Rush was a tenant farmer on the estate of Isaac Jermy (1789-1848), the recorder of Norwich. Jermy succeeded to the family property, Stanfield Hall, in 1837, but his claim was disputed by others, including one John Larner who, accompanied by a lawyer and a rabble, took possession of the Hall by force in September 1838. They were eventually expelled by troops and 82 indviduals were arrested and imprisoned. On 28 November 1848 Rush, a sympathizer of Larner, entered the Hall and shot and killed Jermy and his son, Isaac Jr, wounding his daughter-in-law and the housemaid in the process. Rush conducted his own defence at his trial at Shire Hall, Norwich, and was hanged on a scaffold outside Norwich Castle on 21 April 1849