The person who fired the shot that killed 67 year old John Perryman on Culverwell Hill in Branscombe on the evening of 8th September 1883  got away with murder. The mystery was never solved, and no-one was ever convicted for the crime.

Rumours were rife. Some said that John was accidentally shot by a poacher or killed by a stranger but suspicion fell upon William Dean Dowell, his sister Eliza Williams and their neighbour Amos French. It was said that they had a dispute with a neighbour David Pile, and it was a case of mistaken identity.

After the inquests,  the three accused appeared at a crowded Honiton police  court and proclaimed their innocence. There was no evidence against them or witnesses. The chairman of the magistrates  announced to loud applause from the crowd that the bench declined to commit them and they were all discharged.

William Dean Dowell was not happy with the investigation or the justice system. In an attempt to persuade the killer to confess William offered a fifty pound reward if the guilty person came forward. No-one did.

There was family opposition to William marrying his ‘girl’ Susan Ann Gill,  so William left the village for London in September 1884. Susan Ann gave birth to their daughter Flossie Alice in December, and she was baptised in St Winifreds in January. A month later Susan filed a paternity suit and William was ordered to pay 2s 6d a week until Florence was sixteen.

In 1886 William, now living in Forest Hill, London wrote a thirty-two page pamphlet, published by his trade union, giving an account of the events surrounding the court case. For many years afterwards William wrote to newspapers and Home Secretaries protesting his innocence. Lord Coleridge wrote, ‘ I have his (Lord Sidmouth’s ) authority for this statement that so far as he is aware none of the magistrates on the Bench thought there was the least case against you, and were of opinion that there was not so much as a reasonable ground of suspicion against you in anything that came before them’.

William married  German born Wilhelmine Gerke in 1892. They named their home Branscombe Villa and  had three daughters and a son. When William died in 1930 he was described in his obituary as a man of the highest integrity with strong religious convictions and he is buried in Ladywell Cemetery.

We don’t know if William ever met his daughter Flossie Alice, but he did write to her and sent her money. Flossie grew up to marry William Ackland and they ran the Lamb Inn in Honiton High Street.