Widnes Examiner. — 1911-06-17 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

COLONEL BLOOD. The Man Who Stole the Royal Regalia.  His Ties with Warrington.  Most visitors to London have scaled the steps of the Beauchamp Tower and peered between the bars upon the Royal crown and sceptre, and few folks, we imagine, have grudged the modest sixpence which buys the Privilege of seeing the most costly things that common mortals are ever likely to look upon. Collected by monarchs through centuries the fine jewels sparkle tantalizingly behind the bars and the famous red ruby blazes in the front of the crown as it did long centuries back upon the field of Agincourt. Mention of the Royal Regalia inevitably brings the reminder of Colonel Blood, and admiration of the jewels is often diverted just a little by the memory of the fine audacity of the man who once removed them from the Tower. "I guess I don't know which to admirei" said an American visitor to the Tower of London "the Regalia, or the colossal cheek of the man who stole it, and then managed to get a pension as his punishment." This comment hits off the facts of the case. Colonel Blood stole the crown, orb and sceptre after nearly murdering the warder and his only punishment from King Charles 11. was a pension of £5OO a year and ten years of Royal favour. This magnificent scoundrel, Colonel Blood, had many ties with Warrington of which we hope to tell some other day. In the present chapter, with reminders of the Coronation so thickly spread around us, it may be appropriate to tell how the precious Royal Regalia was once dragged ignominously from the Tower. It was not until the year 1670 that the public were allowed to see the Crown jewels. In that year Sir Gilbert Talbot was keeper of the Tower of London and, as resident keeper, one Talbot Edwards lived in chambers near to the Regalia room. A small fee was charged for admission, and among those who early called to gratify curiosity was Thomas Blood an adventurer who had come through the Civil War, and who ought long before before to have been honoured with a Tyburn Gibbet.  COLONEL -BLOOD'S MARRIAGE AT NEWCHURCIL Blood was the son of an Irish blacksmith and inherited a fine dark handsome face and a gift of specious and pleasing eloquence. Through a friendship formed in Cromwell's army he came to know Thomas Holcroft of Culcheth and successfully made love to Maria Holcroft his eldest sister. The family mistitusted Thomas Blood notwithstanding his fine exterior,and when upon a day in the middle of the civil wars the wedding was celebrated at Newchurch it was only a small party that celebrated the events at Holcroft Hall. .  ----The church register records the events in Latin.  Thomas Blood gene et Maria Holm oft mats imnnio eopulati viceasimo primo die Junui nano domi 11151). It has another event to record in the following year. Thomas Una Thome', 8100 lan haptizatus 311 too Martii anon donii 105/.  It was twenty years after the birth of Thomas Blood the younger that he,as a young man, was drawn into the plot which his father was carefully preparing. Those twenty years had seen Colonel Blood passing through countless adventures with Covenanters and Fifth Monarchy Men and engaged in a most reckless and audacious attempt to seize and summarily hang the Duke of Ormond. He would have been infamous had he never set eyes on the crown jewels, but this crowning act of hazard has lived in the public mind, and will make him famous for ever.