“Moon the Conjurer”: Thomas Moon (1773-1851)

 

'The Conjurer' by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516). Image credit: Wikipedia. People have always been fascinated by the tricks of conjurers. Budleigh historian Roger Lendon discovered that we had our own celebrated conjurer living in the area and has kindly contributed this article to Budleigh – Past and Present. 

I was first alerted to this man when I came across this short piece in the Western Times dated 20th June 1846:

Moon, the Conjuror - This celebrated professor of the science and mystery of legerdemain having for some years past settled down at Budleigh Salterton as an agriculturist, is about to limit his practice, and in this day’s paper advertises one of his farms to be let.

The farm was Upper West Down Farm which was in the Parish of Littleham and thus not far from his home which was in Knowle according to the East Budleigh tithe apportionment.

In the 1851 census Thomas Moon was recorded as having been born in East Budleigh in 1773 and the record shows that William and Mary Moone had Thomas baptised on 20th June. According to Alison’s Family Tree on Ancestry.com his parents were William Moon and Mary Strudley and they had 6 children. William had been born in Hemyock and married Mary in Clayhidon in September 1761; their first 4 children were born in Clayhidon and the youngest two in East Budleigh. William Moon seems to have died in 1808 and was a maltster (1).

Robert Elliston (1774-1831) by English painter George Henry Harlow (1787-1819). Actor, theatre manager and professional card player, Elliston was born in London. He ran away from home and made his first appearance on the stage at the Old Orchard Street Theatre in Bath in 1791 before moving to the West End. As a card player he is said to have met his match in Thomas Moon. Image credit: Wikipedia 

We know nothing concrete about Thomas Moon’s early life but it would appear that for a time at least he earned a living as a conjurer travelling around to fairs. We can infer this from an article in the New Monthly Magazine & Humorist Part 1 from 1843. In this edition W.T. Moncrief recounted a series of anecdotes about Robert Elliston who had been a comedy actor and theatre manager. 

 The Roebuck Inn, London Road. Marlborough, Wiltshire. Image credit: www.geograph.org.uk 

Elliston seems to have been in the habit of playing cards for money and the story relates to a visit he made to Marlborough when, after retiring to the Roebuck Inn after his show, he had apparently had a successful card game with two men and had taken money off them. Later he looked out of his hotel window and noticed a man in a red coat and leather breeches whom he took to be a huntsman. Spotting another lucrative opportunity, he invited the man in for a drink and suggested a game of cards at a guinea a point. The man was of course Thomas Moon. Moon agreed to the game but after looking at the deck of cards he threw them out of the window and said he would prefer to use his own cards. 

Moon dealt the cards “with a dexterity of shuffle and cleanness of cut, scarcely to have been expected from one of his uncouth appearance, Elliston stared for a moment in astonishment, but soon recovered his self-possession.  … Elliston soon found he had got his match - the cards seem to know his adversary’s touch … and scored every point. “Surprising” said discomforted Elliston as he parted with guinea after guinea”.

Moon cleaned Elliston out of all his money plus his previous winning followed by watches, rings and brooches. At this point Moon extinguished the candles and “said he must think of tramping, for he had to get to be at Hungerford to breakfast, therefore Muster Rover, I wishes you a werry good morning”. Moon knew that he had been playing Elliston but Elliston asked who he was? “Why, I’m Moon – Moon the conjurer! I thought everybody knowed me.” Before leaving Moon returned the watches and rings but kept the money!

The articles then continued

“It was in fact the celebrated Moon, so well known for his sleight of hand, who was in the habit of travelling early in the morning from town to town dressed as described, and who was now proceeding to Newbury, in order that he might exhibit at the fair to be held there.”

Unfortunately, no date was given for the event recorded above.

Illusionists and conjurors were popular attractions in Victorian theatres and exhibition halls: audiences could sit amazed as ghosts appeared on stage and automata solved mathematical puzzles. Renowned performers appeared to levitate, slice the heads off spectators and escape out of locked boxes. This poster from 1878 advertises a performance given by the 'spirit-medium' Mademoiselle Odin, who it claims studied at the Paris Conservatoire, and would 'appear in the marvellous flight, and float her body from the stage to the balcony. No so-called spirit-medium or conjurer in the world has ever been able to perform this marvellous feat.'     Image credit: British Library 

Another mystery relates to Moon’s Will (2) in which he left from the income of his leasehold properties an annual pension for his wife Catherine, (whom he had married in 1844), while all of the remaining income was to go to his daughter Mary Ann Williams of East Budleigh. She had been born circa 1792 in Lake, Staffordshire according to the 1851 Census. I have found no evidence yet to support this and there is also no evidence that Moon was married at this time. However, when he married Catherine Hill at St. Leonard’s Exeter in 1844 he was described as being a widower, so the daughter may have been born as he travelled around the country. She had obviously been well schooled because her job in East Budleigh was as a schoolmistress and their house was the agency for the West of England Fire Office (and was located near the present-day Rolle Inn).

Thomas  Moon appears to have returned to Devon by 1796 because an infant called Robert Moon was buried in Littleham that year and he was probably Thomas’s son; Thomas had presumably taken up farming full time by then. The Littleham tithe map apportionment of 1847 shows that he was leasing Bushy Park Cottage and Farm from the Rolle Estate. It comprised approximately 92 acres although about 80% of it he had sublet to John Smith. Thomas was also leasing and occupying Cowd’s Field and Part of Pope’s Close, a further 9 acres.

Everybody knows Charles Dickens as an unsurpassed writer. Many know him as a superb public reader of his own works, some know him as a talented actor, but very few know that he was also a conjurer, as revealed in this book by Ian Keable, published in 2014 

As evidenced by advertisements placed by him in local newspapers in 1838, 1839, 1846 & 1847(3-6), Moon was also the owner or occupier of Upper West Down Farm in Littleham (west of the present-day golf course above Straight Point). He was regularly advertising for a tenant for the farm for periods of 7,14 or 21 years and the farm consisted of 70 acres plus 8 acres of common with a “modern and convenient farm house with commanding sea views”. In an 1846 Western Times advert Moon was actually described as the owner of Upper West Down Farm (5). However, this farm does not feature in the Littleham Tithe Map apportionment (which was published in December 1847) but a West Down Farm is recorded as part of the Rolle Estates and this again is a bit of a mystery because the apportionment shows the occupier of West Down Farm as John Bastin and it comprised circa 240 acres, more than the 70 mentioned in the adverts for Upper West Down Farm. It is possible that Upper West Down Farm was merged with the rest of the farm after Moon’s advert in January 1847.

Bridge Cottage Image credit: Roger Lendon

Thomas Moon was occupying a “house, courtlage & garden” on the corner of Dalditch Lane, and there is a thatched cottage there now which could well be the original house. He rented this from Gilbert Cowd (7) the owner of Lee Ford who in turn was leasing it from the Rolle Estate. 

In 1843 Bushy Park Cottage was advertised to let along with 15 acres of ground (8). The cottage had 6 bedrooms, two front parlours, 2 kitchens, a laundry, a storeroom, plus barn, stables and coach house. Applications were to go to Moon or James Williams, schoolmaster, Budleigh Salterton (presumably the brother-in-law of Moon’s daughter). There was a sale of the house contents in April 1849 and the house was then available to rent. It was again advertised to let in 1851 but this was after Moon’s death which was in July 1851.

Roger Lendon April 2020

(1) Probate year 1808 Littleham Near Exmouth (Episcopal) Principal Registry of the Bishop of Exeter.  Administration

(2) Prerogatory Court of Canterbury Wills 1853-4. Available on Ancestry.com

(3) Exeter & Plymouth Gazette 15 September 1838

(4) Ibid 13 June 1846

(5) Western Times 22 September 1846

(6) Exeter & Plymouth Gazette 9 January 1847

(7) Gilbert Cowd OVApedia 

(8) Exeter & Plymouth Gazette 16 September 1843

(9) Western Times 9 August 1851