an English arsonist, famous for setting fire to York Minster in 1829. After he witnessed the murder of his sister by a neighbour, he was sent to his uncle's farm to recover from the shock. He was apprenticed to a tanner but was press ganged in London in 1804. He served in the Royal Navy ship HMS Hercule for six years, including the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. He was noted among his shipmates for his religious obsession. He left the Navy when his ship was broken up in 1810, returning to Norton, County Durham. After his parents died, he became a Wesleyan preacher in 1814, strongly denouncing the Church of England. He gained a reputation for disrupting church services.
