The Murder of Robert Packington
At around 6am on Monday 13th November 1536, Robert Packington left his house in London’s Cheapside, to attend early Mass in the Mercers’ Chapel on the north side of West Cheap. His journey was a short one but, Packington carried a lantern, the night was dark and smoke from a thousand chimneys, mingling with a mist from the Thames, reduced visibility to a few paces. His route took him past the Great Conduit, a square building in the middle of Cheapside containing the fountain that provided the nearby houses with their water supply. As he crossed the street, just a few feet from his destination, a single shot rang out and he fell dead. Almost as soon as his body hit the floor, the crowd that rapidly gathered around him were asking questions. Why would someone want to kill one of London’s most respectable figures? Packington was not only a prominent merchant, and a leading light in the Worshipful Mercers’ Company, but also an MP. Why did no one notice the gunman or his weapon? The only firearms in general use at the time were matchlock arquebuses, that were more than a metre long and had to be held using both hands. The powder was ignited by means of a glowing match which would show up in the dark, and anybody carrying such a firearm would have attracted attention, yet this assassin, apparently, stood a matter of yards from a crowd, put the gun to his shoulder, and pulled the trigger., there was a flash and an explosion, and yet no one saw him. The reason that the murderer was able to melt into the darkness was, that he wasn’t using an arquebus at all, but the much smaller, more discreet wheellock pistol. In fact, poor Robert Packington probably holds the dubious distinction of being the first person in England to be killed with a handgun. The murderer was never found.
