At the turn of the stairs going up to the first floor of Maldon's Museum in the Park is an alcove converted to display space – with a quirky collection of exhibits.

Among the ancient bones, arrowheads and pots is a mummified hand, held upright as if greeting the unwary visitor. This, and its accompanying skull, tells a morbid tale of Maldon's 19th Century history.

The Museum's newsletter of summer 2006 explains the story. The skull belongs to convicted murderer William Seymour, the hand (as the label carefully explains) is said to be his – but this cannot be proved.

On 25th October 1814 a William Belsham, of St Mary's parish, was found brutally clubbed to death. His skull was so crushed, 'there did not remain one piece… as wide as a crown piece.'

Belsham had been seen talking to William Seymour, a seaman, one hour before his death. With no regular police force a search was improvised. With two infantry regiments quartered nearby and a lot of willing volunteers from the town this was better resourced than we might expect.

A committee was formed and met at the Blue Boar the following day to organise the search, raise a reward of £50 by public subscription, and print and circulate handbills with the description of the fugitive.

Seymour stopped at Pitsea, where he sold a watch stolen from Belsham for twelve shillings and a pot of beer. The handbills reached Pitsea the next day, and the purchaser of the watch realised he had bought it off the suspected murderer. He gave chase, and personally arrested him at The Crown in Mucking.

Seymour had initially denied his identity but gave the game away by offering to buy his pursuer off with £40. He was taken to Chelmsford Gaol, and from there to Maldon's Moot Hall to be present at the inquest. He allegedly became quite agitated on seeing the murder weapon.

All this had happened within 48 hours of the murder – pretty remarkable in a pre-digital age dependent on print on paper and a galloping horse for transmission of information!

Seymour stood trial in March 1815 in Chelmsford. A number of witnesses testified both to linking Seymour with the murder scene, and to seeing him carrying Belsham's possessions afterwards. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang.

The execution took place on 13th March at Chelmsford gaol before a large crowd. Seymour had confessed and accepted the religious consolation traditionally offered to a condemned man. His body was handed to a surgeon for medical study as was the custom, and presumably this is how the skull eventually (in 1928) handed over to be a museum piece.

As for the hand, I suspect little is known, but it must have been tempting to link it with the skull!

As a postscript it was established that Seymour had known and hated Belsham, because he had testified against him for a minor offence, which had directly led to Seymour being pressed into service with the Royal Navy.

The Moot Hall also has relics of the trial: a painting of him awaiting sentence, and the original courthouse chair he is shown as occupying in the painting.