The mystery of John Draper's insolvency

Above: A directory from the 1790s (1790-97) showing that John Draper was still a wheelwright in Enfield. He was still a wheelwright in 1811 when he wrote his last will and testament.

One of the most interesting things to come out of James Tuck's trial for the murder of John Draper was the fact that John had somehow lost his wealth prior to his death and had at one stage declared insolvency.
One of the witnesses called to the stand first alerted me to this piece of information. His testimony stated that he was one of the pugilists residing at the Bald-faced Stag with James Tuck. They were sitting at breakfast on the morning of August 8th when they saw John Draper pass. Robert Crouch testified that James Tuck said to him"Here comes old Draper, as good an old fellow as ever was." They had a conversation about him, during which James Tuck told the fighter that John Draper had previously been in good circumstances financially, but was now "reduced to serve summonses for the Court of Requests".

The following statement came from Crouch's testimony as recorded on the Oldbaileyonline website:

"I was there on the morning of the 8th, I saw the deceased come up to the house that morning, he had a horse and cart, and said he was going to Barnet, The prisoner spoke to him kindly; he spoke of him before he came up to the house; we were at breakfast, and the window was open, and we saw the deceased coming up with the horse and cart; and the prisoner said, here is Mr. Draper coming, as good an old man as ever lived; he said he understood he had been a man of considerable property, but through some misconduct of his own or law affairs, his relations got it. They shook hands together through the window, when Draper came up; there seemed to be a cordiality and friendship between them."

When David Draper, John's brother, appeared as a witness later in the trial, he was questioned on his brother's financial difficulties. He stated that his brother had been "unfortunate", and had been insolvent about two or three years ago. The great amount of money that John Draper had with him at the time of his death was not his, but the money of others that he had collected as part of his job.

I have combed the newspapers and The London Gazette for mention of this insolvency in the period 1812-1815, all to no avail. It is an area of John Draper's life that I will continue to chip away at in order to discover the circumstances of his financial decline.