Joseph Hedley

Joseph Hedley (also known as Joe the Quilter, – 3 January 1826) was a Quilter from Northumberland. During his life he was renowned for his quality of craftsmanship, with his work being exported as far as America. He lived his later years on parish relief. His life was widely recorded in newspapers across the country and most remembered due to his brutal murder, which occurred on 3 January 1826. His murderers were not found despite a large reward being offered, and the culprits remain unknown. Life Joseph Hedley was born at some point in in Northumberland. Little is known about his early life except what scant information is given in his obituaries, which are more interested in contrasting the peacefulness of his late life with his grisly murder. It is known that he trained as a tailor, probably taking an apprenticeship in the craft. However, for an unknown reason he gave up the craft for that of Quilt making. While much of the nation's quilting industry was in decline during the second half of the 18th century, in part due to the industrial revolution, Northumberland quilters in general and Joe the Quilter in particular managed to buck this trend. During his life he was known as a highly skilled craftsman, designing and quilting in both linen and cotton, with extremely fine details executed down to a quarter of an inch. Many of his designs show a propensity towards flowers, chains and diamond shapes, becoming especially associated with a pattern known as 'Old Joe's chain'. Such was his reputation that he created quilts for customers as far away as America and Ireland. In 1773, at the age of 23, Hedley married Isabel Thompson, a woman 25 years his elder, and moved into a typical 2 roomed 'squatter' cottage in Warden Parish, called "Homer's House". The cottage was on the road between Warden church and Chollerford, overlooking the Tyne. The Hedleys kept a small garden, containing vegetables and herbs and had kept a variety of animals. As Isabel aged, Joseph would spend many of his prime years caring for her and when she died he was left almost destitute. He was generally well liked by the local community but his seclusion made him liable with it being reported that he would have starved during a severe snow storm in 1823, had it not been for a Hexham clergyman wading through snow drifts to bring him food when other attempts to reach him had failed.