Here lie the mangled remains!

The bodies of the murdered William Green and Private William Webb lie in the graveyard of St Mary’s church.  Green’s stone is inscribed:  ‘Here lie the mangled remains of poor William Green, an Honest Officer of Government, who in the faithful discharge of his duty was inhumanly murdered by a gang of Smugglers in this Parish September 27th, 1784, aged 37 years.’  Webb’s stone is inscribed:  ‘William Webb, late of the 15th Lt. D’ns who was shot from his horse by a party of Smugglers on 25th Sept.  1784 aged 26 years.  I am not dead but sleepeth here And when the Trumpet Sound I will appear.  Four balls thro’ me Pearced there way.  Hard it was I’d no time to pray.  This stone that here you Do see My comerades Erected for the sake of me.’

There's a great book called The Lawless Coast - Smuggling, Anarchy and Murder in North Norfolk in the 1780s by Neil Holmes (Larks Press, 2008). The book really tells the story of the night both Customs men met their fate. A great read!