The Hartlepool and Sunderland hermit who wore a dead dog for a hat, lived in a rundown boat and was kidnapped as a child

He was known as the Tees Hermit but in reality, he was a well-educated man from Sunderland. This is the story of John Marley as historian Graeme Harper tells us more.

Seaton Snook near Hartlepool was the one-time home of John Marley, albeit a home with a difference.

John had long grey hair and beard and wore a multi-coloured coat fashioned from rags. Most striking of all was his hat, which was made from dead dog that had washed up on the beach.

He was around fifty, well-mannered, and able to converse on any subject. He even had a notebook of his own writings on the ‘laws of nature.’

He said that he was the rightful heir to the “Kirkleatham estates”.

Despite this potential wealth Marley resided in a long-abandoned derelict boat and lived off whatever food he could find along the shore.

He told his story in 1866 to a journalist and the story Marley proceeded to tell was remarkable.

He claimed that when he was a newborn baby he was passed into the care of a woman in Sunderland called Jane Thompson by a mysterious man who paid her a sum of money to bring up the child as her own.

Then, at the age of six, whilst visiting an ‘illumination ‘to celebrate the coronation of King George IV, two men forcibly abducted him and left him for dead on Sunderland beach after cutting his throat.

However, his life was saved by a passing doctor, and he was returned to the care of his surrogate mother.

At the age of ten, he was again kidnapped but this time placed on a ship to Canada. He stayed there until 1838 when got on a boat set for England.

His bad luck continued as this vessel subsequently ran aground at the mouth of the Tees causing him to lose all his money and possessions. It was at this

point he decided to stay put and live the rest of his days in seclusion.

However, the story doesn’t end here.

According to Marley, in 1862 police came looking for him after being contacted by a man called Evans from London who was trying to locate him to inform him that he was the heir to a highly valuable estate, which he’d previously known nothing about.

Shocked at this news Marley, quickly decided he would much prefer his life as a Hartlepool hermit than that of a rich landowner and was not interested in what Mr Evans had to say.

The mystery was finally solved when old Mrs Thompson - his foster mother who was now on her death bed - summoned him and told him the full story. He was the heir to the estate of Kirkleatham but was ‘put out of the way ‘after he was born.

But in late 1866 Marley disappeared. He had become something of a local celebrity and attracted a host of curious visitors.

His boat was found to have been stripped of his possessions and there was no sign of the hermit anywhere.

It was speculated that he had perished whilst out collecting food, or that he’d eloped with a woman who’d become one of his more regular callers.

Thankfully in May 1867 he was back and explained that he had left because boat had been deliberately damaged by persons unknown and all his papers had been stolen, including the history of his life and a purse of money he had saved for a "rainy day”.

He had then proceeded to Redcar to finally claim his true inheritance.

Once there, he met with a frosty reception and came away empty handed. Without further prospect of financial gain, he returned to the remains of his boat, where he intended to start a business as a herbalist.

But in 1868 a group of boys went into a police station in Sunderland to report a dead body lying in a boat on the South Dock. It was John Marley – the Tees Hermit. He had 6s 6d in his pocket.

It appears that he hadn’t stayed at Seaton Snook very long and moved to his hometown to live in a fishing smack moored in the dock. He quickly become a familiar figure on the streets of Sunderland with a bible invariably tucked under his arm - like many hermits he was very devout.

And his stories remained hard to believe including claims that once in his life he had slept for six years and that he had once come back from the dead. However, his friends were concerned about him and begged him to go to a workhouse.

So, what is the truth about the Tees Hermit?

His real name wasn’t John Marley at all but John Wills. He was born in Sunderland in Sept 1817, the middle of three brothers.

In January 1848, he’d appeared in court at Durham charged with causing a ‘great annoyance’. He was described as a man with ‘a weak mind’ and promptly sent back to Sunderland.

The 1851 and 1861 census shows him still living at the family home with his parents, by then well into his 40s, where his occupation is given as ‘mariner’. He was at one point a custom house officer in Sunderland.

Whether any of Wills more outrageous claims were true, we will probably never know but he remains a fascinating character in the history of Hartlepool.