Historian Martyn Taylor explains why a Bury St Edmunds 'Blue Plaque' for Daniel Defoe was probably in the wrong place

There was a plaque put up in 1907 on Bury St Edmunds' Cupola House which recorded the visit to the town by celebrated novelist Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe.

The plaque was one of 12 stone plaques, 11 oval and one rectangular, put up in the town to help celebrate the wonderful pageant of that year, reinforcing the town's history and heritage.

After the disastrous fire of June 2012, the Strada restaurant then occupying the Cupola was, to all intents and purposes, gutted and the plaque, now painted blue with gold lettering, was not put back up, languishing somewhere inside.

Cupola House, now home to Sakura, a Japanese Sushi restaurant, has had its prestige Grade I listing reduced to Grade II, as it is not the building it once was.

Cupola House was built in 1693 by wealthy apothecary Thomas Macro and his wife Susan – the weather vane up high recorded this.

However, there is no evidence to support Defoe’s visit to see them.

On the contrary, Defoe was a dissenter while the Macros were not.

A confusion with names seems to have led to this ambiguity when Defoe visited Bury soon after his release from Newgate prison in 1704.

He had published a satirical pamphlet, The Shortest Way With Dissenters, which was a back-swipe at reactionaries who advocated tougher measures against the dissenters, in particular by refusing to allow them to take public office. These people were known as 'high fliers', due to their unbending and rigid approach to dissenters – but the tract was accepted by some as being true.

The dissenters, such as Presbyterians, were horrified to think that a wave of hatred could break out followed by violence.

Defoe went into hiding after Parliament issued a libel writ against him, but eventually he had to face the music and, after a short spell in the pillory, he was incarcerated in Newgate for a year.

He published his first newspaper in prison, and you could say the notoriety gained from the pamphlet made him.

Perhaps Macro could be confused with Defoe, but it would seem that Defoe’s visit to Bury was more to do with seeing a T or J Morley, who was a grocer in the Cook Row (now Abbeygate Street) and a Presbyterian – hence the letters T or J M in Defoe’s narratives.

Regarding that oval plaque, erroneous as it is, should it be put back on the building? As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet: Therein lies the rub!

Martyn Taylor is a local historian, author and Bury Tour Guide. His latest book, Going Underground: Bury St Edmunds, is widely available.