The notorious Edwardian dancer, Maud Allan

Maud Allan, famed in England for her dance of the seven veils had formerly changed her name and fled across the Atlantic to escape the scandal of her brother's actions, but in later life it was her own behaviour which provoked criticism.

Beulah Maude Durrant was born in Canada, but in 1879 her family moved to San Francisco where her elder brother later started training in medicine.  A well respected member of the Emmanuel Baptist Church, Theodore Durrant was the Assistant Sunday School Superintendent.  In April 1894, Blanche Lamont, a young member of the same church, disappeared without trace.  Ten days later, the body of Minnie Flora Williams was found, gruesomely murdered, in the Library of Emmanuel Church. Searching the church the following day, police discovered the naked body of Blanche Lamont hidden in the church Belfry.

After a long trial, the mainly circumstantial evidence convinced the jury that Theodore was guilty.  In January 1898 he was executed.  Before this happened Maud had been sent to Berlin to study Music.  She was also a graphic artist and in 1900 she published an illustrated sex manual for women.

The British audience first came to know Maud Allan in 1908 when she made her dancing debut in The Vision of Salome at the Palace of Varieties in London.  Inspired by Oscar Wilde's earlier play, Maud's dancing captivated Edwardian audiences, particularly women.  Maud was paid £250 a week for her performances.  In the same year she wrote her autobiography "My Life and Dancing."  Many compared her to Isadora Duncan but Maud hated this comparison.  As she took Salome on tour, some places such as Manchester banned her performance.  This only increased demand so she took her tour worldwide.  She appeared in Carnegie Hall but doubts were expressed about her performance in India.

"Her appearance is expected to have an ill-effect on the native mind,"  She also appeared in the silent film, "The Rug Maker's Daughter."

But things came to a head when Noel Pemberton Billing wrote an article called "The Cult of the Clitoris." He maintained that Maud Allan was one of a group of German agents "spreading debauchery and lasciviousness."  He said that she was having an affair with her good friend, Margaret Asquith, wife of the former Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith.

Maud took him to court. In May 1918, Billing appeared at the Old Bailey accused of obscene criminal and defamatory libel.  During the court case Billing stated that there was a black book of Britains in high office who were being blackmailed to enable spying activities.  Her connection to her executed brother Theodore Durrant was revealed and all the juicy details filled the newspapers.  The case against Billing was dismissed and Maud's life was never the same again.

However, in 1921 after spending four years teaching dance, she returned to performing in public.

From 1928 she began a 10 year relationship with her secretary Verna Aldrich.  Her last performance on the British stage was in 1932 when she was 60.  Four years later she gave her final performance in Los Angeles.  Settling in California, she worked for many years as a draughtsman and died in 1956.

#Murder in the sand dunes

On Thursday February 20th 1908 a schoolmaster named Spurgeon was walking on the cliffs at Southbourne in Bournemouth when he noticed the clothing of a young lady between two sand hills.  On investigating he discovered that she was face down so he quickly rushed to tell the Coastguard half a mile away.  The body was that of Miss Emma Sherriff, a dressmaker, who had gone missing from her lodgings in Palmerston Road, Boscombe two days earlier.  She was found to have a muff over her face and had two handkerchiefs stuffed inside her mouth. 

Southbourne Cliff

Police investigation quickly lead them to picture dealer and ex-guardsman, John Francis McGuire, who had been seeing Miss Sherriff regularly.  Like Emma, he was in his early twenties, but according to Miss Lily Hatch, her close friend of 12 years, the relationship the couple had, was like that of brother and sister.  Emma had last been seen alive by her landlady, Mary Lane, at 1 pm on Tuesday when she seemed very distressed by a note that had been left for her.  At 6.30 Emma went out but did not follow her usual habit of leaving her key under the door mat.  On Wednesday a telegram was delivered for Miss Sherriff but as there was no sign of her, Mrs Lane forwarded it to Mr McGuire’s mother.

By Wednesday afternoon, Mrs McGuire, Miss Hatch and John Francis McGuire were outside the door of Emma’s bedroom.  McGuire forced it open but they could find no clue as to the whereabouts of Miss Sherriff.  After her body was found on Thursday an examination revealed several serious injuries caused by blows made by foot, knee or a blunt instrument.  It was later reported that some of her jewellery had gone missing.

The trial of John Francis McGuire, which commenced in late March, was full of conflicting evidence.  McGuire said that he had last seen Emma on Monday 17^th February and that he had returned to his home in London on Tuesday and yet a witness saw him catch a tramcar in Southbourne at 8.12 on Tuesday 18^th February, quite close to where the body had been found.  He had in fact been seen in London on the Tuesday by a shoe black who knew him well.  The shoe black stated that McGuire gave him 2 letters earlier in the day asking him to post them after 8 pm. that evening.  There was evidence that McGuire did sleep in London that night but train timetables proved that he could have caught a train to London from Bournemouth at 8.45 pm. 

There was considerable disagreement amongst the jurors and so the prosecution was withdrawn on July 2^nd and the magistrate released McGuire.  Within a few days McGuire was charged at Barnet of desertion from the British Army.  He had joined the Royal Horse Artillery in 1901 but later transferred to the Royal Horse guards.  In 1904, he was court martialed for stealing a pin from a corporal’s kit and was dismissed from the army.  One month later he joined the 2^nd Life guards, but deserted in 1906.  Now that he had been discovered he was imprisoned for 84 days.

McGuire may not have been convicted of murder but his life lurched from one misdemeanour to another.  After his imprisonment had ended towards the latter part of 1908 he moved to Mundesley-on-sea, Norfolk where he and a young lady took a furnished cottage.  Calling themselves Captain and Mrs Francis, they paid no rent and were soon in debt with local tradesmen.  Finally, McGuire jumped on a train to London, with no ticket, leaving the young woman destitute.  We pick up his story again in February 1909 when he was taken into custody in Westminster with another man for fraudulent conspiracy to obtain goods from a firm of house furnishers, earning himself 12 months’ imprisonment.

But what of poor Emma?  She can be found in a list of 36 unsolved murders between 1890 and 1908.  There is no doubt that John Francis McGuire was a cad and a wastrel.  He said at his trial for conspiracy that he had had no home since he was 14 (when he joined the army) but his mother was a friend of Emma Sherriff so at that stage of his life he appeared to be cherished.  Many of the witnesses at the murder trial were unreliable so no clear verdict could be declared.

http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

Music, comedy and #murder #EdwardianActress

Probably the most popular type of postcards to be collected in the early 20^th century, were those of Edwardian actors and actresses.  It was the golden age of British theatre and just like today, everyone wanted to know more gossip about their families.

Ellaline Terriss made her London debut at the Haymarket in 1888, aged 16. She was a talented actress and singer who began her career in musical comedies.

 

She was the daughter of William Terriss, who after trying the merchant navy, tea planting in India and farming in the Falkland Islands, had become a member of Sir Henry Irving’s company at the Lyceum theatre.  Besides being a noted Shakespearian actor, he was also known for his swashbuckling roles such as Robin Hood. 

William Terriss

A year earlier than Ellaline, Edward Seymour Hicks also began his career on the London stage at the age of 16.  As well as becoming a popular actor he soon became a prolific author of light comedies.  The public were thrilled in 1893 when he and Ellaline Terriss were married.

In December 1897 tragedy struck.  William Terriss, who was known for his kindness, had helped out a young actor, Richard Archer Prince.  He gave Prince work but the young man proved to be unstable and drank too much, so he was dismissed.  Terriss sent Prince money and the Actor’s Benevolent Society found him another part.  However, finding himself unemployed again, Prince blamed all his woes on William Terriss, so one evening he waited outside the stage door of the Royal Adelphi theatre, carrying a knife.  When Terriss arrived, Prince stabbed him and he sadly died.  The trial was read avidly by the general public and there was a great outpouring of sympathy for Ellaline and Seymour Hicks.

 

Their popularity was immense.  During the following year Seymour Hicks co-authored “A Runaway Girl” in which Ellaline starred at the Gaiety Theatre and the couple also adopted a four year old Irish girl, Mabel Magdalene.  In 1914 Seymour Hicks recalled, “My wife saw and fell in love with the sweetest of little Irish girls, and we adopted her, calling her Mabel. To-day she is a sweet and gentle girl of eighteen, and is dearly loved by us."

 

In 1902 Ellaline and Seymour Hicks appeared together in Quality Street by J M Barrie.  They had recently bought a new home called The Old Forge at Merstham in Surrey and their cul-de-sac was renamed Quality Street.  Two years later Ellaline gave birth to their baby, Betty.

 

Edward Seymour Hicks became so successful that in 1905 he built the Aldwych Theatre and in 1906 The Globe, although at that time it was called The Hicks.  After 1911 Ellaline appeared mainly in comedy and music hall.  During the First World War, the couple gave concerts to the troops at the Front in France and in 1940 they went to the Middle East with ENSA.  Having been the first British actor to perform in France during both World War I and World War II, Hicks was awarded the Croix de Guerre twice for his services and he was knighted in 1934.

Following the Second World War, Ellaline and Edward moved to South Africa, but after the death of Seymour Hicks in 1949, Ellaline returned to England where she took up painting and had an exhibition in London.  She died in Hampstead in 1971, aged 100.

A nineteenth century #Romeo and Juliet?

Guildford

On Tuesday November 3^rd 1863 there was a feeling of rising tension among the residents of Guildford in Surrey.  Some were looking forward to the excitement of the bonfires and celebrations they had become accustomed to on November 5^th but many prominent citizens, including the Mayor, were worried about the damage and destruction they expected from the “Guildford Guys,” a group of increasingly defiant revellers.

Almost un-noticed, a young couple booked into a room above the Coachmakers’ Arms in North Street.  The young man, Joseph Mahaig (Maharg), was tall, with dark hair and hazel eyes and was a sergeant in the 3^rd Buffs.  His “wife” was in fact an unmarried servant called Elizabeth Waterer.  Elizabeth was described as a fairly tall, good looking girl of about 28.  Joseph Mahaig had served in China during the Opium War and was shortly to embark to India.

At this time marriage was not a straightforward option for a young soldier in the British army.  As the army increased in professionalism, women found themselves excluded.  Although officers were encouraged to marry, other ranks were positively discouraged. Only a proportion of one in twelve men were granted permission by their commanding officer to marry and fewer still were allowed to bring their wives to accompany them overseas.  There the wives and children shared the barracks with the other men using blankets hung over rope lines for some privacy.

Joseph and Elizabeth stayed on the second floor of the Coachmakers’ Arms and were stated to be, “remarkably quiet and civil.”  They had breakfast and tea on Wednesday, but had no food on Thursday November 5^th, although Joseph told Mrs Hedges, the Beerhouse Keeper’s wife that they were expecting Elizabeth’s mother to join them.  By Friday afternoon there was a sense of unease among the other residents of the Coachmakers’ Arms since nothing had been seen or heard of the couple for over 30 hours.  When there was no response to knocks on the door, a sergeant of the 37^th regiment, who was billeted there, suggested breaking it open but Mrs Hedges decided to send for the police instead.

Superintendent Vickers arrived, accompanied by Sergeant Steads and P C Davis who made up the full strength of the police force in Guildford at that time.  When they forced open the door, it appeared that the young couple were lying dead on the bed.  The woman looked as if she had been strangled and the man had a large gash on his throat.

Mr F D Ross, a local surgeon, was quickly summoned, together with Dr. Chapman of the 37^th Foot.  The gash on the soldier’s larynx was carefully stitched and, “A small quantity of brandy was given to the man, upon which he slightly rallied.”  The two doctors believed that the young woman, whose head was hidden under a pillow, had been dead for at least 2 days. 

A post mortem examination was conducted by Mr Phillips MRCS and his colleague Dr Sells.  Their problem was that the head and neck were in an advanced state of decomposition.  The question was, had Elizabeth been smothered or strangled or had she taken poison.  Elizabeth had been witnessed purchasing a threepenny packet of Butler’s Vermin powder, which contained two grains of strychnine, from a local chemist on the day she died.  No doubt she had read of the young lady in Shoreham, who earlier that year had poisoned herself with that powder when denied the right to marry her desired suitor by her father.

At the Coroner’s inquest, Mr Phillips stated that a partial analysis of the contents of her stomach suggested poison had been taken but that he was of the opinion that the immediate cause of death was suffocation caused by strangulation.  Mr Sells added that there were marks around the neck and under the skin suggesting strangulation.  However the state of the heart was not consistent with strangulation.  He could not positively say that death had been caused by poison.

In the room where the young couple were found were several relevant letters, two written by Elizabeth and three by Joseph.   In one of Mahaig’s letters he stated that having left the room, he returned to find Elizabeth with a rope around her neck. He took it off and then that they both took poison. 

Because of the doubt over cause of death, the inquest was adjourned and at the insistence of the Home Secretary, further analysis of the contents of the stomach was made by Professor Taylor of Guy’s Hospital.  Professor Taylor concluded that there was clear proof that Elizabeth had died from poisoning.

Dr Phillips had feared that Joseph would not recover from his neck wound since it was severely inflamed so he was taken, on November 6^th to Guildford Union Workhouse where he was kept under police guard, to prevent further suicide attempts, until the inquest was resumed at the end of November.  While in the Workhouse he wrote a statement about the events which had occurred at the Coachmaker’s Arms, since he was unable to speak.  Although the jury found that Elizabeth Waterer destroyed her own life, they found Joseph Mahaig guilty of aiding and abetting her in this.  He was therefore bound over to appear at the next Surrey Assizes in Kingston-upon-Thames on the charge of, “Wilful Murder.”

At the trial in December Joseph was found guilty but the jury strongly recommended mercy.  Despite this appeal the Judge passed sentence of death on Mahaig who stood upright and heard his sentence without flinching.  He was taken to Horsemonger Lane Gaol where he was due to be executed on January 12^th.  A number of the residents of Guildford, many of them Quakers, appealed to the Home Secretary that mercy should be applied.  According to the Sussex Advertiser of January 2^nd 1864, “Several philanthropic ladies are desirous of exercising their good offices by visiting the condemned cell, but their entreaties had been refused.”

At the last moment, Mahaig’s sentence was Respited during her Majesty’s pleasure and on January 24^th it was commuted to penal servitude for life.  More than a year later Joseph was transported on board the convict ship Racehorse to Western Australia.  On 22^nd of October 1865 he was drowned while apparently attempting to abscond in Champion Bay and he was buried in Old Geraldton Cemetery north of Perth, Western Australia. 

Elizabeth Waterer had been laid to rest in St Mary’s churchyard in Guildford on November 9^th 1863.

A letter, written by Joseph Mahaig, while he was recovering in Guildford Union Workhouse.  The letter was handed to a police constable to be given to the Coroner.   Joseph was unable to speak owing to his neck wound. 

26^th November 1863

I do not know what to write what you may ask for shall I put this day the 26^th of the month?-where am I going after that?  I may let you know that we both partook of the poison at the same time, but the poison that I took, that she gave me, she bought at another shop.  It had a blue cover and half an hour afterwards she was dead.  I think it was the night of the 3^rd.  We both said, as she would not leave me, we would die together.  She died in my arms.  On the Tuesday evening she had a rope cord round her neck when I came upstairs.  At night we both took the poison in some gin about 5.30.  We both sent, at least left, a letter to both our mothers on the table.  I don’t wish anyone to see this.  Dear friend, I don’t care.  I wish to God I had went with her.

Joseph Mahaig

Birmingham Journal Dec 26^th 1863

Sources

Sheldrake’s Aldershot and Sandhurst Military Gazette  14/11/1863 & 12/12/1863

Sussex Advertiser  2/1/1864

Maidstone Telegraph  5/12/1863

Sheffield Telegraph  2/1/1864

Birmingham Journal  26/12/1864

The Era  24/1/1864   (All from www.findmypast.co.uk )

Criminal Registers from www.ancestry.co.uk

www.convictrecords.com.au

Letters written by Elizabeth Waterer and Joseph Mahaig (Maharg)

Fishermen thieves of #Lambeth #Thames

Standing outside the Garden Museum in St Mary’s church, by the side of Lambeth Palace it can seem like a peaceful spot which time has forgotten but Lambeth has seen many dramatic changes reflecting the use of the river Thames.

Until the 18^th century there were very few people living on the marshy land of Lambeth but the gently sloping beach was an ideal spot to keep boats and barges and soon the fishermen were joined by potteries, factories and saw mills.        

 Most people adapted to the new industrial opportunities but the fishermen were severely affected by a rapid depletion in fish stocks.  Living in small cramped houses with sewage discharged directly onto the beach they were tempted to find less honest means of making a living.  Pretending to fish they would dredge for coals fallen from lighters or plunder the barges.  Their apprentices were often mistreated and trained to be thieves both on the river and on land. 

In 1832 the newspapers ran detailed accounts of a probable murder involving fishing apprentices.  Two gentlemen, Mr Smales, a respectable printer and stationer, and his friend, Mr Wilkinson set out from Blackfriars in a small “funny” boat at 9 pm on July 17th rowing towards Vauxhall Bridge.  At about 10 minutes to ten, when they were through the bridge towards the Spread Eagle at Millbank, 15 feet from the Middlesex side of the river, a skiff came alongside containing two young men.  One youth held the boats alongside each other while the other stole the older men’s jackets, which were lying in their boat.  Mr Smales tried to hit the thief with his oar but the other boat turned away so Wilkinson tried to jump across.  Falling into the river, he swam to the skiff and took hold of the gunwale.  At that point, according to Smales, both young men struck Wilkinson on the head with their sculls giving him several blows until he let go and sank down into the river.  Crying out, “Murder,” Smales tried to row towards his drowning friend but with one small scull and one longer oar the boat turned back on itself.

The scene was witnessed by John Rowan, a jack-in-the-water at the Spread Eagle.  His job was to attend at the dockside stairway to help secure boats. This was his testimony at the trial,

“I was on the causeway till ten minutes before ten o'clock, when the last boat went away; I was then standing at the water edge, about forty yards from the house; I took my stool to the house; and about five minutes past ten I heard cries of Murder! - I got out of a boat's head, in which I was laying, but did not attend to the cry, till I heard it a second time - I heard a guggling; I knew then it was somebody drowning; I ran to the house, and as I ascended the stairs, I heard the guggling a second time - I called the waiter - he came instantly with me to the causeway, got into a gentleman's boat, and before we took twenty strokes, we came alongside of a boat, with Mr. Smales standing up in it - he put his hands together, and said, "My friend is gone!"

The perpetrators of the crime might never have been discovered had it not been for a tip off by Kitley, another youth, a fellow fisherman’s apprentice.  To ensure he was not under suspicion he suggested that the constables visit a costermonger, Robert Gare, who might have information about the stolen coats.  At first Gare denied all knowledge of the incident but after the officers found one of the coats hidden under ashes in the dustbins at Gare’s mother’s house, he admitted that William Brown, a young apprentice, whom he had known at school, had asked him to look after the coat.  Kitley also gave information about the other stolen jacket which was found in a barge's head at Robert Talbot's premises at Fore Street, Lambeth, under the head sheets.

They soon identified the other youth as William Kennedy and the two young men were brought to trial at the Old Bailey, indicted for the wilful murder of William Wilkinson.  Mr Bodkin, conducting the prosecution used the testimony of James Kitley to incriminate the accused.

“I was employed in the barge, Hieron, which was under repair at Lambeth; I know both the prisoners - Kennedy had been sleeping on board that barge for some time before the 17th; on Tuesday, the 17th, about ten o'clock, I think, but cannot tell, as I never looked at the clock, Kennedy came to me for the key - my barge laid about a mile and a quarter from the Spread Eagle; he appeared to me to be in a muck sweat I told him I was going myself directly, but he pressed me to give him the key - I did, and he went towards the barge by himself - I went myself in less than half an hour, and slept on board that night.  I did not see Kennedy when I went into the cabin, but he must have been there, for he got up with me in the morning, and he and I, went to a beer-shop kept by Bean; I asked Bean's son for a light.  Kennedy pulled out some papers and a book out of his pocket - he tore some of the papers, saying he wanted to burn them, and I tore some of them, not knowing what they were; the pieces were thrown into the grate of the room we were in. Flack lighted his pipe, and threw the paper which he lighted it with into the grate, and the papers caught fire; I cannot say whether they were partly or entirely burnt - I was going out in about an hour, when the officers came and took Kennedy into custody; they afterwards called me - I went to them, and went before the Magistrate with them, and after we had been before the Magistrate, Kennedy told me, that he and Brown were guilty.  We were all in custody under suspicion at the time, but Kennedy said we need not fear, for he would turn us up - he told me he had put one of the coats in a barge at the back of a barge-builder's place, but the barge-builder had moved away; I informed a gentleman at the office of it and I described where the barge was.”

Unburnt sheets from the pocket-book were handed over to the Thames police and Mr Smales identified his friend’s handwriting.

Further evidence was given that Brown and Kennedy had been seen nearby shortly before a skiff was stolen from Moore’s boat builders in Lambeth that night.

Both William Brown and William Kennedy confessed to stealing the coats from the boat but denied the murder of William Wilkinson.  Five witnesses gave Kennedy a good character.  The judgement was that both men were guilty and they were condemned to death but were later respited during His Majesty's pleasure.  Meanwhile two young apprentices made a violent attack on Thomas and Elizabeth Woodcock, William Kennedy’s Master and his wife, in their house in Fore Street, Lambeth, maintaining they had badly mistreated their apprentice and a mob burnt an effigy of the couple on the street.  The jury who had tried Brown and Kennedy were not convinced that the young men had even injured Wilkinson so they drew up a petition against their death penalty, resulting in commutation of the punishment.  There were many letters in the newspapers both condemning the harsh sentence and maintaining it should be carried out but finally Brown and Kennedy were reprieved.

Coldblooded Villainy #19th Century #London

They cut his throat from ear to ear,

His head they battered in.

His name was Mr William Weare,

He lived in Lyons Inn.

William Weare was a solicitor, gambler and murder victim.  His name is rarely mentioned but the Radlett Murder or the Elstree Murder, as it is also called, is notorious.  Accused of his murder were Joseph Hunt, professional singer and former keeper of the Army and Navy Coffee House in St Martin’s Lane, Mr Probert a former wine dealer who owned a cottage near Elstree and John Thurtell, a successful prize fighter who was the son of Alderman Thurtell of Norwich, 

 

Lion's Inn where William Weare had his chambers

All four men were well known in the murky world of gambling in early 19th century London.  Weare was a careful, successful gambler who was known to carry at least £1000 about his person.  He had won £300 from John Thurtell playing blind hookery, a card game. 

In October 1823 suspicions were aroused of a dreadful crime in the area of Gill’s Hill Lane in Elstree.  Shots had been heard on the Friday night and next morning, workmen found a bloody knife and a pistol in the undergrowth.  Local authorities investigated suspicious behaviour by men staying at Mr Probert’s cottage, who had been seen searching the Lane, saying that their gig had thrown them the night before.

It transpired that John Thurtell had invited Weare down to Probert’s cottage for a weekend’s shooting.  Probert and Hunt had travelled separately from Thurtell and Weare and they spent 45 minutes drinking five brandies at the Artichoke in Elstree.  Meanwhile, in a separate chaise along the road, Thurtell shot at Weare giving him a glancing wound on the cheek.  Running for his life, Weare promised to return Thurtell’s money, but his throat was cut and his skull caved in by the butt of a pistol.

 

Burial of William Weare

It would appear that only one man was guilty but the other two men were probably involved in the plot to attack Weare and they certainly helped to cover up the murder.  Arriving at Probert’s cottage at 9 pm, the men dined with Probert’s young wife.  After she retired to bed the men stayed up all night drinking and smoking but the servant, Susan Ann Woodrough said that they went out from 10 to 11 pm with a candle and a lantern.  This must have been when they collected the body from the lane, over the back of a horse and then concealed it in the fish pond by the cottage.

Next day Hunt and Thurtell returned to London, promising to be back at the cottage on Sunday. In town, Hunt bought cord and a new sack and on their arrival in Elstree, John Thurtell used the chaise to transport the body to Hill-slough pond, two miles from the cottage.  He used the cord and sacking to wrap up the body, weighed down with stones.

Soon after his arrest, Joseph Hunt confessed to his knowledge of the murder and showed the Magistrate where the body could be found.  Probert also confessed to some involvement, telling how Thurtell shared out £24 from the dead man and put a gold watch chain round Mrs Probert’s neck.  The cottage had been full with a family party that Sunday so at first Mrs Probert, her sister Mrs Noyes and John Thurtell’s brother, Thomas, were also arrested.

Newspapers throughout the country were full of gruesome details about the brains attached to the pistol and John’s bloody clothing.  A partially dug 6 foot grave was found close to the cottage and testimony of Hunt’s purchase of 2 pistols and a new spade helped to incriminate him.  The Caledonian Mercury talked of the diabolical ferocity of the murder and the cold blooded villainy of the plan.

John Thurtell was condemned to death and hanged on January 9^th 1824.  A waxwork of his body was exhibited at Madam Tussaud’s for 150 years, although his actual body had been dissected.  Joseph Hunt was also sentenced to death but this was commuted to Transportation.  After serving his term in Botany Bay, Joseph became a respectable police officer with a wife and two children.  Probert was released, a ruined man and his many crimes caught up with him, when in 1825 he was arrested for stealing a horse and was hanged at Newgate.

During the trial in 1823, Probert’s cottage became a popular place to visit.  The tenant charged one shilling per head and made over £200.  These visitors included the Marchioness of Salisbury and, a few years later, Sir Walter Scott.  The furniture was sold and the house torn down.

Although his hands were warm with blood,

He down to supper sat,

And passed the time in merry mood,

With drink and songs and chat.

The Murder in Half Moon Yard

In late July 1882, the peace of a warm afternoon in Kings Lynn, Norfolk was violently disturbed by screams of, “Murder.”  Just before 3 pm Harriet Fox, who had been living in a two room dwelling in Half Moon Yard with fisherman Park Twaits, threw open the window and called to Martha Backham in the yard below, “Oh Martha, I’m murdered.”  Seeing blood streaming from Harriet's head, Martha ran for help, while Mrs. Mary Ann Ward, who lived next door, ran into the house, and got to the foot of the stairs just as Miss Fox fell headlong to the bottom.  Taking her into her arms she carried Harriet into the yard, laying her down on the stones.  As she did so, the dying woman repeated the words, "I am murdered," and then became unconscious.  Meanwhile other neighbours crowded into the house, and, hearing groans in the room above, some of them also ran for the police.

Superintendent George Ware of the Lynn Police force, my great grandfather, was nearby at the Dock Police station so he responded immediately to Martha’s request for help.  Closely followed by PC Laws he ran to Half Moon Yard where he found Harriet Fox.  At the inquest he reported, “She was alive, but insensible, I noticed that she had a wound on the left side of the head near the ear and another on the left breast near the region of the heart.”  In the bedroom, the two policemen found evidence of a dreadful struggle.  According to the Illustrated Police News, “The bed was saturated with blood and the wall and floor were bespattered with it.”  Superintendent Ware found Park Twaits unconscious on the floor and in his hand was a large spring-backed knife, with the blade opened, and there was blood on it.  The knife, which was 10 inches long with a blade of 5 ½ inches, bore the name of “J. Irwin" on the handle.  Twaits had a large wound just above the region of the heart and he died about five minutes afterwards.  Mr Barrington, a surgeon arrived shortly, but despite his efforts, Harriet died within ten minutes.

Half Moon Yard was in the heart of the North End of Kings Lynn, a close-knit fishing community of poor, hard-working families, but this particular yard was considered one of the lowest localities in the town.  Twaits' house, which was a wretched hovel at the bottom of the yard, contained two rooms, the furniture in the lower one consisting chiefly of two old chairs and a table, whilst in the bedroom there was a dilapidated French bedstead, a chair, a woman's dress or two, and some seafaring clothing.

Park Twaits was from a very old fishing family in Lynn and he was the owner-skipper of the Wave, used for mussel fishing. He had married and had two sons but had abandoned his family. Despite owning his own boat he was well known to the police, having been taken to court on 16 occasions. At the age of 48, he was about 5 foot 10 inches in height, powerfully built, and weighed about 15 stone. He wore whiskers around the chin and face, and had plenty of thick brown hair. Over a period of 10 years he appeared before the Lynn magistrates for being drunk and disorderly, for using abusive language, for several cases of assault and for neglecting to maintain his wife.

Twaits was a jealous man who had become passionately in love with Harriet.  They lived together for almost 12 years but there were frequent quarrels between them and these led to blows and other acts of violence on his part.  Neighbours stated that disputes between the two were so constant that they looked upon them as "a matter of custom.”  Journalists discovered that on one occasion the woman was seen covered with blood as a result of an attack by Twaits, who was a man of ungovernable temper, and had, for some time past, been the terror of the neighbourhood. “He had often been heard to utter his intention to "do for" Fox, and, in the course of their quarrels, he repeated these threats to her.”

Their relationship worsened when Harriet took a job as servant at the Horse and Groom public-house, with board and lodging and became acquainted with another man, John Altham. She still was friendly with Twaits, continuing to sleep regularly with him. His jealousy, however, was aroused by her familiarity with Altham, especially when he heard she was about to marry his rival.  Caroline Kirby, wife of the landlord of the Horse and Groom, stated at the inquest, which was held in the Dock Tavern, that, “I knew that Harriet Fox was going to marry a young man named John Altham, who has left the town. He left because he said his life was in danger. He now lives in Suffolk, where he is working on the line.  I have heard quarrels between Harriet and Twaits about her having left him and gone with Altham, and I have heard him threaten her, and he told me he would buy a revolver and shoot her rather than she should marry. The last time I heard him threaten her was a month last Sunday.”

Harriet had been so worried that she had called on Superintendent Ware in his own home to ask for his protection, but as the policeman was not there, Twaits “wheedled" her round again.  Twaits had recently borrowed the knife, with which the deadly wounds were inflicted, from John Irwin, ostler, telling him that wanted it to cut a piece out of a sail. 

The post mortem examination conducted by Mr Barrington and Dr John Lowe established that Park Waite’s wounds were self-inflicted.  The jury were convinced that Harriet Fox was a victim of wilful murder by Park Twaits.  They were directed by the Coroner to consider whether Twaits could have been of sound mind to commit such a foul dead and their decision was that he took his own life while suffering from temporary insanity.

Mrs. Kirby, opened a subscription list, which enabled her to, “give the dead woman a decent burial,” and Twaits was buried at the expense of a brother and sister.  The funeral took place two days after the inquest. The coffin containing the corpse of the woman was borne to the grave on a bier carried shoulder high by fishermen. It was covered with a pall, on which were laid wreaths of bright flowers. A small train of her friends followed, and then came the hearse containing the coffin of Park Twaits.  Several hundred people watched the procession, and a large crowd followed it into the Cemetery.  Anticipating this, Superintendent Ware had posted policemen to prevent crushing at the cemetery chapel. The plates on the lids of the coffins bore the text—"The spirit shall return unto God who gave it," and the words "Park T. Twaits, died 20th July, 1882, aged 46 years, Harriet Fox, died 20th July, 1882, aged 41 years."

Dr Thomas Jenner Sells investigates a murder

Among the eminent families in 19^th century Guildford the Sells family had a significant impact. 

Thomas Jenner Sells was born on February 25^th 1811 in Clarendon, Jamaica, the son of William Sells, Practitioner of Medicine, and his wife, Euphemia.   William Sells was a surgeon in Jamaica for several years. In November 1826 he and his family left Jamaica and by 1841 he was living in Kingston-upon-Thames where he died in September.

Thomas Jenner Sells decided to follow his father into medicine and after completing his medical training, he settled in Guildford, Surrey in about 1840.  On July 19^th 1842 Thomas married Charlotte, the daughter of Rev. John Stedman and they settled at 109 High Street.  In 1846 and again in 1851, Thomas was elected Mayor of Guildford.  In addition to his everyday medical duties, Thomas took over the private lunatic asylum at Leapale House. 

In 1852 Thomas Jenner Sells participated in the investigation into the horrific murder of a 3 year old child in Albury.  John Keene and his wife Jane were accused of drowning her illegitimate child, Charlie Broomer, in a well in February 1851.   Mrs Keene’s mother, Ann Broomer, had reported her fears to Police Superintendent Josiah Hawkins Radley stationed at Guildford and he took a well-digger to Warren Well near Albury Heath.  On finding remains, they summoned Dr Sells.  Thomas Sells testified that the body had been in the well for at least a year and he produced the skull, which he had put back together, to show to the Court.

Other testimonies included that of Mr Ames, Master of Guildford Union Workhouse, who reported that Jane Keene had been admitted to the Workhouse after dark on January 10^th 1851 accompanied by two children, 3 year old Charlie Broomer and a baby born a few weeks before to Jane and her husband John.  She had left the Workhouse with her children on February 6^th.  On 16^th February she returned to the Workhouse with her husband John and her youngest child, saying that Charlie was with her mother in Albury.  In spite of the fact that all the evidence was hearsay, at the end of the trial Jane Keene was acquitted but her husband was condemned to death for murder.

One of the other cases involving Thomas occurred in 1864 when there was a quarrel between two boys from a gypsy encampment on Whitmoor Common.  One boy, John Stacey, was stabbed.  Dr Sells dressed his wound and then sent the boy to the Workhouse although his assailant had escaped towards Woking. 

 In 1862 Thomas Jenner Sells purchased a large plot of land at the south-eastern end of Guildford with the intention of building many houses.  Thomas Sells worked with Henry Peak, the town's first Borough surveyor, and the design for one of the first housing estates in the town took shape. Thomas Sells named the area after his wife, Charlotte, and many of the roads were named after famous physicians.  Charlotteville, one of the earliest planned suburbs in Britain, was planned to have a social mix, with large villas to purchase and small terraced cottages to rent.  The gradual building of this, “urban village,” continued after the death of T. J. Sells, but in 1867 at an anniversary dinner for the local Forresters’ Lodge, Thomas commented that, “He hoped he had shown his fellow townsmen the best way to spend their money.  Every mechanic should live in his own home.”

You can read more about Charlotteville at www.users.waitrose.com/~iannicholls/Local-History.html

Resources

Diaries of Henry Peak edited by Roger Nicholas

Census and Parish records from www.Ancestry.co.uk

British Newspapers Archive 

Times Digital Archive

www.guildfordinstitute.co.uk