Welcome back to the FRIDAY Murder Club, after a brief Wednesday interlude. I’ve been in the archive this week. One of the weird things I’ve found about being an inquest historian is that I don’t get upset by the horrid, violent deaths. I get upset by the humdrum, the ones that could happent to any of us, the sudden heart attack, the fall from a ladder, the drowned child. It’s been a bit depressing.
What better way to cheer up than with a local murder! Today’s murder takes us to Parson Drove near Wisbech.
Augustus Hilton was born in 1829 in Gosberton, in South Lincolnshire. His father, William, was a farmer and the family moved to Sutton St Edmund after Augustus was born. Augustus was the second son, and he helped his father with his land. The Hiltons were rich, and well-connected, and their daughters married into the local yeomanry.
Augustus had a vicious temper. In 1855, he agreed to play cards with a man in the pub at Sutton St Edmund, on the proviso that if either man kicked off, the one who stayed calm pocketed the stakes. His opponent won two games and was about to win the third when Augustus kicked off. So his opponent pocketed all the cash on the table, and Augustus beat the crap out of him. The judge awarded the victim a pound in damages.
In the mid-1850s, the Hilton family moved to a farm on the North Level bank in Parson Drove. In 1857, Augustus was in court again, this time for being drunk and disorderly in Parson Drove. He was fined ten shillings.
Abraham was the only unmarried Hilton sibling by 1852. He was tall, slim and attractive but unpleasant. Unable to read with any fluency, he had no conversational skill, and preferred drinking and gambling. He was a hard sell. Luckily, within sight of the new farm was a corn windmill run by Charles Barnes, and he had a daughter.
Charlotte Barnes was younger than Augustus, born in late 1837. She was well known for her beauty. Its not clear whether Augustus seduced her, or whether their relationship developed over time, but by the middle of 1859, she was pregnant. The pair were married on 22nd August 1859 at Gedney Hill. Their daughter was born by the end of year, and but she died soon after.
Charlotte’s father, Charles, was (like George and Isaac Hibbs) a railway subcontractor. He knew where to find navvies, among the bored agricultural labourers and drain diggers of the fens, and in 1860, he left Parson Drove to build the Midland line through Derbyshire. He left the mill and bakery in the capable hands of Charlotte and his teenage son Joseph. His younger son George, aged about ten, also stayed behind.
Augustus was more than twice Joseph’s age, he had been helping his father run a farm for his entire adult life. But Charles Barnes had perhaps heard about what kind of man his son-in-law was. Augustus, who wasn’t fully educated, was excluded from managing the business. He was only allowed to order the corn.
Augustus took his frustration out on his young wife. He shifted between trying to wheedle money out of her, and verbally abusing her when she did not. She became pregnant again in the summer of 1860.
Matters came to a head on Saturday 2nd March 1861, when Charlotte was in her last weeks of pregnancy. In the morning, Charlotte and Augustus went to Wisbech for the day, and were arguing when they left the house. They came back at 4:30pm still arguing. Augustus was a little drunk. He wanted more money, but Charlotte wanted to know what he’d spent the money on that she’d already given him, so she could account for it. And it was nearly £18, so no small sum.
She got changed, and sat at the table to take tea with her brother. Augustus asked for cups of tea, but let them go cold, furiously smoking his pipe. He ate three boiled eggs with no bread, and then started again, demanding more cups of tea. According to their servant, Susannah, Charlotte said
“You have been slandering me all the time I have been in Wisbech and going and coming! Do you think I am come home to wait upon you in this way? No I won’t! I’ll die first!”
Augustus looked at her, and said “So you will”, then asked the servant to take little George to get some beer. Charlotte wouldn’t let her take George. Susannah, worried to death, ran to the pub and back. When she got back, they were sitting together and still arguing about the money.
Charlotte asked her brother Joseph to ask their groom to ready the horse and trap. She planned to go to her aunt’s house because
“If I stop [here], he’ll let me have no peace”
Joseph went to ready the gig, and then went to see to the mill. Charlotte followed him out to make sure her orders had been recieved, and told the groom, Tom Snow
“If you can’t [drive me], I’ll drive myself. I’ll go Tom, I’ll not be with him tonight.”
She went back inside, and stormed upstairs to get her things. Augustus followed her, the door slammed, Susannah became increasingly uneasy and then Tom came in to say the horse was ready. The three of them - Susannah, Tom and little George - stood in the kitchen, worrying. None of them wanted to go upstairs, as they heard Augustus thudding around. Then there was a scream, and Susannah ran up the stairs. The door was locked from the inside, and they could hear Charlotte groaning. Tom and Susannah scattered from different doors to fetch help.
Joseph discovered his sister’s body, along with several neighbours. They held her, holding a handkerchief to her throat, trying to stop the bleeding. She bled to death fifteen minutes later.
Augustus left the house, and was heading towards the Clough Bridge over the North Level when Joseph caught up with him. He had blood all over his face, and grimly said
Look you there Joe, I have done it.
He went back to the house, and while Charlotte’s family and neighbours gathered around her, Augustus threw the family’s account books on the fire. He was escorted to his father’s house, where he drank most of a bottle of brandy. The doctor confirmed Charlotte’s death, and the baby with her, then went to see Augustus who was now drunk. The police arrested him and took him to Wisbech police station.
The inquest was held in two stages at the Swan Inn. Augustus was not present at the first session, on the 4th March, which the coroner complained about. The coroner also complained that the police had removed articles from the crime scene before the jury had had a look. The inquest was adjourned until the 10th, and Augustus went before Ely magistrates on the 5th. He calmly told the magistrates that he was ready to die at any time.
I wish to go to my Charlotte, that’s all.
Augustus became very distressed in prison, and was put on suicide watch. The inquest, predictably, found a verdict of wilful murder and Augustus was doubly indicted. He waited for trial at Cambridge Castle.
He should not have had to wait long for trial: the assize was due to be held within a few days of his commital. However, the trial was postponed because Augustus’ attorney had been unable to gather any evidence about Augustus’ state of mind in the nine days since Augustus had appeared in the magistrate’s court. The Hilton family were ‘prostrated’ with emotion, and the defence was sure he could prove insanity if given more time.
More time was duly given. Augustus sat in prison for four months while his attorney diligently gathered evidence about his mental state, because insanity was literally his only defence. Twenty witnesses to his wellbeing were gathered.
It was all for nothing. On 20th July 1861, Augustus resolved to plead guilty, and no exortations by his lawyer could persuade him otherwise. The judge, after explaining to him very patiently and thoroughly that a guilty plea was an automatic death sentence, gave him time to reconsider. Augustus was resolute. The judge, almost with the air of one who has been cheated, said
Augustus Hilton, you have, after a full and anxious warning to the contrary, confessed yourself guilty of a foul and unnatural murder. I should have been better satisfied and I venture to think that public justice had been better satisfied, if the circumstances of your guilt had been brought out by a full and public investigation.
He went on to pass the death sentence. Augustus said nothing, and returned to Cambridge Castle to wait to die. His father attempted to get a reprieve from the Home Office, claiming Augustus was both insane and under provocation. George Grey, the home secretary, rejected it.
The execution date was set for 10th August. It was the first execution in Cambridge in twelve years. Augustus’ parents and siblings visited him on the 8th and 9th.
William Calcraft was the executioner. The gallows stood on the prison at the foot of the castle mound, roughly where Shire Hall now stands. Augustus slept until eight, had breakfast and a little exercise. He was pinioned and walked out to the gallows at 11:54am. Twenty thousand people watched him die, easily and without struggle.
He had requested to be buried with Charlotte at Parson Drove. He was buried in the prison yard.
Nobody saw Augustus murder Charlotte, but the description of the crime scene suggests a gory struggle. Charlotte was not only trying to defend herself, but her baby, and her hands were cut to ribbons. He cut her throat with a razor twice, through to her spine. Then he walked out and left her to bleed to death.
The Barnes family were not quite as wealthy as the Hilton family, but Charlotte seems to have been trained as a farmer’s wife from a young age. She was literate, an excellent accountant, and trusted to run her father’s business along with a boy of fifteen. She was twenty-three, attractive and exceptionally capable; unafraid to drive across the fens alone on a cold March evening.
She was utterly destroyed by her petty, dull, childish husband.
Charlotte Hilton
(1837-1861)
Unborn Baby Hilton
(1861)