I am currently at the Social History Society Conference in Colchester, having a wonderful time with dear friends… so, this is a scheduled post!
As twitter staggers and dies, I would really like to see people move to substack and use the notes/chat function to create the same sense of community. But perhaps people are just sick to death of unreliable comms platforms.
The fourth and final wife-murder of 1861 is the worst one yet, in my opinion. Unlike Hilton, Farquhar and Thompson, this was one was genuinely premeditated. A dispassionate disposal, an attempt to misdirect the coroner, and the needless death of a baby. Once more, we are in the Midlands, in Coventry.
William Beamish married Betsy Stokes in Coventry on 11th August 1849, in the Congregational Chapel at Vicar Lane. They were both around twenty-three, both born in the city. They were both from weaving families, and grew up in the medieval weaving area around Spon Street. William was working as a silk ribbon weaver when they married, and Betsy as a silk winder. They had four children, but one died young: William (known as Willie, born 1850), Harriet (1854-1855), Lizzie (born 1857) and Emily (born 1859).
They initially lived on Albion Street, in the city centre. They had at least one silk loom at home, which they both worked on. They had a young servant living with them to help with their little boy. Another young woman, unmarried and also working in the silk trade, lodged with them. She almost certainly worked within their house.
They moved out to Hillfields in approximately 1852, and lived on Spencer Street. They both continued to work as silk weavers, working up to sixteen hours a day.
They were highly respected among their community. William taught at the Sunday School, and Betsy was known as an amiable woman. The Beamish family had a workshop in their attic, with two looms, where they did their weaving. A few months before Emily was born at the end of 1859, William left his chapel and started hanging around in pubs. He met Emma Statham by chance, and invited her to come and work alongside him. She worked in their workshop, but also did domestic work. Emma was twenty-three, but seemed younger - the newspapers generally reported her age as nineteen. She lived in Albert Street, nearby, but sometimes stayed at the house.
The weaving trade in Coventry went into a depression in 1860, and the Beamish family struggled for money, along with most of the rest of the weaving community. William went to work at James Hart’s silk factory at this time, after a period of unemployment. Betsy, Emma, and a boy of twelve (possibly kin to Betsy) continued to weave in the attic.
On August 14th, Betsy, Willie, Lizzy and Emily all became unwell as they ate their breakfast, vomiting and retching. Emily was sick first, then Betsy, then Willie and last of all, Lizzy. Willie and Lizzy recovered.
On the 15th, William called the doctor, Dr Goate, to Betsy and Emily. Dr Goate did not examine Emily, who was asleep. He examined Betsy, and found her throat and mouth to be red raw. He gave her a laxative, which cannot have helped her general condition, and never returned to see her again. Betsy’s sister-in-law, Jane, nursed her and watched the children.
Emily died that evening. Her death was certified as being caused by gastritis, and she was buried on the 18th. Betsy was too sick to attend.
Following Emily’s funeral, the family gathered at the house, and Emma Statham kept the guests supplied with tea and cake. Betsy continued to vomit, suffering a terrible thirst and sore throat, and an awful burning in her chest and when she passed urine. She thought she had cholera, and asked her sister Milly about the symptoms - Milly had survived cholera a few years earlier, and told Betsy that her symptoms were very different.
After the funeral, Betsy had a cup of tea, made by William. After this, she took a turn for the worse, absolutely unable to keep anything down, not even water. On Tuesday 20th August, she declined dramatically, and Emma sent to Hart’s factory to fetch William home. It was too late: Betsy died before he arrived.
William then went to see Dr Goate to ask for a death certificate. Dr Goate initially refused, but William pleaded - he needed the certificate to get the burial club money, to give his wife a respectable funeral. Dr Goate acquiesced.
But this was not the end of it. Rumour spread that Betsy had been poisoned, and Dr Goate was also uncomfortable with the strange symptoms she had displayed. He went to see her body, and found it bright red all over, a most unusual colouration. He ordered a post-mortem, and an inquest opened on the 22nd at the Gloucester Arms, which backed onto Spencer Street.
The inquest was adjourned to await poison analysis. But on the Friday - the 23rd - William went to the cemetery with his brother-in-law, Josiah Stokes, known as Joe. Joe said something about needing to exhume the baby to see if she died naturally, and William became very agitated. When he got home, William told Jane Stokes that he wanted to look in Betsy’s pockets. It was the third time that he’d suggested doing this, so Jane gave in and said OK. And in the pockets of the dress that Betsy had been wearing on the fourteenth, the following note was discovered:
For Jane Stoks
dear sistr. if anything happns to me doo not let them blame any one. for god Forgive me i did not know wat i was doin. but the thought of loosing my home and now to see how the poor lad was frettin to know wat to do for the moment drove me mad For to loose my home I could not bear the disgrace after liven respectful so long. And doo not tell him if you can elp it for it will driv him mad. jane see to the little one, for he is so fond of Lisey, god bless you and comfort my poor lad.
Betsey Beamish, wensday, August 14
When William found this note, he ran around raving, like a man mad. He told Jane that he hadn’t read it, just seen the first few words, but was still enormously agitated. Jane - who couldn’t read - took it to a neighbour, and the neighbour told her to take it to the police. Jane did.
William had forgotten something though. He had forgotten that although Betsy could read, she couldn’t write... William, Emma Statham and Jane Stokes were all arrested. Emily’s body was exhumed and a post-mortem performed.
The second inquest was opened on Monday 26th August, and had a very different flavour to the first: this was now a murder enquiry. Betsy had been poisoned, a quantity of arsenic was discovered in her stomach, and the doctors considered that she had been given a substantial dose over several days. A local chemist testified he had sold William some soft soap with arsenic in before the 14th. Another testified that William had tried to buy arsenic from him, to kill rats, having refused to buy either Battle’s Vermin Powder (which contained strychnine, a drug with a very distinctive effect on humans) or phosphorus. William went to four different chemists, trying to buy arsenic that had not been dyed blue. On 17th August, he bought some with a blueish tinge.
The suicide note had been written on paper taken from William’s own pocket book, which was found in a locked cupboard upstairs. His Sunday best trousers were also in the bedroom, and a packet formerly containing arsenic was found in the pocket.
The inquest was again adjourned, to allow time to analyse Emily’s stomach contents. In the interim, Emma and Jane were discharged by the magistrates… but William was remanded. Charles Griffin was appointed to represent him, and wrote to the local paper asking people not to jump to conclusions. He asked for the next part of the inquest to be held in a larger space, but this was denied. The inquest stayed in the Gloucester Arms.
A third hearing opened on 2nd September. The witnesses told how William had avoided summoning medical help for Betsy after the 16th August, and how William was having an affair with Emma Statham.
Oop.
This witness, a Mrs Taylor who lived opposite the Beamish’s, could see into their kitchen from her attic. She said she’d seen the two in the pub, and when Emma said to William he’d better be careful in case they were seen, he replied:
“I don’t mind who’s coming, I am sworn to have you and I’ll do all in my power for you”
From what Mrs Turner said, William had no interest in hiding his affair with Emma, kissing and groping her at every opportunity. Mrs Turner told Betsy, and she sadly replied that she knew, she couldn’t leave the house without people telling her about it. The representatives of the suspects did their best to paint Mrs Turner as a scold and a gossip, pointing out that her husband had left her and highlighting how nosy she was being, but her evidence was clear. William and Emma were having a most obvious relationship, and Betsy knew. A local landlady corroborated this evidence: she’d seen them in the pub on many occasions, and just assumed they were a courting couple.
The post-mortem on Emily showed that she had also died from arsenic, albeit a much smaller quantity. Dr Goate was of the opinion that two lots of arsenic had been administered to Betsy: one on the 14th, and a second on the 18th. The coroner apologised to Jane Stokes for her arrest, telling her he was very much annoyed by it! Emma gave evidence, in a most flippant and ‘saucy’ manner, absolutely denying that any impropriety had taken place between her and William, but the coroner did not believe her and said so.
The coroner adjourned the inquest again, wanting a handwriting expert to compare a sample of William’s writing with the suicide note found in Betsy’s dress. He agreed to hold the fourth hearing at St Mary’s Hall, to try and shut out the noise of the thousands of people outside.
A final hearing was held on the 7th September. The registrar who attended their marriage testified that Betsy could write her own name at the time of their marriage. Little Willie Beamish, aged ten, also testified. Willie had also become sick with his mother and sisters, after eating some bread and treacle and drinking coffee. Lizzy and Willie recovered by the evening, and took a dose of castor oil. They did not become ill again.
More damningly, Willie had fetched his father’s pocket book and watched him write a note in it. He had never seen his mother write anything. A handwriting expert (eventually) turned up, summoned from the British Museum, and examined the note and examples of William’s handwriting.
All the writing was by the same person.
Betsy’s signature on the marriage certificate was nothing like it.
William wrote the note.
The summing up took ages: the jury had to be satisfied that Betsy and Emily had both died from arsenic, and also decide who had administered it. There were several possible suspects, there was no clear mechanism for how the poison had been ingested. The note was evidently written to try and bring a suicide-homicide verdict, but actually served to rule out accidental ingestion.
The jury returned a murder verdict against William, for both Emily and Betsy’s deaths. They also named Emma Statham as an accessory, but this was beyond the scope or power of a coroner’s inquest: they either had to find a wilful murder verdict against her as well, or remove it. After twenty minutes, they returned, having removed the statement about Emma.
Two days later, the charge of double murder was confirmed by the magistrates, and William waited for his trial in Warwick prison. Initially much depressed, he cheered up after a few days. Popular feeling was that Emma ought to be on trial too…
William was joined in Warwick prison by John Farquhar, who got rather better treatment via his rich mates. In October, John Thompson also went there, as did two women accused of an infanticide in Solihull. Quite the party.
William’s trial took place on 17th December. Hundreds of people walked to Shire Hall in Warwick from Coventry to see justice done. Emma attended the trial, but left before the end. The evidence was given in a much more chronologically orderly fashion than at inquest. Josiah Stokes gave evidence for the first time, testifying about how William had become very upset at the idea that Emily’s body was going to be exhumed.
But again, poison is difficult to prove without a clear chain of evidence, a chain that was lacking in this case. William’s defence suggested that Betsy had killed herself and Emily, and tried to kill all three children.
The jury took twenty minutes to find William guilty of murder. William appeared surprised by the verdict, clutching the dock.
The judge donned his black cap, sentenced William to death, and sent him to Warwick to await his death, along with John Thompson who was sentenced one day earlier.
John Thompson railed against his sentence, saying it was most unjust that John Farquhar had not been treated the same. William did not. He said nothing. They were held in separate cells, although doomed to hang at the same time. Many of William’s relatives, including his children, visited him in prison. William requested to be allowed to see Emma. This request was denied.
William confessed in a lengthy written confession the night before his death.
Dear Sir
I cannot say more of the first cause of sickness of my children - God bless them - than I have; but finding my wife was so ill, I was wicked enough to get the stuff. It was my hand that did the deed and everyone else is innocent of it: but I did repent of it as soon as it was done : but I dare not say anything about it. God forgive me. It was caused by her upbraiding me, poor soul! some time before this. I wish not to say anything to lessen my guilt which I hope God will pardon. I know that I never gave the children anything and, as I have told you before, the stuff I purchased on Saturday I threw away on Sunday. I used what I used on Saturday night in her medicine. To enter into the reason why I did it will do no good : but if you read them books that I have left you will find what made me such a wicked sinner ; but it is my own wicked heart that led me to do it and I hope I will be forgiven. Dear sir there was no particular premeditation, but it was done altogether, as if all my wickedness was contained in the one deed. Oh! what nights of anguish I did suffer! I fell on the bed beside her and I would have given my life to have brought her back but it was too late. Oh! I hope I shall not be too late for eternity. My conscience was a hell of itself.
He was executed on the morning of 30th December, alongside John Thompson. It took more than a minute for him to die.
Poison cases are difficult to read, difficult to follow through the winding evidence, difficult to be certain. Unlike with a stabbing, poison requires more evidence for murder to be provable: proof of purchase, proof of administration, proof of intent.
Emma was widely held responsible for the murders within Hillfields: she was the wicked woman who’d seduced a married man and then possibly disposed of his family. The local newspapers ran editorials warning young men against flirty young harlots. Emma had no shame, working alongside Betsy when Betsy knew exactly what she was going on. But she was twelve years younger than William and apparently not bothered about being ‘the other woman’; William seemed far more into her than she was into him. Perhaps they conspired together, perhaps it was her idea, but perhaps she was fine with the status quo. After all, William had nothing to offer her except a life of relentless work with not much reward.
As he waited for his execution, William admitted giving Betsy arsenic on the 18th August. He refused to admit to anything else, although he verbally told his chaplain that he suspected someone had tampered with the bicarbonate of soda that Betsy usually put into water the family were going to drink. The obvious candidate was Emma, who had a motive but no evidence to tie her to buying arsenic in the first place.
But William admitted that he wrote that note, clear evidence of premeditation. And William did not want Emily exhumed, and ‘found’ the note once her exhumation was suggested. Perhaps he simply didn’t want to admit filicide, but I think it’s more likely that he hoped that Betsy and the children would all die following the first dose, and be counted as homicide-suicide. He wanted his wife to take posthumous responsibility for annhiliating her family. He wanted the sympathy of his community. He wanted the freedom to marry Emma.
So on the morning of the 14th, he put arsenic in the bicarb and went to work, leaving his family to die in vomiting agony. It can’t have been a very strong dose, because Willie and Lizzy recovered quickly. Emily died: she was only twenty months old. Betsy did not recover. It seems likely that she continued to ingest arsenic, in small doses, for the next few days.
And then, as the family prepared for Emily’s funeral, and Betsy continued to vomit in agony, William tired of waiting for his wife to die. He went out and bought over an ounce of arsenic. Immediately after the funeral, he mixed it into Betsy’s medicine. Then he continued his normal activities, including groping Emma, while Betsy slowly died.
Arsenic is held up, by certain purveyors of true crime and crime fiction, as a perfect murder weapon. It is tasteless, odourless, easy to mix into food or drink without detection. These acounts omit the absolute agony it inflicts upon the victim.
It is not swift. It is not painless. It condemns the victim to a slow, terrifying and torturous death.
William watched his wife burn alive from the inside. Then he tried to claim he felt bad about it.
After the trial, Emma Statham left Coventry. She married in Crewe a little over a year later, and died in 1900. She called her second daughter Emily.
Betsy Beamish
(1826-1861)
Emily Beamish
(1859-1861)