'Poisoned' wife buried in St Mary's Churchyard, Chieveley

[SamnJoan]

There is a burial record in St Mary's Church, Chieveley of a Wernham lady who was married to someone with the surname Chamberlain.   Her husband is reputed to have poisoned her circa 1880.

Please can anyone throw any light on this and give me the christian names of either/both husband and wife?

Joan

[Romilly]

Have you found this Burial Record, Joan?

If there is a gravestone, it might have more details...

Other than that, - there might be a newspaper report on the case, - (Find my Past have a newspaper section).

More details, - (especially names) would help though.

Romilly.

[SamnJoan]

Hi Romilly

Thankyou for your quick reply.

A very old cousin wrote and told me that he had been 'to Chieveley in the summer of 1953 to go through the parish register for entries for Wernhams....   I found the tombstone on the far side of the cemetery'.

Unfortunately I am no longer able to contact this cousin (I think he may have died) and am a long way from Berkshire, so unable to visit the churchyard myself.

I will see if I can find any newspaper reports on Find My Past.

Joan

[Romilly]

This might be it... (And looks like he was hanged!)

Executions in England from 1606 - Ivanlea.net
www.ivanlea.net/sub_pages/executions.htm‎
In the ten years between 1820 and 1830, there were executed in England alone .... 'Murder of his wife by poison .... CHAMBERLAIN, Thomas .... 1880 17 Feb'.

I've looked at the Site, - but I can't see the Chamberlain Entry, - perhaps some one else can?

Romilly.

[LizzieL]

The Thomas Chamberlain entry just says murder. The date was 30 Mar 1874
William Dove 1856 is the only entry specifying murder of his wife by poison.

[murphy60]

I could not open the link so went to website and found same as Lizzie with the addition of a location

CHAMBERLAIN, Thomas   1874 30 Mar      Murder   Northampton

[SamnJoan]

Many thanks Romilly, LizzieL and murphy60.

I couldn't open the link either, but at least I now know that this really did happen.   Perhaps I will be able to dig up some more about the case now that I know the name of the man involved.   Can't quite work out why this happened in Northampton tho', when they came from Berkshire.

Joan

[Galium]

From The Bradford Observer March 11 1874

At Northampton, yesterday, Thomas Chamberlain was sentenced to death for the murder of Mr. Newett, an aged farmer

[murphy60]

Hi Joan, The info comes from a person who created a website for personal use in other words, not an official website ....It could have errors.   I looked (quickly) at the others in the list,  nothing jumped off the page!