Trying to solve a 150 year old murder of Sarah Watts

[Lyndon]

On September 24th 1851, John and Leah Watts left their 15 year old daughter, Sarah, to look after their farm in West Woodlands near Frome in Somerset while they went to Frome Market. That was the last time they saw Sarah alive. When they returned that evening they found her body. She had been struck on the head, drowned in a tub of whey, strangled and raped.

Three men, Robert Hurd, William Maggs and William Sparrow were tried for her murder in 1852. After hearing two days of evidence from 40 witnesses, it took the jury just 20 minutes to return a verdict of 'Not Guilty'. 

Sarah was probably the sister of my gg grandfather. I want to look carefully at all the evidence to see if I can arrive at any conclusion as to who may have killed her. If you fancy lending a hand, or just popping in now and again to see if blogging is a useful tool for a problem like this, I'd love to see you at http://sarahwatts.wordpress.com

There's not a great deal there yet, but I hope to build it up as my thoughts and knowledge of the case develop.

--
Lyndon

[Dave Francis]

Hi Lyndon

There were at least two articles in The Times about the trial, the second being very lengthy. Do you have these?

Dave

[CarolBurns]

I can't understand how they managed to find them Not Guilty if there were so many witnesses!

Carol

[Dave Francis]

I can't understand how they managed to find them Not Guilty if there were so many witnesses!

Carol

A brief read through the second article suggest that the evidence may have been circumstantial and that the charges were somehow "got up". It also looks like various witnesses swore that the defendants were elsewhere on the night of the crime.

Interesting to note, however, that all three of the defendants were subsequently transported for other offences including Maggs who was transported for life after pleading guility to a burglary in 1853. (He had been sentenced to 15 years transportation for an earlier unspecified offence but appears to have escaped and committed the burglary whilst on the run.)

[CarolBurns]

Very suspicious I would say

I will have a quick read up on this and see what comes to mind. Most probably was them but the witnesses could have been scared of the three of them and that was the reason they gave alibis

Carol

[Dave Francis]

Regarding the earlier conviction of Maggs, some snippets from an article in The Times (1 Nov 1852)

"At the Somersetshire Sessions this week, William Maggs, a notorious burglar, the head of a gang which has long infested the neighbourhood of Frome, was found guilty of stealing a quantity of milk, and sentenced to 15 years' transportation."

"A man named Wheeler swore positively to having seen the prisoner Maggs and one of his companions (Sparrow) milking farmer Allard's cows on the 6th of June, that he went up to them ... but they threatened to beat his brains out with a large bludgeon."

"He violently resisted being captured, and it was not until a strong body of constables arrived, and threatened to shoot him if he resisted, that he surrendered."

"The jury immediately found Maggs guilty, and he was sentenced to 15 years' transportation. There is also a charge of burglary for which he will be tried at the next assizes." [The other charge resulted in transportation for life.]

Reading between the lines ... Maggs, Sparrow and Hurd were evidently well known for their criminal activities in the local neighbourhood and Maggs, at least, appears to have had a violent temperament. It may well be that the local community "knew" that they were responsible for the rape and murder of Sarah Watts, but that the evidence was so flimsy that the jury had no alternative but to find them not guilty after only 20 minutes deliberation.

I doubt whether the jury were fearful of reprisals given that Maggs, Sparrow and Hurd would have been hanged if found guilty. (Unless of course there were other members of the gang ...)

[Lyndon]

Wow. Thanks everyone. That gets me off to a good start. Anyone mind if I copy these posts to the blog?

Dave  - thanks for the info on the Times articles. I have two references; one to the trial itself and one lead article expressing amazement at the verdict. They can be navigated to from the blog - there is a menu on the right, and the references are there.

Where does the info about all of them being transported come from? That is exactly the kind of info I was hoping for.

I'm going to be considering the evidence next. It seems that the case was built around three 4 things:

1.   A handkerchief found at the scene of the murder was said by three witnesses to belong to Sparrow.

Sparrow denied owning a silk handkerchief for several years apart from the one he wore round his neck.

2.   Sparrow’s thumb was seen to be injured a few days after the murder. There was a bloody thumbprint on the wall of the dairy. Sparrow claimed to have injured the hand in a fight in a beer-house, but eye-witnesses claim that he did not get involved in the fight. Also the fight was too recent to have led to the hand becoming infected.

3.   One of the three spoke of the murder revealing information about the manner in which Sarah was killed which was not generally known, a few days after the murder.

4.   The three of them were seen in the vicinity of the Watts farm at around the time Sarah must have been murdered. They were seen later having changed their clothes.

I'll develop these themes in the blog.

Thanks everyone for the encouraging start.
--
Lyndon

[Dave Francis]

Hi Lyndon

The other two articles were on 1 November 1852 (as above) and 2 April 1853 (page 7).  You should find them both by searching The Times online archive using the keyword "Maggs".

In fact if you search for "Maggs"  in 1852 there are two further articles of interest:

12 August 1852 regarding the escape of Sparrow from Wells gaol having been arrested, tried and convicted of "some offence" which resulted in 15 years' transportation.

26 October 1852 regarding the arrest of three of Maggs' daughters who had attempted to break into a farmhouse at Woodlands, near to where the murder had taken place.

There may be other articles lurking in the archive.

I have no problem with my comments appearing on your blog.

Dave

[Lendevon]

Have you read a report on the inquest? At that time for a case like this the inquest is reported at great length in the local newspapers, sometimes giving information that, for some reason, is not mentioned at the subsequent trial.