Life in the Workhouse
Ann was a twenty-eight-year-old mother of two illegitimate children who, in December 1837, was living with them in the workhouse at Drayton (now Market Drayton) in Shropshire, just over the Staffordshire border. She would have been described at the time as a dissolute young woman.
The older of her two children was a three-year-old girl, also named Ann, who, according to the witness testimony of another of the workhouse’s inmates, was not well treated by her mother. The younger child was an infant whom Ann had conceived with her then lover, Charles Gilbert.
Disappearance of the Elder Daughter
Ann left the workhouse with her two children on Thursday, the 14th of December. The three were recognized early in the afternoon by a man named James Freeman. By six o’clock, Ann was exhausted and knocked on the door of the cottage of one Sarah Newbrook, asking if she could rest there for a while. Sarah allowed her to do so and noted that she only had the infant child with her.
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Discovery of the Body
On Friday, the 22nd of December, William Poole, a farm labourer, saw something floating in a pit on his employer’s land near Chipnal. He informed the farmer, Mr. Butters, and between them, they were able to pull the small object out of the pit and onto the bank. They were no doubt horrified to find it was the body of a little girl.
An inquest was held at the Noah pub. William Crutchley, the governor of the Drayton workhouse, identified the body as that of Ann Wycherly’s elder daughter. The inquest found that the cause of death was drowning but noted that the girl’s body and head had several bruises.
Arrest and Confession
William Crutchley obtained an arrest warrant from the local justices of the peace and went in search of Ann. He found her soon after in service at Baldwin’s Gate. Assisted by two local constables, he arrested her. He showed Ann the girl’s body and noted her reluctance to look upon it—and even greater reluctance to touch it.
When asked why she had killed the girl, Ann told him that she would not have done so had Charles Gilbert not persuaded her. According to Ann, Gilbert had helped put the poor girl into the pit and had then thrown tiles at her. This may account for the bruising found on her body. Ann was remanded to Stafford Gaol by the local magistrates to await her trial.
The Trial of Ann Wycherly
Proceedings at Stafford Assizes
Ann was tried at the next assizes, which took place on Wednesday, the 14th of March, in the courtroom of the imposing Shire Hall in Market Square, Stafford, which can still be visited today. Her case was heard by Baron Alderson, with the prosecution led by Mr. Corbett.
William Crutchley gave evidence against her and testified how she had left his workhouse with the two children and detailed her confession to him. Catherine Biffen, another girl from the workhouse, testified about Ann’s mistreatment of her daughter. Mr. Hopkins, the surgeon from Drayton, gave evidence of the cause of the little girl’s death.
Verdict and Plea of Pregnancy
In his summing up, Baron Alderson told the jurors that even if someone else had been the instigation for Ann to carry out the murder, that did not in any way diminish her guilt or responsibility for the crime. The jury did not even retire before finding Ann guilty.
Baron Alderson proceeded to sentence Ann to death and asked if she had anything to say. She told him, “she was with child.” He therefore ordered the courtroom doors to be locked and empanelled a jury of matrons from the women in the public gallery to determine whether she was pregnant.
Ann and the other women were sent off to the Grand Jury room, where, after a close examination that took the best part of an hour, she was declared not to be quick with child. Before leaving Stafford, Baron Alderson decided to respite Ann until the 5th of May, just in case the matrons had been mistaken. As they hadn’t been, Ann was to suffer her punishment on that day.
Execution Day
Preparations for Execution
Her execution was set for nine o’clock on that Saturday morning instead of the usual eight o’clock to enable the London Mail coach to arrive in case there was a reprieve.
After the problems experienced with the collapse of the gallows at Ann Statham’s hanging in 1819, a new portable gallows had been built, of a similar pattern to the one used at London’s Newgate prison. This was wheeled out in front of the prison in the early hours.
In the condemned cell, Ann told the governor, Thomas Brutton, that she was not afraid to die and again implicated Charles Gilbert in the killing. On the Friday, the gaol chaplain, the Reverend Buckeridge, gave her the Sacrament.
Final Moments
A few minutes before nine on the Saturday morning, the usual procession emerged from the main gate of the prison to the solemn tolling of the prison bell. It was headed by the sheriff of the county, Thomas Brutton, followed by the Reverend Buckeridge, Ann, two turnkeys, and the hangman, Samuel Haywood.
Ann was able to climb the steps up to the platform unaided, where she prayed with the chaplain before being pinioned, hooded, and noosed. As the chaplain read the burial service, the drop was operated, and Ann fell a short distance into the box-like structure. According to the local newspaper, she struggled for less than a minute before hanging still.
At ten o’clock, her body was taken down and moved into the prison for burial in the small graveyard adjacent to the solitary confinement cells. Unusually, this execution only drew a small crowd as it was thought a reprieve was likely.
Motive and Aftermath
It seems that the motive for the killing was that the child was an encumbrance to the new relationship, and neither Ann nor Charles Gilbert wanted her.
Ann was one of two women and two men who were condemned at the same assizes, but the other three were all reprieved. The other woman was fifty-nine-year-old Hannah Heath, who had also been convicted of killing a child. It was reported that Baron Alderson was surprised by the jury’s guilty verdict in her case and had obviously recommended a reprieve.
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