A Troubled Household in Boston, Lincolnshire
William Joyce was a gardener who lived in Boston, Lincolnshire, with his two children, William and Emma, from his first marriage.
In 1840, he remarried 27-year-old Eliza, who bore him another daughter, Ann, at the start of 1842.
The marriage outwardly appeared stable, and unlike many labouring families during the harsh “Hungry Forties”, they did not live in extreme poverty.
However, tragedy struck the family repeatedly: young Emma died of apparently natural causes in October 1841, and infant Ann succumbed suddenly in January 1843.
Suspicion and the Arsenic Purchase
Fifteen-year-old William Joyce Junior had been suffering from poor health for some time and was attended by Dr. Smith on the 13th of September 1842.
His condition showed signs of improvement, and by Friday the 16th of September, the youth had rallied.
That same afternoon, Eliza visited a local chemist in Boston and purchased white arsenic, claiming she needed it to exterminate vermin, though the shopkeeper was hesitant to supply it.
The chemist encountered William Joyce Senior the following day and mentioned his wife’s purchase of the deadly poison.
Alarmed, the father went straight home, seized the paper packet of arsenic, and took it back to the apothecary, who noted that a portion of the powder was missing.
Dr. Smith called at the Joyce home later that day and discovered that William Junior had suffered a severe, sudden relapse.
After learning of the missing arsenic, the doctor tested a sample of the boy’s vomit and detected the poison.
William Junior rallied again and recovered sufficiently to swear a formal deposition before the Mayor of Boston, testifying that his stepmother had secretly administered the poison to him.
Defective Indictments and the Acquittal
William Junior’s health remained fragile, and he died around Christmastime in December 1842.
Eliza was arrested and charged with his murder, appearing for trial at the Lincolnshire Spring Assizes of 1843.
However, the capital indictment was quashed on a legal technicality because the clerk of the court had entered the victim’s name incorrectly as “Edward William Joyce”. Under 19th-century criminal procedure, indictments had to be letter-perfect.
Eliza remained in custody until the 18th of July 1843, when she was arraigned on a revised charge of attempted murder under Lord Ellenborough’s statutory provisions.
Attempted murder remained a capital crime punishable by death until the Criminal Law Consolidation Acts of 1861 (a legal precedent seen in cases like William Griffith and Eliza Fenning).
During the trial, the prosecution could not establish beyond doubt that William’s death three months later was caused by the arsenic dose administered in September.
Eliza admitted buying the poison, but claimed she had accidentally spilled some on the floor, scooped it up with a teaspoon, and later inadvertently used the same unwashed spoon to give William his medicine.
The jury accepted this accidental explanation and returned a verdict of not guilty.
The Boston Workhouse Confession
Convinced of his wife’s guilt, William Joyce Senior refused to live with her and separated permanently.
Cast out with no independent livelihood, Eliza entered the Boston Union Workhouse to support herself.
While in the workhouse, burdened by remorse, she made a voluntary confession to the master and relieving officer, Mr. Sturdy, admitting that she had poisoned William and murdered both young daughters.
Eliza revealed that:
- Emma Joyce had not died of natural causes in October 1841, but had been poisoned with two teaspoonfuls of laudanum—a cheap, unrestricted tincture of opium in alcohol commonly used as a sedative.
- Ann Joyce, her own biological child born on New Year’s Day 1842, was poisoned with a lethal dose of laudanum on 21 January 1843, dying the following morning.
Dr. Ingram, the physician who attended both children, had attributed their sudden deaths to infant convulsions.
When Mr. Sturdy asked Eliza why she had killed her children, she delivered the chilling explanation:
“I don’t know, except I thought it was such a troublesome thing to bring a family of children into this troublesome world.”
Eliza was rearrested and committed to Lincoln Castle on capital murder charges.
Assizes Trial at Lincoln Castle
Eliza was tried at the Lincolnshire Summer Assizes on Thursday, 18 July 1844, before Mr. Justice Patteson in the courtroom within the Castle grounds.
The trial lasted under an hour. Her signed workhouse confessions were read to the jury, and Eliza affirmed their truth in open court.
She was found guilty of wilful murder and sentenced to be hanged.
Her execution was set for Friday, 2 August 1844.
Public Execution on the Roof of Cobb Hall
From 1817 onwards, public hangings at Lincoln were conducted on the flat stone roof of Cobb Hall, the northeast bastion tower of Lincoln Castle, which overlooked the street and surrounding hillside.
Condemned prisoners and officials reached the scaffold by ascending an interior spiral stone staircase leading directly to the battlements.
On her final morning, Eliza looked out of her cell window and saw the gallows structure on Cobb Hall.
Although shaken, she regained her composure and discussed the execution arrangements with the female warders attending her.
A crowd of four to five thousand spectators gathered outside the castle walls as the prison bell began tolling shortly before noon.
At five minutes to twelve, Eliza was escorted to the roof of Cobb Hall by two gaolers, accompanied by Under Sheriff Williams, Prison Governor Captain Nicholson, Chaplain Rev. W. H. Richter, and London executioner William Calcraft.
Wearing a long black dress and holding a small prayer book, she paused to gaze across the city of Lincoln before stepping onto the gallows trapdoor.
Calcraft secured her legs, removed her bonnet, placed the white hood over her face, and adjusted the noose.
As the cathedral clock struck twelve, Calcraft pulled the lever. Under the short drop, Eliza died quickly without prolonged struggle.
Her body remained suspended for the customary hour before being lowered and buried the following morning within the Lucy Tower of Lincoln Castle.
Historical Impact and Gallows Legacy
Eliza Joyce was the last of five women publicly executed at Lincoln Castle during the 19th century, all for murder.
Her case occurred during the mid-Victorian era’s widespread panic over domestic poisonings, alongside contemporaries like Sarah Dazley in Bedfordshire (1843) and Sarah Westwood in Staffordshire (1844).
Between 1838 and 1868, two-thirds of all women hanged in England and Scotland had been convicted of murder by poisoning.
Three years later, another Lincolnshire woman, Mary Ann Milner, was sentenced to hang on Cobb Hall on 21 July 1847 for murdering her sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and niece with arsenic.
However, Milner hanged herself in her cell the night before the execution, prompting prison authorities across Britain to introduce round-the-clock death watches to prevent condemned inmates from committing suicide before reaching the scaffold.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Eliza Joyce?
Eliza Joyce was a 31-year-old stepmother from Boston, Lincolnshire, who was convicted and publicly hanged in August 1844 for the serial poisoning of her children and stepchildren.
How did Eliza Joyce murder the children?
She killed her stepdaughter Emma in 1841 and her infant daughter Ann in 1843 by administering lethal doses of laudanum (tincture of opium). She also poisoned her 15-year-old stepson William with arsenic in 1842, which contributed to his death.
Why was Eliza Joyce acquitted at her first trials?
At her first trial in spring 1843, the murder indictment was dismissed due to a clerical error in the victim’s name. At her second trial in July 1843 for attempted murder, the jury acquitted her because she claimed the arsenic in William’s medicine had been accidentally transferred from a contaminated teaspoon.
Why did Eliza Joyce confess to the murders?
After her husband deserted her, Eliza entered the Boston Union Workhouse, where she confessed to workhouse master Mr. Sturdy that she had murdered all three children, explaining that she thought it was “such a troublesome thing to bring a family of children into this troublesome world.”
Where and when was Eliza Joyce executed?
She was publicly hanged atop Cobb Hall at Lincoln Castle at noon on Friday, 2 August 1844, by executioner William Calcraft, and interred within the Lucy Tower.
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