Background and Marriage in Chiddingly
Sarah Ann French and her husband William French had been married for around seven years by late 1851, living in a modest agricultural cottage at Chiddingly in East Sussex with their young son.
William worked as an agricultural labourer alongside his brother, John French, on a farm in Chiddingly.
John last saw his brother in robust good health on Christmas Eve 1851.
The next time John entered the cottage was on 7 January 1852, following William’s sudden, agonising death.
John recounted to the court that upon arriving at the cottage, Sarah was sitting in the living room weeping loudly while being comforted by a neighbour.
The local rural rumour mill quickly began to churn regarding the suddenness of William’s illness and death.
Local suspicion led to an inquiry by the parish constable and prompted the magistrates to order the exhumation of William’s remains for a full post-mortem examination.
Toxicological testing revealed that William had died of acute arsenic poisoning. Sarah was promptly arrested, charged with wilful murder, and committed to Lewes Gaol to await the county assizes.
The Sussex Lent Assizes at Lewes
On Friday, 19 March 1852, 27-year-old Sarah Ann French was formally indicted for the wilful murder of her husband before Mr. Baron Parke at the Sussex Lent Assizes held in Lewes, the trial concluding the following day.
Mr. Johnson and Mr. Creasy prosecuted for the Crown, while the judge appointed Mr. Rodwell to represent Sarah.
Witness testimony established that Sarah had been seen in possession of arsenic shortly before her husband’s fatal illness.
Surgeon Mr. Holman of East Hoathly, who performed the post-mortem examination following the exhumation on 10 January, suspected poisoning and sent tissue samples of the stomach and intestines to Dr. Alfred Swaine Taylor at Guy’s Hospital in London.
Dr. Taylor testified to finding significant quantities of arsenic in the organs, confirming it as the sole cause of death.
Further circumstantial evidence was introduced by Sarah’s friend, Elizabeth Seale. She testified that on 5 January, while walking past Hellingly Church—where Sarah and William had been married—Sarah muttered grimly that:
“she had gone down that road once too often.”
Another neighbour, Mary Bennett, testified that on the Monday before William’s death, Sarah appeared agitated in the village and hurried home, stating she did not want William to discover she had been out of the house.
The Testimony of James Hickman
The most damaging revelations came from twenty-year-old James Hickman, the former boyfriend of Sarah’s sister, Jane.
After parting from Jane, Hickman began visiting Sarah’s cottage under the pretext of reading stories to her young son when the child was unwell.
Hickman testified that Sarah openly declared her romantic feelings for him. Whenever William was absent at work, Sarah would sit on his knee, kiss him, and profess her love.
She also told him that she possessed around £500 in savings and expressed a desire to marry him if she ever became single again.
Under cross-examination, Hickman admitted that they had engaged in sexual relations shortly after William’s funeral.
Sarah’s defence counsel, Mr. Rodwell, conceded that William had died of arsenic poisoning, but argued that there was no conclusive proof that Sarah had administered the substance.
Rodwell suggested that Hickman was just as likely to have procured and administered the poison himself to remove William as an obstacle and secure Sarah’s promised money.
Deliberation, Verdict, and Sentence
The jury retired to deliberate and returned after two hours with a legal question for the judge.
While they agreed that William had died of arsenic poisoning, the jurors were divided: some believed Sarah had directly administered the poison, while others believed Hickman had carried out the poisoning with Sarah’s cooperation.
Mr. Baron Parke instructed the jury on the principle of joint enterprise, clarifying that even if Hickman had physically administered the arsenic, if the act was done with Sarah’s prior knowledge, procurement, or connivance, she was equally guilty in law and the proper verdict was wilful murder.
No criminal proceedings were ever instituted against Hickman.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty of wilful murder.
When sentence of death was pronounced, Sarah collapsed in the dock and had to be physically carried down to the cells by court bailiffs.
After being returned to Lewes Gaol, she received medical care and gradually regained her composure.
The Condemned Cell and Execution Morning
The death warrant was signed on Wednesday, 7 April 1852, fixing the execution for noon on Saturday, 10 April.
The “New Drop” gallows was assembled in front of Lewes Gaol on Thursday.
While in the condemned cell, Sarah broke down and made a full confession to the prison governor and chaplain, acknowledging that she had poisoned her husband.
On the morning of the hanging, she was in an extremely weak, trembling, and agitated state.
Shortly before noon, the Under Sheriff of Sussex formally demanded her body from the prison governor.
London executioner William Calcraft entered the cell and pinioned her arms and wrists with leather straps.
Sarah was so physically incapacitated that two turnkeys had to support her weight as she walked to the scaffold and held her upright upon the trapdoor.
Public Hanging at Lewes Gaol
Calcraft completed the final preparations, adjusting the hemp halter around her neck and pulling the white linen cap over her face.
Just after 12:00 p.m., Calcraft released the drop mechanism.
Sarah struggled for two to three minutes under the short drop before hanging motionless.
A crowd estimated between 3,000 and 4,000 onlookers assembled outside Lewes Gaol to witness the hanging, kept in order by a substantial detachment of county police.
Her body remained suspended for the statutory hour before being lowered from the gallows and buried in an unmarked grave within the grounds of Lewes Gaol.
During her trial and sentencing, James Hickman had sat emotionless in the public gallery, having avoided legal culpability by testifying as the Crown’s chief witness.
Sarah Ann French’s hanging was part of a broader mid-19th-century wave of domestic poisonings, following earlier notorious trials such as Sarah Dazley (1843), Sarah Westwood (1844), Sarah Freeman (1845), Mary Ball (1849), and Sarah Chesham (1851), whose cases spurred Parliament to pass the Arsenic Act 1851.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Sarah Ann French?
Sarah Ann French was a 27-year-old married woman from Chiddingly, East Sussex, who was convicted and publicly hanged in April 1852 for murdering her farm labourer husband, William French, with arsenic.
What was Sarah Ann French’s motive for the murder?
She sought to rid herself of her marriage to pursue an affair with 20-year-old James Hickman (the former boyfriend of her sister), whom she wished to marry, enticing him with claims that she had saved £500.
What role did James Hickman play in the case?
Hickman testified as a witness for the Crown, admitting that Sarah had made romantic advances toward him and that they had slept together shortly after William’s death. The defence argued Hickman may have administered the poison himself, but the jury convicted Sarah under joint enterprise and Hickman was never charged.
How was the poisoning discovered?
Persistent village rumours in Chiddingly prompted local authorities to exhume William French’s body. An autopsy conducted by local surgeons alongside toxicologist Dr. Alfred Swaine Taylor of Guy’s Hospital isolated significant quantities of arsenic in his viscera.
Where and when was Sarah Ann French executed?
She was publicly hanged on the New Drop gallows outside Lewes Gaol shortly after midday on Saturday, 10 April 1852, by executioner William Calcraft.
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