Background and Family Life in Clavering
Sarah Chesham (née Parker) was born at Clavering, near Saffron Walden in Essex, on the 9th of July 1809.
In July 1828, at the age of nineteen, she married Richard Chesham. She was pregnant at the time and gave birth to a daughter, Harriet, on the 8th of February 1829.
Over the following decade, five sons followed: Philip (1830), John (1832), Joseph (1834), James (1837), and George (1839).
Richard worked as an agricultural labourer, and supporting six children on meagre farm wages placed an intense financial strain upon the Chesham household.
In January 1845, two of the boys, Joseph and James, fell gravely ill with violent vomiting and acute abdominal pain.
They were attended by village physician Dr. Hawkes, who certified their deaths as English cholera—a common intestinal affliction of the era.
Initially, no official suspicion arose, and the two brothers were buried together in a single coffin in Clavering churchyard.
However, persistent village rumors circulated, and local authorities were prompted to act eighteen months later following another mysterious infant death.
The First Trials: The Essex Lent Assizes of 1847
In August 1846, Sarah was investigated in connection with the sudden death of Solomon Taylor, the illegitimate infant of Lydia Taylor from the neighbouring village of Manuden.
Sarah was examined by the magistrates at Newport under the chairmanship of Lord Braybrooke, sitting with Richard Wolfe and the Reverend John Collin.
Lydia Taylor testified that Sarah had visited her frequently during her confinement, followed by suspicious conversations and the infant’s rapid demise.
The magistrates committed Sarah for trial and ordered the exhumation of her two sons, Joseph and James.
Medical examiners Dr. Brook and Mr. Brown removed the children’s viscera and dispatched the specimens to London for toxicological analysis.
Sarah came to trial for the murders of her sons at the Essex Lent Assizes on Thursday, the 11th of March 1847, before Lord Chief Justice Denman.
Dr. Alfred Swaine Taylor of Guy’s Hospital—the preeminent forensic toxicologist of the Victorian era—testified that he had isolated sufficient white arsenic from Joseph’s stomach to cause death.
However, after a ten-minute deliberation, the jury acquitted Sarah because the prosecution could present no direct evidence that she had administered the powder.
A second jury was impanelled the following day to try her for the murder of James, reaching an identical not guilty verdict.
She was then tried for the murder of Solomon Taylor, but that indictment also failed due to insufficient chemical traces in the infant’s stomach, resulting in a directed acquittal.
The verdicts caused outrage in Essex, with The Times declaring that Sarah was:
“an accepted and reputed murderess who walked abroad in a village unchallenged and un-accused, and all the inhabitants had seen her children buried without remark or outcry, though they were clearly convinced that there had been foul play”.
The Death of Richard Chesham and Second Arrest
Richard Chesham died in May 1850 at the age of 43 and was buried at Clavering on the 24th of May.
Although he suffered from a chronic lung complaint, he had experienced recurring episodes of violent abdominal agony and vomiting over the preceding twelve months.
Suspicious of foul play, local constabulary officers ordered an immediate post-mortem examination, which uncovered traces of arsenic in Richard’s viscera.
Superintendent John Clarke of the Newport police arrested Sarah and searched the cottage.
A bag of rice and samples of Richard’s stomach tissue were sent to Dr. Taylor at Guy’s Hospital. Both tested positive for arsenic, with the rice heavily contaminated by approximately sixteen grains of the lethal poison.
Detectives also interviewed Sarah’s former confidante, Hannah Phillips, who disclosed a conversation in which Sarah had advised her on how to resolve an unhappy marriage using arsenic.
The 1851 Assizes Trial for Attempted Murder
Sarah, now 41 years old, was brought to trial at the Essex Lent Assizes in March 1851 before Lord Chief Justice Campbell.
Because medical testimony could not definitively prove that Richard’s death had been caused directly by the arsenic rather than his preexisting pulmonary disease, the Crown indicted her on the capital felony of feloniously administering poison with intent to murder under Lord Ellenborough’s statutory provisions.
Up until the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1861, attempted murder remained a capital crime punishable by death on the gallows (as seen in earlier cases like William Griffith and Eliza Fenning).
Mr. Hawkes, surgeon of Saffron Walden, testified that Sarah insisted on feeding Richard a mixture of milk thickened with flour or rice, refusing to allow anyone else to administer food or drink.
Hannah Phillips testified regarding Sarah’s incriminating remarks about using arsenic on husbands.
Sarah delivered a rambling, unconvincing defence from the dock, which the jury dismissed before returning a swift guilty verdict.
Lord Chief Justice Campbell passed the sentence of death, openly stating his belief that she was a serial poisoner guilty of killing her children.
Sarah was remanded to the condemned cells of Springfield Gaol in Chelmsford to await execution.
Public Execution at Springfield Gaol, Chelmsford
The scaffold was erected on the flat roof of the Springfield Gaol gatehouse on Monday, 24 March 1851, fronting Springfield Road.
Sarah shared the gallows with Samuel Drory, a farm labourer convicted of the premeditated strangulation of his pregnant lover, Jael Denny, at Doddinghurst.
Just after 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 25 March 1851, both prisoners were pinioned by London hangman William Calcraft.
Drory mounted the roof first, followed by Sarah, who was physically supported by female warders because severe dropsy and swelling in her legs left her unable to walk unaided.
Protesting her innocence to the last, Sarah was hooded and noosed.
Calcraft released the trapdoor bolt, and under the short drop, Sarah struggled for approximately three minutes before expiring.
A crowd estimated between 6,000 and 7,000 onlookers gathered outside the prison, with women making up the majority of spectators and London pickpockets working the dense throngs.
Because the Murder Act 1751 mandated prison burial only for individuals convicted of actual murder, Sarah—having been condemned for attempted murder—was legally exempt.
Her body was claimed by her eldest son and conveyed back to Clavering.
At 7:00 p.m. that evening, in front of 150 onlookers, her body was buried without religious rites in Clavering churchyard, with no entry made in the parish register.
Sarah Chesham was the last woman publicly executed at Chelmsford and the last woman hanged for attempted murder in England and Wales.
Legacy and the Arsenic Act 1851
The sensational exploits of “Sally Arsenic,” as Sarah was branded by the press, galvanized public outrage and forced Parliament into legislative action.
Until 1851, white arsenic was uncolored, tasteless, and sold freely over the counter for pest control, sheep dipping, and cosmetic tonics.
In response to a wave of domestic poisonings across East Anglia—including Sarah Dazley (1843), Sarah Westwood (1844), Eliza Joyce (1844), Sarah Freeman (1845), and Mary Ball (1849)—the Earl of Carlisle introduced the Sale of Arsenic Regulation Bill.
The legislation required vendors to record every purchaser’s name, address, and purpose in a formal poisons register, mandated the presence of a known witness for strangers, and required all small retail quantities of arsenic to be mixed with soot or indigo dye to make food contamination visually obvious.
The Bill passed the House of Lords on the eve of Sarah’s execution, establishing the modern framework for statutory poisons control in the United Kingdom.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Sarah Chesham?
Sarah Chesham (known in the contemporary press as “Sally Arsenic”) was a 41-year-old mother from Clavering, Essex, who was publicly hanged in March 1851 for attempting to murder her husband, Richard Chesham, with arsenic.
Why was Sarah Chesham executed for attempted murder instead of murder?
Although her husband Richard died after prolonged arsenic administration, medical examiners could not separate the effects of the poison from his preexisting terminal lung disease. To guarantee a conviction, the Crown indicted her for administering poison with intent to murder, which remained a capital crime under British law until 1861.
Why is Sarah Chesham unique in British execution history?
She was the last woman ever executed in England and Wales for attempted murder. Capital punishment for all non-fatal violent crimes was formally abolished ten years later under the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1861.
How did Sarah Chesham’s crimes lead to the Arsenic Act 1851?
Public revulsion over her successive trials and suspected serial poisonings prompted the Earl of Carlisle to introduce the Sale of Arsenic Regulation Act 1851. The statute required chemists to log all purchases in a poisons register and mandated that all white arsenic sold in small quantities be dyed black with soot or blue with indigo to prevent surreptitious poisoning.
Where and when was Sarah Chesham executed?
She was publicly hanged on the gatehouse roof of Springfield Gaol in Chelmsford on Tuesday, 25 March 1851, by executioner William Calcraft, alongside murderer Samuel Drory.
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