Early Life and Turbulent Youth in Shapwick
Sarah Dimond was reportedly born in 1817 to “poor but honest parents”, Charles and Mary Dimond.
She received a basic education at the village school in Shapwick, near Glastonbury in Somerset.
She left school at the age of fourteen and soon exhibited a violent temper that caused chronic disruption within the household.
By the age of eighteen, Sarah had given birth to two illegitimate children. Her turbulent behavior and domestic conflicts became so severe that the local Parish Commissioners ordered her removal from the village.
She later married Henry Freeman. Following Henry’s death, she moved to Bridgwater, Somerset, where she worked as a prostitute, before relocating to London.
In late 1844, having exhausted her means in the capital, she returned to her native village of Shapwick.
The Cluster of Fatal Poisonings
Sarah is suspected of having carried out a series of fatal arsenic poisonings against her immediate family:
- Henry Freeman, her husband;
- James Dimond, her illegitimate son;
- Mary Dimond, her mother;
- Charles Dimond, her brother.
Although suspected in all four deaths, she was indicted and tried solely for the murder of her brother, Charles Dimond, adhering to the standard 19th-century prosecutorial practice of trying the strongest case first.
The deaths of her husband and young son had taken place roughly eighteen months earlier and were initially certified as natural causes.
Henry Freeman had been enrolled in a friendly burial club (an early form of working-class life insurance), from which Sarah collected a payout of £20.
It was only the sudden, agonising illness and death of her brother Charles in December 1844 that alerted local magistrates to a pattern of suspicious deaths.
Exhumation orders were issued for the bodies of her husband, mother, and child; toxicological analysis of their preserved viscera detected lethal residues of arsenic across all three remains.
While on remand awaiting trial, Sarah suffered severe epileptic fits and for a time was not expected to survive long enough to stand in the dock.
The Somerset Assizes Trial at Taunton
The Somerset Lent Assizes opened in Taunton before Mr. Justice Coleridge on the 1st of April 1845.
Sarah’s trial commenced on Saturday, the 5th of April, with Mr. Sergeant Kinglake and Mr. Rawlinson prosecuting for the Crown, and Mr. Stock appearing for the defence.
William Hare, an assistant at a chemist’s shop in Bridgwater, testified that on the 9th of December 1844, Sarah purchased three pence worth of white arsenic, obtaining the poison under the pretext of knowing local postman Edmund Durston, who also gave evidence.
Her surviving brother, John Dimond, testified that Sarah had arrived uninvited at the family cottage in Shapwick in December 1844.
The following Sunday, their mother, Mary, died suddenly.
With Christmas approaching, John and Charles informed Sarah that she would have to vacate the cottage.
Shortly thereafter, Charles fell violently ill with severe vomiting and died after consuming food prepared by Sarah.
Constable James Eardley recounted arresting Sarah on New Year’s Day, the 1st of January 1845. When informed of the capital charges concerning the deaths of her mother and brother, she offered no explanation and remained completely silent.
A search of the property recovered no remaining poison.
Medical evidence was presented by surgeon Edward Phillips, who attended Charles during his final agony, noting that his symptoms initially mirrored “English Cholera”.
Following the post-mortem, organ samples were delivered to the preeminent analytical chemist of the era, Mr. William Herapath of the Bristol Medical School.
Herapath took the witness stand and demonstrated that chemical tests revealed significant deposits of metallic arsenic in Charles’s liver and large intestine, confirming acute arsenic poisoning as the cause of death.
Defence Arguments, Verdict, and Sentence
Mr. Stock addressed the jury for the defence, arguing that the evidence was purely circumstantial.
He contended that while arsenic had caused the death, no eyewitness had seen Sarah place the powder into Charles’s food, and asserted that the Crown had failed to establish a credible motive.
Mr. Justice Coleridge delivered a detailed summing up.
The jury retired and deliberated for only fifteen minutes before returning a verdict of guilty.
When the judge donned the black cap and passed sentence of death by hanging, Sarah protested loudly in open court:
“Justice has not been done me, my life has been unfairly taken away!”
She was remanded to the condemned cells of Wilton Gaol in Taunton.
The Condemned Cell and Execution Morning
On the 10th of April 1845, Sarah made a formal statement attempting to shift the blame onto her surviving brother, John Dimond, while maintaining her own innocence.
When John visited her in prison on the 14th of April, she received him with bitter hostility.
While awaiting her fate, Sarah occupied herself by hand-sewing a neat bonnet and cap, remarking to her female warders that:
“she was not going up there looking a perfect fright.”
On the night before her death, Sarah slept soundly, rising at 6:00 a.m. to take breakfast.
She was attended by the prison governor, the Under Sheriff, and the prison chaplain, continuing to assert that although she had purchased the arsenic, her brother John had stolen the powder to poison their mother and brother.
At 10:00 a.m., she attended the chapel service and received the Holy Sacrament.
Public Hanging at Wilton Gaol, Taunton
Shortly before 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, the 23rd of April 1845, Sarah’s arms were pinioned in the press room.
The prison officials and chaplain escorted her up the stone staircase leading to the flat roof of the Wilton Gaol gatehouse, where the gallows had been erected overlooking the crowd.
London executioner William Calcraft conducted the preparations.
As the noose was placed over her head, Sarah turned to the chaplain and uttered her final words:
“I am as innocent as a lamb.”
Calcraft drew the white linen cap over her face, adjusted the halter, and released the trapdoor bolt.
Under the short drop, Sarah died after a brief convulsive struggle before an estimated crowd of 10,000 onlookers, including newspaper correspondents from across the country.
At noon, her body was lowered from the scaffold and buried in an unmarked grave within the walls of Wilton Gaol, as required by capital sentencing statutes.
Postscript: The Revelations of George Davis
The day following the execution, a man named George Davis came forward to the press with a statement regarding his prior relationship with Sarah.
In 1840, they had lived together for six weeks.
Following her husband’s death in 1843, Sarah wrote to Davis boasting of the £20 death club payout and proposing marriage.
When Davis prevaricated, stating he was departing for work in Wales, Sarah sent a second letter demanding a definitive answer, warning that if he refused her:
“she would serve him the same trick as she had her husband.”
Davis immediately broke off all communication.
In July 1844, Sarah tracked Davis to Cheddar, enlisting his brother Joseph to locate him in local taverns.
While waiting at the King’s Arms, Sarah ordered a pint of beer, asked for a spoon, and was seen stirring a powder into the drink.
When Joseph picked up the mug, Sarah snatched it away, declaring it was intended solely for George, and emptied the contents into the fireplace. Subsequent inspection of the vessel revealed a heavy yellowish sediment, though the incident was not reported to magistrates at the time.
Sarah Freeman was part of a notorious series of Victorian female poisoners—including Sarah Dazley (1843), Sarah Westwood (1844), and Eliza Joyce (1844)—whose actions spurred Parliament to introduce the Arsenic Act 1851 to restrict over-the-counter purchases of lethal poisons.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Sarah Freeman?
Sarah Freeman (née Dimond) was a 28-year-old woman from Shapwick, Somerset, who was convicted and publicly executed in April 1845 for the arsenic poisoning of her brother, Charles Dimond.
How many people was Sarah Freeman suspected of killing?
She was suspected of murdering four family members: her husband Henry Freeman, her illegitimate son James, her mother Mary Dimond, and her brother Charles. Post-mortem exhumations confirmed lethal levels of arsenic in all four victims.
What was the motive behind the Shapwick Murders?
Motives combined financial greed and domestic desperation. Sarah collected a £20 friendly burial club payout following her husband’s death, and later poisoned her mother and brother when they attempted to evict her from the family cottage in Shapwick.
What chemical evidence convicted Sarah Freeman?
Forensic chemist William Herapath of Bristol analyzed the exhumed viscera of Charles Dimond and demonstrated in court that the liver and intestines contained significant quantities of metallic arsenic, proving fatal poisoning rather than cholera.
Where and when was Sarah Freeman executed?
She was publicly hanged atop the gatehouse of Wilton Gaol in Taunton on Wednesday, 23 April 1845, by executioner William Calcraft, protesting her innocence to the moment of the drop.
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