Background and Domestic Strife in Burntwood
Sarah Westwood (née Parker, born c. 1801) and her husband John Westwood had been married for around twenty years by 1843, living in the parish of Burntwood near Lichfield in Staffordshire.
John worked as a nail maker and was assisted in his trade by his seventeen-year-old son, Charles. The family lived in modest, impoverished circumstances.
By 1843, the household consisted of John, Sarah, Charles, and four younger daughters, three older children having already left home.
Also residing in the cottage was a lodger named Samuel Phillips, who had lived with the Westwoods for seven years and with whom Sarah was widely believed to be conducting an affair.
Violent quarrels repeatedly broke out between John, Sarah, and Samuel.
On the 2nd of September 1843, a public brawl erupted in the street. Witnesses saw John and Samuel grappling and rolling on the ground while Sarah looked on. John was heard shouting at Phillips:
“Damn your eyes, what was you doing at her when I knocked you down?”
Sarah urged Samuel to kill her husband, and when the fight broke up, she threatened to leave John for good. Another violent altercation was witnessed at home by John’s brother, Robert Westwood.
The Fatal Gruel
On Thursday, 9 November 1843, John and Charles returned home for their usual midday lunch. John ate a meal consisting of gruel, bread, and meat.
He was accustomed to reading several verses from the Bible after lunch before taking a short rest and returning to the forge.
Shortly after finishing the meal, John was seized by acute stomach cramps and began vomiting violently.
When Charles returned from work later that afternoon, he heard Sarah ask John whether he wished her to call for the parish surgeon. John refused medical help and died in agony later that evening.
Suspicion, Autopsy, and Arrest
Because John had enjoyed sound health prior to that afternoon, his sudden death aroused immediate suspicion, and the authorities ordered a post-mortem examination.
The autopsy was conducted by surgeon Charles Chevasse of Lichfield, who discovered a large quantity of white arsenic in John’s stomach.
An inquest opened before the Staffordshire Coroner, Mr. Thomas Philips. The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Sarah Westwood.
On Monday, 20 November 1843, Inspector John Raymond of the Shenstone police station arrested Sarah and conveyed her to Stafford Gaol.
During the journey, Sarah complained about being refused bail. When Inspector Raymond explained that bail was never granted on a capital murder charge, she replied that no one could prove she had killed her husband.
Police investigated local chemical suppliers and traced purchases of arsenic to Heighway’s Chemists in Walsall, ten miles away.
On 1 November 1843, Sarah had visited the chemist in the company of Hannah Mason—Samuel Phillips’s mother, known locally as a herbal “wise woman.”
Hannah had prepared a traditional remedy for “the itch” (scabies), which combined hellebore, red precipitate, white precipitate, and arsenic, mixed directly on the premises.
On 8 November—the day before the murder—Sarah returned to Heighway’s alone and purchased a second supply of the chemicals. The shop assistants recognized her from her previous visit with Hannah Mason, but on this occasion, the substances were sold in unmixed, separate packets.
Assizes Trial at Stafford
Staffordshire typically held two Assizes per year, but an extraordinary Winter Assize was organized on Thursday, 28 December 1843, before Baron Rolfe.
The prosecution was led by Mr. Corbett and Mr. Cope, while Mr. Yardley appeared for the defence.
The Crown called ten-year-old Eliza Westwood, who testified that she had seen a suspicious white powder in her father’s gruel and asked her mother about it.
Both Eliza and Charles Westwood confirmed to the court that none of the children suffered from “the itch,” undermining Sarah’s excuse for purchasing the arsenic.
Hannah Mason testified regarding their initial trip to the Walsall chemist, while toxicological evidence confirmed lethal levels of arsenic in John’s digestive tract. The prosecution argued that Sarah murdered her husband to eliminate him and live openly with Samuel Phillips.
Mr. Yardley presented an extensive three-hour defence. He emphasized that Sarah had offered to summon a doctor, which John had declined, and suggested that John might have committed suicide due to bouts of depression earlier in the summer.
The jury deliberated for just fifteen minutes before returning a guilty verdict.
They added a recommendation to mercy; however, when Baron Rolfe questioned the foreman for the legal grounds of this recommendation, no reason could be provided.
Pleading the Belly and Confinement
Sarah continued to protest her innocence. In a final attempt to delay execution, she pleaded her belly, claiming she was pregnant.
Baron Rolfe ordered the doors locked and impanelled a jury of matrons. Within an hour, the matrons examined Sarah and declared that she was not pregnant.
The judge then donned the black cap and passed the mandatory sentence of death by hanging.
During her confinement in Stafford Gaol, Sarah was visited by her son Charles and daughter Harriet. Authorities refused to permit Samuel Phillips to visit, which caused her severe emotional distress.
Home Secretary Sir James Graham reviewed the case documents and found no mitigating circumstances to justify a reprieve. The execution was scheduled for Saturday, 13 January 1844.
On Friday, 12 January, the prison chaplain, the Reverend George Norman, administered the sacrament. Sarah had become so physically weak from illness and anxiety that warders had to carry her to and from the prison chapel. Despite the chaplain’s repeated appeals, she steadfastly refused to confess.
Public Execution at Stafford Gaol
Sarah slept little during her final night, taking only two cups of tea and some bread and butter on Saturday morning.
Because of her physical frailty, she was supported onto the gallows platform by two warders and seated upon a wooden stool while the executioner, George Smith of Dudley, completed his preparations.
She was attended by the Under Sheriff, the prison governor, and the chaplain.
Her final words on the scaffold were:
“It’s hard to die for a thing one’s innocent of.”
At 8:00 a.m., Smith pulled the lever releasing the trapdoors, and Sarah dropped through with the stool.
A large crowd, consisting largely of women, had assembled in front of Stafford Gaol to watch the hanging.
Under the short drop, her struggles were brief.
Her body remained suspended for the customary hour before being taken down and buried in an unmarked grave within the prison precincts—the ninth burial in the prison grounds (six men and three women).
Sarah Westwood was the last woman ever executed in Staffordshire.
Her execution occurred during a period of intense public anxiety over domestic arsenic murder, paralleling contemporary cases such as Sarah Dazley in Bedfordshire in 1843 and Mary Ann Burdock in 1835.
Between 1838 and the end of public executions in 1868, thirty women and two teenage girls were executed in England and Scotland; of those thirty-two individuals, twenty-one were convicted of fatal poisoning. This wave of domestic murders prompted Parliament to enact the Arsenic Act 1851 to restrict over-the-counter sales of the chemical.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Sarah Westwood?
Sarah Westwood was a 42-year-old mother from Burntwood, near Lichfield in Staffordshire, who was convicted and executed in January 1844 for the fatal arsenic poisoning of her husband, John Westwood.
How did Sarah Westwood poison her husband?
On 9 November 1843, Sarah mixed white arsenic into a bowl of gruel prepared for John’s midday meal. John collapsed shortly after eating and died that evening, with a subsequent post-mortem revealing lethal quantities of arsenic in his stomach.
Why did Sarah Westwood plead her belly?
Following her conviction at the Stafford Winter Assizes, Sarah claimed to be pregnant to obtain a temporary stay of execution. The court impanelled a traditional jury of matrons, who examined her and concluded that she was not pregnant.
What was unique about Sarah Westwood’s execution?
Due to extreme physical weakness, Sarah was unable to stand on the scaffold and was permitted to sit on a wooden stool on the trapdoors while hangman George Smith adjusted the noose, dropping through when the trap fell. She was also the last woman ever executed in Staffordshire.
Where and when was Sarah Westwood executed?
She was publicly hanged outside Stafford Gaol at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, 13 January 1844, by executioner George Smith.
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