Background. Sarah Dimond had been reportedly born in 1817 to “poor but honest parents”, Charles and Mary Dimond and had received some education at the village school at Shapwick near Glastonbury in Somerset. She left school at the age of 14 and exhibited a vicious temper which caused problems in the family. By 18 she had two illegitimate children and her behaviour had become so bad … Read more
A Troubled Household in Lincolnshire William Joyce was a gardener who lived in Boston in Lincolnshire with his two children, William and Emma, from his first marriage. He remarried in 1840 to 27-year-old Eliza, who was to bear him another daughter, christened Ann, at the end of 1842. The marriage appeared to be a happy … Read more
Sarah (nee Parker, born c. 1801) and John Westwood had been married for some twenty years by 1843 and lived in the parish of Burntwood near Lichfield in Staffordshire. John was a nail maker and was assisted in his small business by his son, seventeen year old Charles. It seems the family were fairly poor. The household, by 1843, comprised Sarah, John, … Read more
Sarah was born in 1819 as Sarah Reynolds in the village of Potton in Bedfordshire, the daughter of the village barber, Phillip Reynolds. Phillip died when Sarah was seven years old and her mother then embarked on a series of relationships with other men. Hardly an ideal childhood. Sarah grew up to be a tall, attractive girl with long auburn hair … Read more
Mysterious Deaths in Burnham Westgate In the early spring of 1835, two murders by poisoning occurred in the Norfolk village of Burnham Westgate. The victims were Catherine Frary’s husband, 33-year-old Robert, and her lover’s wife, Mary Taylor. Frances Billing and Catherine Frary lived in a row of three cottages on North Street in Burnham Westgate. … Read more
