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Kerrell Family History
Copyright
Richard Clark 2011. Edited by David Kerrell. The original
article can be found at
http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/malcolm.html.
Sarah Malcolm met her
death at the hands of the common hangman. She was just 22 when she was hanged
for the murders of three women during a robbery at the home of one of them. Sarah originated from
Durham and had been born in 1711 to a good family. However, her father had squandered the
family’s money and as a teenager, Sarah was forced to move to London and go
into service. Initially, she performed
her duties well but later got a job at the Black Horse, a pub in Boswell
Court near Temple Bar, where she became involved with London’s low life. She left her job at the
Black Horse and took a job as a laundress to several chambers (apartments)
above the Inns of Court, working for some of the tenants there. Among her customers was Mrs.
Lydia Duncomb, a wealthy but somewhat frail old
lady, whose age is variously quoted as being between 60 and 80, who occupied
a set of chambers in Tanfield Court in the
Temple. She employed two live-in
servants, Elizabeth Harrison, aged 60 who was effectively retired,
and 17 year old Ann Price, who had been employed to take over Elizabeth’s
duties. Elizabeth “Betty” Harrison had
been Mrs. Duncomb’s
companion for many years. The Murders. The precise events of the
night of Saturday, the 3rd of February 1733, are unknown because Sarah never
gave a credible account of them. She
told her trial that she entered the old lady’s apartment with Martha Tracey
and the Alexander brothers, and they carried out the robbery while she kept
watch on the stairs and thus took no part in the murders. The first body discovered
was that of Ann Price with a knife wound to her throat. Her body was found in the passage leading
to the apartment, her hands clutched to her wound. Elizabeth Harrison was found lying across
her bed having been strangled with her apron string or similar and Mrs. Duncomb similarly lying
across her bed. It seemed that she too
had been strangled but that she might have died of shock and fright, and the
weight of her assailant’s body on top of her. On the Sunday morning, one
of Mrs. Duncomb’s
friends, a Mrs. Ann Love, arrived for a dinner
invitation, but could get no answer or see any sign of life. She went to
fetch another of Mrs. Duncomb’s
friends, a Mrs Frances Rhymer, and they could not raise the old lady. Sarah also came up and Mrs.
Love, fearing that all was not well, sent Sarah to find a locksmith. Sarah
returned later with Mrs. Ann Oliphant, also a
friend of Mrs. Duncomb,
who was quite a bit younger and managed to gain entry into the
apartment. They were met with the
horrific sites described above. They
also realised that the apartment had been stripped of anything of value and Mrs. Duncomb’s strongbox had
been forced open. Other neighbours
came to see what was going on. A doctor was sent for by one of the Temple
porters and Mr. Thomas Bigg,
a surgeon, made a preliminary examination of the three deceased women. Arrest. John Kerrel
was also a tenant of the Chambers and he too employed Sarah. He had been out on the Saturday and
returned home around one o’clock on the Sunday morning, to find Sarah in his
room. He was surprised to see her
there at that time of night and being aware of the murders, asked her if
anyone had been arrested. He told her
to leave and was obviously not comfortable with her presence, as he believed
that whoever had committed the murders knew their way around the
apartments. He also discovered that
some of his waistcoats were missing and when he challenged Sarah about this,
she confessed that she had pawned them.
Sarah left but now being thoroughly suspicious he made a search and in
the Close-stool, he found some linen and underneath a silver tankard with
blood on the handle. Under the bed he
found a bloodstained shift and apron. He immediately called the watchmen and they
caught up with Sarah by the Inner-Temple Gate. They brought her back to John Kerrel’s apartment who asked her if the tankard was hers,
and she told him it was and that it had been given her by her mother. She was
now taken to the constable and he took her before Alderman Brocas, who sent her to the Compter
(local lock-up jail) and on the Monday morning committed her to Newgate prison. As
part of the normal admissions procedure, she was searched on arrival and was
found to have a considerable amount of silver and gold coins about her, which
she allegedly admitted were Mrs. Duncomb’s. They also found a purse containing 21 guineas
in the bosom of her dress, which Sarah claimed she had found in the street.
She offered these to Mr. Johnson the turnkey
(warder) if he made no mention of them.
He refused this and took the coins to his superiors and reported the
attempt to bribe him. She also
repeated to Mr. Roger Johnson that she had
organised the robbery, but that she had stayed on the stairs leading up to
the apartment while Martha Tracey and the Alexander brothers had carried it
out. An inquest was held into
the murders and Sarah was indicted by the Coroner's Court. Trial. Sarah came to trial at
the Old Bailey at the February Sessions for the City of London, and County of
Middlesex which were held on Wednesday, the 21st to Saturday, the 24th of
February. Sarah’s trial was scheduled
for Friday, the 23rd. The indictment against
her read as follows: “Sarah Malcolm, alias Mallcombe was indicted for the Murder of Ann Price,
Spinster, by wilfully and maliciously giving her with a Knife one mortal
Wound on the Throat, of the length of two Inches, and depth of one Inch, on
the 4th of February instant, of which wound the said Anne Price instantly
died. She was a second time
indicted for the Murder of Elizabeth Harrison, spinster, by strangling and
choking her with a cord, on the said 4th of February; by reason of which
strangling and choking the said Elizabeth Harrison instantly died. She was a third time
indicted for the Murder of Lydia Duncomb , Widow,
by strangling and choking her with a Cord, on the said 4th of February, by
which Strangling and Choking the said Lydia Duncomb
instantly died. She was again indicted
for breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Lydia Duncomb
, Widow, and stealing 20 Moidores, (Spanish gold
coins valued at 27 shillings each) 18 Guineas, one Broad-Piece, value 25 s. 4
Broad-Pieces, value 23 s. each, one half Broad-Piece, value 11 s. 6 d. 25 s.
in Silver, a Silver Tankard, Value 40 s. a Canvas Bag, Value 1 d. and two
Smocks, value 12 s. on the 4th day of February instant, about the hour of 2
in the night of the same day.” Sarah pleaded not guilty
to all of these charges. As all of these
indictments were capital offences, it was decided to proceed with the first
charge only (the murder of Ann Price) to save court time. The prosecution told the jury that if they
were not convinced by the evidence and by the findings of the Coroner's
court, it was for them to say how Ann Price died. The basic chronology of the
crime, discovery of the bodies, and the arrest of Sarah were now put before
the jury. John Kerrel
was the first to give evidence and he told the court of the events leading to
the arrest. His friend and neighbour,
John Gehagan, also testified for the prosecution
and confirmed the discoveries of the bloodstained
clothes and the tankard. The two
watchmen, John
Mastreter and Richard Hughs,
gave evidence of Sarah’s arrest and told the court how she claimed that the
blood on the tankard was her own from a cut finger. Frances Rhymer, who looked after Mrs. Duncomb’s financial
affairs, identified the tankard and the purse that had been found on Sarah
and told the court of the contents of the old lady’s strong box. Sarah cross examined each
prosecution witness in minute detail and made much of any differences between
the known facts and their recollections of events, in an effort to discredit
their testimony. Roger Johnson told the
court how he had searched Sarah in Newgate and made
his incriminating discoveries. He
testified that she admitted to him that the money was Mrs.
Duncomb's and offered it to him to keep quiet about
it. He remembered that the purse
contained 20 Moidores, 18 Guineas, 5 Broad-Pieces,
one 25 s. piece, some 23 s. pieces, a half Broad-Piece, 5 crowns, and 2 or 3
or three shillings. (Quite a large
sum). Johnson further suggested that
Sarah had told him she had hired three witnesses to testify that the tankard
was hers. Sarah claimed that she had
given the money to Johnson for safekeeping and that he was to return it to
her when she was acquitted. Johnson’s
superior, Mr. Alstone,
confirmed Johnson’s account and also added that Sarah had told him that she
had planned the robbery and had been assisted by Martha Tracey and the
Alexander brothers. The next piece of
evidence was the statement, taken on oath, when Sarah appeared before Sir
Richard Brocas on the 6th of February. In this, she affirmed that she had planned
the robbery but that she had remained on the stairs outside the old lady’s
apartment whilst it was carried out by Tracey and the Alexanders. Sarah was not represented
by counsel but offered a spirited defence.
She claimed that the blood on her shift and apron was from her period
and was not that of the murdered maid and attempted to show that the
bloodstains found on these were not consistent with murder. She claimed the blood on the handle of the
tankard was from her finger cut. She
admitted to planning the robbery and to being an accessory to the crime and
accepted that these crimes deserved death.
She then gave an account of the crime which implicated Tracey and the Alexanders but absolved herself
from the actual killings. She told the
court that while she accepted that she would hang for robbery in a dwelling
house, she could not confess to the murders as she was innocent of them. She also asked the judge to order the
return of the money found on her that was over and above that stolen from Mrs. Duncomb. At the end of her
defence, the jury retired for 15 minutes to consider their verdict. Sarah was found guilty of the robbery and
the one murder charge that was proceeded with and also guilty in accordance
with the verdict of the Coroner's Inquisition, i.e. the other two
murders. The authorities had no
evidence against Martha Tracey and the Alexander brothers and did not charge
them with anything. She was taken back to Newgate and the following day, at the end of the
Sessions, returned to court to be sentenced to death along with nine
men. Her case was reported in the
London Magazine, or Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, of March 1733. In the condemned hold at Newgate, she continued to refuse to confess to the murders. Crimes like this were very rare at the
time, especially when committed by a young woman, and so she was seen as
something of a celebrity. The well known painter, William Hogarth, visited her in
prison two days before her execution and sketched her prior to painting her
portrait. As was normal at the
time, in the case of particularly shocking murders, it was arranged that her
execution would take place as near to the crime scene as possible. She was apparently distressed about the
venue as she would die amidst people who knew her rather than at Tyburn where she would have been somewhat more anonymous,
among the eight men condemned at the same Sessions who suffered there on
Monday, the 5th of March. She is reported to have confessed on the night before
she was hanged and the details were printed in, “A Paper delivered by Sarah
Malcolm on the Night before her Execution to the Rev. Mr.
Piddington, and published by Him” (London, 1733).
However, this was more of a self justification than
a confession. Execution. Sarah’s execution was set
for Wednesday, the 7th of March. Newgate’s portable gallows was set up in Fleet Street, in
the square opposite Mitre Court for the purpose. Sarah was prepared in the normal way by the
Yeoman of the Halter, her hands tied in front of her and halter around her
neck. She was placed in the cart with John Hooper, the hangman, to make the
short journey to Fleet Street accompanied by a troop of Javelin Men and the
Under Sheriff. Sarah is said to have
fainted in the cart and also to have “wrung her hands and wept most
bitterly”. When she arrived at the
gallows, she listened carefully to John Gutherie,
the Ordinary’s, prayers for her soul and again fainted. She was revived and just before the cart
was driven from under her, she was reported to have turned towards the Temple
and cried out, “Oh, my mistress, my mistress! I wish I could see her!” and
then, casting her eyes towards heaven, called upon Christ to receive her
soul. She was dragged off the cart by
the rope and left kicking in the air, dying after a brief struggle. Her body was taken down and according to
the parish records, she was buried in the churchyard
of St. Sepulchre's church on the 10th of March. It is possible that her body was anatomised
after execution. Strangely, it seemed
that John Hooper was the only person present to have any real sympathy for
her. Hogarth thought that “she was
capable of any wickedness” and the crowd surrounding the gallows were of the
same view. Conclusion. There seem to be two
possible solutions to the murder of Mrs. Duncomb and her servants.
One is that Sarah alone killed them, as the authorities believed, and
that her defence was simply a pack of lies and an attempt to deflect the
blame onto others. The second scenario
is that Sarah was indeed telling the truth and that others killed the three
women. It is notable, however, that the Alexander brothers and Martha Tracey
were not prosecuted on any charge relating to the robbery and murders,
presumably because the authorities could find no evidence against them. Sarah’s bloodstained garments featured prominently in the trial –
however, blood typing had not been invented at the time and there was no
means of knowing whose blood it was – she claimed it was her menstrual blood.
Sarah did not deny being present on the stairs nor did she deny having the
stolen property. It should be
remembered that robbery in a dwelling house was a capital crime at this time
and that she expected to be hanged just for this. Two men had already made
the journey to Tyburn for this in the first three
months of 1733. Most of Sarah’s actions
from the Sunday morning on seem to point to guilt – the hiding of
incriminating evidence in other apartments to which she had access, the
possession of property that clearly could be identified as Mrs. Duncomb’s, and the attempt
to bribe the turnkey in Newgate. Her insistence that the tankard was a
present from her mother and her suggestion, if made, that she had paid
witnesses to say so. Her admission
that she had planned the robberies of Mrs. Duncomb and of another tenant. But probably the most
damning evidence against her in the eyes of the jury was the endless strings
of lies and half truths that she told, before her
arrest and afterwards in Newgate. Sarah was perhaps
fortunate, in that had she been in the direct employ of Mrs.
Duncomb as an indentured servant, she would have
been guilty not only of murder but also of Petty Treason and would have been
burned at the stake.
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