Tag: unsolved

A 200th birthday and an unsolved murder – Part 3 The parson detective comes on the scene – a visit to St Werbergh, Hoo, Kent

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20th century headlines about the murder. © Carole Tyrrell

This is where Rev Jordan came in and he became known as the parson detective.  Such was the feeling in the community that he became determined to find the murderer and bring them to justice. So he set about disproving George White’s alibi.

At the time, George had claimed to have met one of his father’s employees, Joseph Green, who he had invited him to come with him. But a few yards away from the house, George had said that he had to return home to fetch his handkerchief. As a result, he was gone at least ten minutes which would have given him enough time to put the hurdle in place for the perpetrator’s gun to rest on. Joseph attested that the hurdle had not been standing at the pantry window during the day. Afterwards they had walked to the Chequers pub and Joseph said that it was the last time he saw George that night. Joseph had added that he had seen George ‘sitting up about upon the stiles’ near the murder scene before it was dark. Even more damning was that George didn’t get the handkerchief that he had said he went back home to get as, when everyone was assembled in the house after the murder, he hadn’t got one and had to go and find one.

A gun had been found in a clover stack near William’s house about a month prior to the murder and an employee called Francis Smith had put it in the hayloft. A short time afterwards he couldn’t find it and was told by George that William had taken it away, destroyed it the stock and lock of it and thrown the barrel into a lumber room.

Rev Jordan meanwhile had preached a sermon on the matter and opened a book, asking everyone in the congregation and village to write down exactly where they were at 8pm on that fateful Sunday evening.

‘Rev Jordan persuaded George to make a vestry statement and a meeting was then held to clear him of suspicion. So, he stood before 40 people on Easter Monday, 3 April 1809 after a dinner at the Five Bells Inn. After the parish accounts were settled, Rev Jordan insisted that George make a public statement. He told the audience what George had said in his vestry statement and demanded that George bring in witnesses to confirm that they had seen him at any time between 7.45-8.15 to which he said that he couldn’t as he hadn’t seen anyone at that time. Some of the audience questioned him and none were satisfied with his answers.‘

The Five Bells Hoo from Facebook photographer unknown

The Rev was able to prove that George had not bought a bag of nuts at 7.45pm as a witness had said that he had seen him cracking and eating them at 7.40pm. Also, George had claimed to be standing at the Five Bells Inn when the hulks guns were fired at 8.15pm but it had actually happened at 8.00pm. He had been seen coming from the farm at 8.20pm with laboured breathing when he reached the vicarage door. He had had enough time to murder his father and then double back to the village.

So what happened next?  Nothing. No one was ever charged with William’s murder and the case is still unsolved. George emigrated to Australia and that is the end of his story. There seems to be nothing more on the auction or the fate of William’s children.  I could not find an image of William or of Cookham Farm House.

The only reminders are the newspaper reports in florid Victorian language such as;

‘Dastardly murder.’

And, of course, the headstone.  It’s a reminder of an event that happened over 200 years ago which shocked a community. It’s not recorded if Rev Jordan went on to do more sleuthing but I think that he made a convincing case against George. William’s grave is situated 20 yards east of the main North church door and not faraway from Thomas Aveling’s resting place.

©Text and photos Carole Tyrrell unless otherwise stated.

Aveling and Porter – Wikipedia photos of steamrollers

Thomas Aveling Society

Thomas Aveling – Graces Guide

Celebrating the lifeNotable People – Hoo Parish Council Hoo, Rochester, Kent – Hoo St Werburgh and Chattenden Parish Council, Hoo, Rochester and legacy of Medway pioneer Thomas Aveling | Medway Council

Murder of William White 1808

 North Wales Gazette December 22 1808

Extracts from The Kentish Gazette

Monumental Inscriptions of St Werburgh Church, Hoo — Kent Archaeological Society

http://www.whitehousefarm.eclipse.co.uk/wwhite – a good selection of newspaper reports and Rev Jordan’s activities.

William Walter White (1751-1808) – Find a Grave Memorial

The Dastardly Murder of William – this site contains Victorian newspaper reports of the murder including 2 in London papers.  Also Rev Jordan’s thought on the murder and possible perpetrators.

GRIM HISTORIES: Premeditated Murder in South East England’s Medway Towns by Janet Cameron

A 200th birthday and an unsolved murder Part 2 – a visit to St Werbergh’s, Hoo

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William White’s headstone and fulsome epitaph. © Carole Tyrrell

You never know what you will find in a country churchyard; crumbling mausoleums associated with royalty, a fine selection of skulls on headstones and poignant memorials.

But what I didn’t expect at Hoo was to find one that revealed, positively shouted in fact, about a local unsolved murder from the early part of the 19th century. This is the headstone dedicated to William Walter White. This is the inscription:

‘IN MEMORY OF

WILLIAM WHITE OF THIS PARISH, YEOMAN

WHO WAS ON SUNDAY EVENING THE 11TH OF DECR.

1808 MOST INHUMANLY MURDERED

IN THE BOSOM OF HIS FAMILY

BY A GUN DISCHARGED AT HIM THRO A WINDOW

WHILST SITTING BY HIS OWN FIRESIDE

THE PERPETRATOR OF THIS HORRID DEED IS

NOT YET DISCOVERED BUT THERE IS ONE, “WHO

IS ABOVE OUR PATH AND ABOUT OUR BED

AND WHO SPIETH OUT ALL OUR WAYS”

WHO[O] [WI]LL SOMETIME BRING IT TO LIGHT

HE LIVED ESTEEMED BY ALL WHO KNEW HIM

[AND HIS] SAD END IS UNIVERSALLY REGRETTED HE

[LEFT ISSUE]6 SONSAND 5 DAUGHTERS TO BEWAIL

[HIS LOSS AND DIED [AT] THE AGE OF 58 YEARS

STONE WAS ERECTED JUNE THE 24TH 1809

“[By] whose Assa[ssinating} {H}and [I fell]

[Drop] Reader [o’er my Grave one] Silent Tear

[Live Well remembering that your God is Near]

[If Rich or Poor or Relative you be]

[Strike your own breast and say – It was not Me!]’

A more dramatic epitaph it would be hard to find and the stonemason certainly earned his money!  The case shocked the farming community of Hoo especially as no one was ever brought to justice and suspicions ran rife. It even led to the local vicar of St Werbergh’s at the time, Rev Jordan, deciding to become an amateur sleuth and unmask the perpetrator.

Death had already visited the White family when William’s wife, Jane, dropped dead with no prior indication of illness on 24 March 1808 aged 44. The murder left the 11 children orphans within a short space of time and more about what happened afterwards later. William was a man of some standing in the village. He was a yeoman which meant that, although he was a farmer, he wasn’t part of the gentry. In 1790, he was one of only two franchised householders in the village and so was eligible to vote.

A typical farm house in Hoo. © eclipse

The Murder

The facts are that, on Sunday 11th December 1808, William was sitting reading at home with his family when a shot rang out. A gun had been fired through an open pantry window which killed William outright. The shot entered the back of his head and exited under the right eye. The ‘cries and lamentations’ of his family could be heard in Hoo village a mile away after the body was found. An unsuccessful search was made immediately for the perpetrator. However, a recently discharged gun was found in a ditch roughly 200 yards away from the house near the River Medway which led to the assumption that the murderer had escaped by water.

Such was the notoriety of the case that reports of it appeared in London newspapers and the Bow Street Runners were called in. They were the forerunner of the modern police force.

Bow Street Runners c1800 from History UK website.

Whoever fired the fatal shot must have known the layout of the house and the family’s habits. It took place on a Sunday when there were no servants about and it would have been necessary for the pantry door to be open in order to have a good view from the window as the gun was fired at William sitting by the fire. It had been propped up on a hurdle in front of the window and this helped the murderer to have a good aim. The gun was an old musket-barrel which had nails in the breach fastening it to the stock. It was a very crude gun as the hammer would not hold at full cock but was fastened back by a piece of twine which was presumed to have been cut at the time of firing. The fatal shot was fired at the same as the nightly salvo of guns from convict hulks on the River Medway. 

The suspects

The gun’s owner was a man called Driver and he and another man called Day were picked up in Bapchild near Sittingbourne, Kent. It was assumed that they were on the run. The Coroner, J Simmons Esq, questioned them but soon realised that he didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute them. He then had them removed to one of his Majesty’s ships which was a euphemism for being ‘press ganged’. The Kentish Gazette described it like this:

‘as they were unable to give a satisfactory account of their mode of obtaining a livelihood, they were sent to serve their country on board one of his Majesty’s ships of war.’

 If that wasn’t enough, later on, they were marched back from Portsmouth to Rochester to be further questioned and then press ganged a second time before being finally released without charge.

As for motive, William had recently found a servant, possibly Driver, in the act of robbing a neighbour and had informed the appropriate authorities. He had sacked the man who had sworn to get his revenge. In fact, a week prior to the murder, the unnamed man, had purchased a gun:

‘for which he had no possible occasion, under some frivolous pretence’

according to newspaper reports at the time.

The inquest on William was held and a verdict was returned of:

‘Wilful murder against some per or persons unknown – Friday 23 December 1808.

Events began to gather pace as the executor of William’s will, Thomas Denton, was authorised to put William’s home, land, possessions and other assets up for auction. It was intended that the money raised would be distributed by him amongst the children as he thought best for them. Originally it had been intended that Jane White, William’s wife would be a joint executor but of course with her death it fell to Thomas alone. Understandably the children tried to stop him and suspicion began to fall on him.  In the space of a few months they had been left orphans with the loss of both their parents and now they were to lose the family home as well.

But another suspect had appeared who was much closer to home. It was George White, William’s eldest son. He was known to be on bad terms with his father and had been seen to threaten him. George wanted the farm and the land but William was considering writing a new will leaving him and another relative out. However, his will dated 22 January 1808 did not indicate.   

But George had convinced both the Mr Simmons, the coroner, and the Bow Street Runners that, during the vital thirty minutes between 7.45pm and 8.15pm he had been in Hoo village buying:

‘a penny’s worth of nuts.’

The shop was a good mile away from the farm. But someone else in the community had doubts about George’s alibi and was determined to disprove it as we shall see in Part 3.

©Text and photos Carole Tyrrell unless otherwise stated.

Part 3 – the parson detective comes onto the scene

Part 2 – ‘Her lean and senile seducer’ – the Charles Bravo inquest and its aftermath

On By shadowsflyawayIn Cemetery Stories2 Comments

 

I found this on www.realcrimedaily but with no accreditation. Mrs Cox is giving evidence.
I found this on http://www.realcrimedaily but with no accreditation. Mrs Cox is giving evidence.

 The second inquest began on 11 July 1876 and lasted 5 weeks. It was a public sensation and finally ended Florence’s doomed attempt to regain her place in respectable society. Only men and boys were allowed into the inquest as the details revealed were considered to be so shocking.

 

Both Florence and Mrs Cox spoke of Bravo’s controlling and bullying nature which was countered by family and friends who described him as good-natured and happy.

Charles Delaunay Turner Bravo Carte de Visite 1876 National Portrait Gallery, Lombardi Sahed under Wiko Creative Commons Attribute Share Alike 3.0
Charles Delaunay Turner Bravo Carte de Visite 1876
National Portrait Gallery, Lombardi
Sahed under Wiko Creative Commons Attribute Share Alike 3.0

 

The affair between Florence and Dr Gully became public knowledge because of the inquest and the papers of the day revelled in it while ostensibly taking a moral high ground.  The fact that she had enjoyed it and that it had been common knowledge throughout the area enraged the public and she was soon being pilloried. Much was made of its adulterous nature and the disparity in their ages – he was 67 to her 25.  The Times dubbed Gully as her ‘lean and senile seducer’ whereas in fact he was described as being charismatic with Charles Darwin calling him ‘a friend.’  He was quickly discounted as a suspect as he had not been anywhere near the scene at the time.

 

 

Photo of Florence Bravo http://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/bravo-florence-photos.htm
Photo of Florence Bravo
http://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/bravo-florence-photos.htm

Florence was questioned repeatedly about the affair until she finally broke down and tried to demand that the Coroner protect her from what she called ‘the impertinent’ cross examining.

‘I refuse to answer any more questions about Dr Gully!’ she shouted at one point to Joseph Bravo’s solicitor. ‘This inquiry is about the death of my husband and I appeal to the jury as men and Britons to protect me.’

Dr James Manby Gully ''Hydropathy' cartoon in style of Spy from Vanity Fair 1876. Shared under Wiki Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
Dr James Manby Gully ”Hydropathy’ cartoon in style of Spy from Vanity Fair 1876.
Shared under Wiki Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

 

Dr Gully described the persistent questioning as ‘a gross impertinence’ and publicly denied any involvement or knowledge of Charles’ murder. Gully was now looking at the very likely destruction of all that he had built up – his good name, his practice and his clientele.  The novelist George Eliot, who had been one of his patients, had described him as a ‘quack’. But Gully was very advanced for his time in his use of mesmerism to induce sleep and clairvoyance to diagnose internal conditions. These ideas may seem a little quaint to us today, as X-rays replaced clairvoyance, but they did indicate the way in which medicine might go.  He had had a huge practice at Malvern between 1842-1871 but the inquest ruined him.

 

Joseph Bravo’s solicitor attempted to salvage Charles’ reputation by trying to prove that he had known nothing of Florence and Gully’s affair when he had married.  Otherwise he would have been revealed as a mere fortune hunter who saw a wealthy widow with a dubious reputation as easy prey. But to no avail – Florence’s pre-nuptial confession proved otherwise.

 

The Times, somewhat sanctimoniously, declared the affair as ‘the most disgusting exhibition to have been witnessed in this generation.’  It was as if Florence and Gully were on trial and that Charles’ murder was a sideshow.

 

But the inquest was against the background of the role of women in Victorian society and Florence had been a rebel.  At the time women had no rights and were expected to be only domestic goddesses; sexless, devoted to others and with no other outlets in their lives. However, thinkers such as William Acton thought differently and Gully himself saw womens neuroses as an unconscious response to the pressures of their lives and wrote ‘all these pressures are worsened by their boredom and lack of sexual satisfaction.’  This was very advanced for the time.

 

A pamphlet from the time featuring Florenc's past life. http://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/bravo-florence-photos.htm
A pamphlet from the time featuring Florenc’s past life.
http://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/bravo-florence-photos.htm

Florence, by contrast, ran her own household and managed her own financial affairs.  She was independent of her parents and so could make choices which might have been denied to other women.  She had been estranged from them when she left Ricardo and during her affair with Gully and seemed willing to accept this as the price of having her own life.    However, her desire to be accepted into society again via marriage to Bravo was to bring about her downfall.

Middle-class Victorian women were fascinated by the sensational murder trials of the day and there were several prominent cases featuring wives who were accused of murdering their husbands or lovers – for example, Adelaide Bartlett, Madeline Smith and Florence Maybrick.  They saw their own situations reflected in these women who had been driven to take action to take control of their lives.

At the end of the inquest the jury’s verdict was:

‘We find that Charles Delaunay Turner Bravo did not commit suicide, that he did not meet his death of misadventure, that he was wilfully murdered by the administration of tartar emetic. But there is insufficient evidence to fix the guilt upon any person or persons.’

The jury were all male and may have thought that a woman couldn’t be a murderess or there just wasn’t enough hard evidence to enable them to point the finger at anyone. No-one was ever  charged with Charles Bravo’s murder although there has been much speculation even to this day.

Aftermath:

Florence sold the Priory and parted with Mrs Cox.  She died less than 2 years later at Southsea where she was living under the name of Florence Turner.  She died of alcoholism although the verdict at her inquest was ‘Death by Misadventure’.  Florence’s exact burial place at Challow is unknown.

Florence’s family of wealthy Scottish landowners were utterly ruined, both financially and socially, by the scandal.

Mrs Cox died in 1913 aged 90 from ‘exhaustion’. She returned to Jamaica after inheriting an estate and properties there valued at £7000 which was a large sum at the time.  She returned to England and was buried in Hither Green Cemetery.  However, her grave is unmarked although the plot is registered.  She had received death threats during the second inquest so maybe someone thought that she knew more than she was saying.

Dr Gully survived Florence by 5 years and died on 5 March 1883.  He stayed in Orwell Lodge near the Priory with his unmarried sisters.  But Susanna, his daughter, refused to have anything more to do with him.   The Malvern Clinic closed in 1913 and is now a hotel.  Dr Gully’s grave location is unknown as he was buried in secret.

Mrs Bravo supervised the building of a large stone surround over Charles’ grave at West Norwood and died a year later of grief.

Griffiths the coachman was quickly discounted as a suspect and faded from events.

Now only Charles himself still has a tangible reminder of this case which continues to fascinate.  But the inscription is now almost unreadable and, from the path, appears blank. It’s as if everyone involved with the case just wanted to vanish from the world, such was the scandal, and eventually even Bravo’s stone may vanish into thick, encroaching vegetation or fall by subsidence leaving no reminder of him.

My own theory is the one proposed by Professor Mary Hartman in which she proposes that Bravo’s death was a tragic accident. Florence was recovering from a second miscarriage and a third pregnancy could have killed her. Charles, however, wanted to resume marital relations as soon as possible as he wanted an heir and this determination does indicate a ruthless streak in him. Florence knew where the antimony was kept and may have slipped it into his water jug to make him unwell so as to avoid having sex with him.  Unfortunately on this occasion she got the dosage wrong as 3-4 grains were sufficient to make him ill and he’d taken 30-40 grams which was 10 times the lethal dose.   It was noted that Florence seemed extremely agitated on the night of 18 April 1876 as events unfolded – did she suddenly realise what she’d done? 9 years later Adelaide Bartlett used chloroform to avoid conjugal relations with her husband and it may have been a common method employed by wives but not usually with such lethal results.

I visited The Priory prior to writing this post and in Florence’s time it must have appeared very imposing.  At the time of Bravo’s murder it would have been surrounded by fields and on its own plot but now it seemed to be almost cowering between the newer houses and car parking that have sprung up around it and the unappealing line of large rubbish bins lined up in front of it. The Priory’s white walls and battlements contrasted with the blue sky as I tried to imagine the chaos and terror on that April night in 1876 as Bravo lay there, dying in extreme pain, in the shadowy candlelit rooms.

It was a tragic event for all concerned and one can only hope that they all now rest in peace.

 

©Text and photos Carole Tyrrell unless otherwise stated.

 References:

Death at the Priory: Love, Sex and Murder in Victorian England, James Ruddick, Atlantic Books, 2001

Dr Gully, Elizabeth Jenkins, Michael Joseph 1972

https://www.realcrimedaily.com/murder-at-the-priory-the-mysterious-death-of-charles-bravo-realcrimefriday/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2650651.stm

http://strangeco.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/a-pearl-among-poisonings-mysterious.html

http://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/bravo-florence.htm

http://blueborage.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/living-in-house-with-famous-victorian.html