1825 - Leicester Assizes

Date: 10 Aug 1825 [unknown]
Location: Leicester, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom
Surname/tag: Read

These assizes ^[1] terminated on Wednesday evening. - Against Sir Willoughby Wolston Dixie, Bart. charged with maliciously shooting at the Rev. Thos. Wright and the Rev. Charles Wright, in the Park of Market Bosworth, and who had for been for several days in the common gaol of the county, no indictment was preferred. The prosecutors were called on for their recognizances (50/ each), which were ordered to be estreated.

- Hannah Read, aged 35,was found guilty of the wilful murder of James Read her husband, by drowning him in the canal between Gumley and Foston [sic. Foxton], and was sentenced to be hanged on Friday evening. It appeared that the deceased and his wife had for some time lived on very adverse terms, and that she had left him for the purpose of cohabiting with another man, who resides at Sheepshead. A reconciliation had, however, taken place a short time before the murder, and she returned to her husband and children at Shearsby. On Monday the 25th of April they agreed to walk together as far as Foston, a village about five miles distant from their residence, and of which place she is a native. In the evening she returned without him, and having related to her neighbours a very suspicious story respecting his absence, they caused her to be secured, and the following morning his body was found under the bridge in the canal. She had been walking with the deceased, near the spot, on the evening of the melancholy event, and the evidence against her in other respects left no doubt of her guilt. The wretched woman had at the time an infant about ten weeks old at her breast, and six others were left to deplore the fate of their parents.

1. ↑ "LEICESTER ASSIZES." Derby Mercury, 10 Aug. 1825. British Library Newspapers, link.gale.com/apps/doc/BA3202740250/BNCN?u=dmu&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=f3c8fb36. Accessed 27 June 2023.