The Hasland Poisoning Case

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

Contents 1 Introduction 2 The Whitfield Family and their move to Hasland 3 The deaths of the two boys 4 Mary Ann’s attempted suicide 4 February 1889 5 Mary's arrest 6 The Hearings 7 Sources

Introduction

In June 1888, two brothers, 10 year old Alfred Vickers Whitfield and 8 year old Ernest Whitfield died within 17 days of each other. In February 1889, their mother, Mary Ann (Wilkinson) Whitfield attempted to commit suicide by an overdose of poison. She recovered, and following a police investigation and the exhumation of the boys bodies, she was tried for their murder. The case and the events leading up to the trial were covered in considerable detail in various newspapers and are summarised here.

The Whitfield Family and their move to Hasland

John Whitfield was an engine driver whose first wife died at the age of 32, leaving him a widower with 5 children under 13.

Within a few months of her death, John remarried; to Mary Ann Wilkinson, a friend of his first wife's family. John and Mary Ann had 5 children, one of whom died in infancy.

In August 1887, Midland Railway had been notified that around 2,700 of their employees were intending to strike. At the time, John Whitfield was working as an engine driver in Victoria Barracks in Beverley in Yorkshire but successfully applied to the Midland Railway's recruitment campaign for drivers.

John's employment with the Midland Railway started at very short notice, and it was not until November 1887 that his wife Mary Ann relocated to Derbyshire, together with their four children. They moved to Mill Yard, (also known as White Bank Yard, Park Street) about 1½ miles south of the centre of Chesterfield on the main road to Derby, 1 mile west of the village of Hasland.

White Bank Yard was originally called ‘Oliver’s Yard”, a cluster of red brick cottages built for the millers working for John Oliver, whose corn mill stood on the banks of the nearby River Rother. By the 1880’s, however, the cottages were occupied by the families of coal miners, railway workers and labourers at the nearby iron furnace and brickyard.

John and his family moved to one of the 14 houses. John was in his early 50s, perceived by his new neighbours to be a steady, respectable man. He was well-built and of medium height, with grey hair and a grey beard. Mary Ann had a dark complexion and hard features and, in contrast to husband, did not make a good impression. (One neighbour described her as “a very untidy woman, very much given to drink”.) John was relatively well paid, earning about 36 shillings per week, but the house was much more sparsely furnished than people would have expected and John and his children wore old, patched-up clothes. That said, the children seemed fit and healthy and the neighbours would often see them playing happily in the yard or down by the nearby brook.

The late 19th century saw the rapid expansion of life insurance among the working classes. In 1841, members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Birmingham founded the Wesleyan Provident Assurance Society with the aim of helping factory workers in Birmingham save for sickness and funeral expenses. During the 1850s and 1860s, the Society expanded on a nationwide scale and created a door-to-door service for the collection of insurance premiums that was still in operation in the late 20th century.

Within weeks of the Whitfields’ arrival at Hasland, the local agent for the Insurance Society called at their house and asked Mary Ann if she would insure her children in his society. The children had previously been insured with the Prudential Society when the family lived in Middlesbrough, but the policies had expired. After thinking about it for a week or so, Mary Ann told James that she wanted to insure all four boys. The children appeared to be in good health and no medical examination was required.

In the centre of Chesterfield, near the High Street, was the home and surgery of Dr Richard Parker Jeffreys. Dr Jeffreys, born in Hasland, was in his late 40s and had trained and practiced as a General Practitioner in Chesterfield for almost 30 years. However, Dr Jeffreys had been a widower since 1881 and he had a desire to travel the world. In 1886, as a step towards retirement, he had gone into partnership with 30-year-old Dr John Goodwin Shea from Dublin, with a plan for the younger doctor to take over the practice.

The deaths of the two boys

Early in June 1888, Dr Jeffreys was sent for; Mary Ann was concerned that ‘Alfie’, the second youngest of her boys was ill. Dr Jeffreys arrived to find 10-year-old Alfred lying on the sofa in a small front living room with a fever and a pain in his back. The doctor prescribed ‘the usual remedies with suitable diet’.

The next day, Alfie hadn’t improved. He had a pain in his back, a headache and sickness, he was passing hardly any water and he had been twitching. This time, it was Dr Shea that attended to find Alfie lethargic and feverish with a racing pulse.

Two days later, on Thursday 7th June, Alfred’s face had become puffy, he still hadn’t passed water and he was throwing up. Dr Jeffreys prescribed ‘a mixture’.

By the early hours of Friday morning, Mary Ann had become extremely concerned. At 4 am she woke her next-door neighbour Mrs Simpson, saying that Alfie was dying. Mrs Simpson came round; the doctor was sent for and Dr Shea attended around noon. He agreed that Alfred’s overall condition had worsened and ordered more of the same mixture that his partner had prescribed, but on Saturday, when Dr Shea returned, Alfred was unconscious.

On the Sunday morning, another neighbour, Mrs Rawson came to the Whitfield’s house to find Alfie lying unconscious on the sofa, covered with a bedspread. There was a brown discharge coming from his mouth and nose. Alfie never regained consciousness and, apart from a few ‘twitchings” just before he died, lay motionless until 12.30 when he passed away. Mrs Rawson and Mrs Bowram were sitting with him when he died.

Dr Shea did not inspect Alfred’s body after his death. (This was not unusual at the time as doctors were not paid for attending a corpse; although, under the 1874 Registration Act, they had a legal obligation to issue a death certificate on request if they had attended the deceased during his last illness.) Dr Shea certified that Alfred died on Sunday 10th June 1888 of nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys) with a secondary cause of uremia (retention of urine).

The day after Alfie died, Mary Ann collected Alfred’s death certificate from Dr Shea and took it with the insurance policy to James Bushell’s house to see if she could have some insurance money ‘to be going on with’. She was given £3 as an advance. Two days later, James Bushell went to White Bank Cottages and paid the balance owing on the policy of £7 6s to John, who signed for receipt of the money.

Alfred Vickers Whitfield was buried in Hasland Cemetery on Wednesday 13th June aged just 10 years and 11 months. His death was included with other obituaries in the Derbyshire Courier on 19th June 1888.

In The Derbyshire Times on 16th June 1888, two letters appeared praising the Wesleyan and General Assurance Society. One of the letters was from John Whitfield.

A few days later, on Thursday 21st June, Dr Jeffreys was again called out, this time to attend to Ernest, the youngest of the Whitfield boys. Like Alfred, the doctor found him on the sofa in the living room. He noted that Ernest was well-nourished and well-developed for an 8-year old, but he was feverish and was complaining of a headache. His tongue was white and coated. The doctor attributed his condition to ‘an ordinary stomach derangement’ and, when he returned on Friday and Saturday, found that he had improved considerably.

However, about 5 days later, Dr Jeffreys was again called out and came to the Whitfield house around 10am. He was surprised to see how much Ernest had deteriorated since his visit on the Saturday. His breathing was loud and harsh; his pulse weak; his face was grey, and his pupils dilated. He was perplexed as to what might be the cause of Ernest’s condition and asked his partner Dr Shea to make a visit to get his opinion.

At 5 o’clock that same evening, Mrs Rawson again called round to see Ernest unconscious on the sofa. She noticed the same brown discharge she had seen two weeks earlier around his brother’s mouth and nose.

Dr Shea attended again at 10.30 that night. Ernest was unconscious. Dr Shea examined his chest to find that Ernest’s lungs were weak and he was breathing raggedly. He gave the standard treatment, which was an application of mustard at the back of his legs to try to stimulate him and an injection of sulphuric ether which was used as an anaesthetic at the time.

The next day, 27th June, Ernest died. Dr Shea decided not issue the death certificate immediately. Dr Jeffreys was suspicious that the two brothers had died so close together, and the two doctors debated the cause of death. However, Dr Shea said he had come across similar situations before and that he had no concerns. After their discussion, Dr Shea certified that Ernest had died from natural causes, citing congestion of the lungs as the primary cause of death.

Ernest was buried with his brother in the grave at Hasland Cemetery and his death was reported in the local paper. Ernest was just 8 years and 6 months when he died.

Once again, the day after the boy died, Mary Ann went to the insurance agent's house asking for an advance of the insurance moneys. However, she didn’t have a death certificate as the doctors had not yet issued it and the advance was refused. The following day, she again returned with the certificate and the policy and was eventually given £2. The balance of £4 was paid on 30th June at the Whitfield’s house.

Mary Ann’s attempted suicide 4 February 1889

The months passed and the Whitfields tried to get on with their lives after the tragic deaths of the two children. In October 1888, a few months after the death of his stepbrothers, Harry, by then aged 20 and working as a railway engine driver, came to live with them, which probably helped all the family.

Mary Ann had been ‘a drinker’ when the family were living in South Bank in the early 1800s. In 1885, John had worked for the army for a short while in Egypt. When he returned, he noticed that she was consuming even more. After the deaths of her two sons, she drank even more heavily, pawning clothes and other possessions to feed her addiction.

After the boys died, John’s health started to deteriorate. Throughout his life, he had always been fit and healthy, but quite often now he would feel nauseous and sometimes he would be sick. Some of neighbours tried to help to lift the spirits of the Whitfields. Mrs Bowram gave them a small dog to try to cheer up Mary Ann and the boys, but by now, Mary Ann was depressed and drinking very heavily.

On Monday 4th February 1889, Harry got up about 8.45am. There was no sign of his step-mother. At about 12.00, a neighbour, Mrs Hardcastle called. She had lent Mary Ann 7 shillings the previous week and wanted to see her about it. Searching through the house, Harry went up to the attic to find Mary Ann on the floor in what he thought was a drunken stupor. He couldn’t wake her so he carried her downstairs and put her on the bed. Close to where she had been lying in the attic, one of his stepbrothers found a satchel containing two letters.

One letter was addressed to J. Whitfield and read as follows: “Dear husband. I am bidding you farewell, be kind to the lads, poor things, they can’t help their mother. A better husband no woman ever had. My pawn tickets are in your clothes and the lad’s, one parcel to take to Mrs Clark. I owe her 4s. Don’t let Mrs Simpson or Mrs Bowram come near me”. The letter ended with some incoherent remarks about Mrs Bowram.

The second letter was for her two surviving sons: “Dear lads. When you find this, I will be no more. Be good and kind to one another and be kind to Harry and he’ll be kind to you. Be kind and obedient to your father is your mother’s last request and my cat. From your loving mother M.W.”

7 months after the deaths of her two sons, after a bout of heavy drinking, Mary Ann had tried to commit suicide by poisoning herself. William Sandham Symes, a doctor practicing in Chesterfield, was called to attend to her. When he arrived, she was comatose. In his opinion she was suffering from narcotic poisoning, probably an overdose of laudanum (a mixture of alcohol and opium used ‘to relieve pain, to produce sleep, to allay irritation’. It was readily available in the 19th century and was widely prescribed for ailments ranging from colds, to meningitis and cardiac diseases.). There were symptoms of other poison besides opium, but Dr Symes didn’t know what they might be, so he treated her for opium poisoning and, somewhat remarkably, she recovered.

Mary's arrest

A few days later, on 9th February, a short report appeared in the local and district news section of the Derbyshire Courier.

Until 1961, suicide and attempted suicide were criminal offences, and when she had recovered, Mary Ann was arrested, charged and taken to Derby goal pending her hearing. The symptoms exhibited by Mary Ann were remarkably similar to those displayed by her two sons before they died. Mrs Simpson, Mrs Bowram and Mrs Rawson had, for the past few months, harboured suspicions about the deaths of the two Whitfield boys and, when Mary Ann was arrested, the neighbours aired their concerns to the police.

There followed a series of hearings leading to the prosecution, all covered in considerable detail, not only in the local press, but across the country.

Work in ProgressWhitfield-2424 08:21, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

The Hearings

• Inquest hearing 20 February 1889
• Inquest hearing 29 February 1889
• Inquest hearing 13 March 1889
• Inquest hearing 20 March 1889
• Remand Hearing 26 March 1889
• Remand Hearing 3 April 1889
• The Trial 3 August 1889

Sources

• Evidence of witnesses Evidence of witnesses (Accessed 25 May 2022) Findmypast.co.uk Newspapers and Periodicals (Subscription Required}, Searching Alfred Vickers Whitfield:Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald 02 March 1889; Pages 6 and 8 of 9;Alleged poisoning of a children by a mother

• Report of suspected poisoning: Suspected poisoning and exhumation of bodies (Accessed 25 May 2022) Findmypast.co.uk Newspapers and Periodicals (Subscription Required}, Searching Alfred Vickers Whitfield:Derbyshire Courier 23 February 1889; Page 8 of 8;Mysterious affair at Hasland

• The Trial 3 August 1889 Trial Hearing Report (Accessed 26 May 2022) Findmypast.co.uk Newspapers and Periodicals (Subscription Required}, Searching Mary Ann Whitfield Hasland:Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald 03 August 1889; Page 2 of 8; Section: Derbyshire Summer Assizes