MURDER OF MARTHA GODDARD
(Derby Mercury 5th October 1842)
DREADFUL MURDER AT STANLEY, NEAR DERBY
On Friday last, being market-day, our town was in a state
of great excitement and interest owing to the announcement of a horrible murder
having been committed at Stanley, in this county, and in the course of the day
the following hand-bill was circulated, viz.:-
WILFUL MURDER.-100 POUNDS REWARD.
Whereas the dwelling-house of the two Misses Goddard, at
Stanley, in the county of Derby, was burglariously broken into, and entered
early in the morning of the 30th day of September, and both of the
inmates inhumanly beat about their heads and faces, one of whom has since died
from the wounds inflicted;-Notice is hereby given, that a reward of £100, will
be given to any person who shall give such information as will lead to the
conviction of the perpetrators of the above crime, on application to Mr. R. W.
Birch, solicitor, Derby.
Stanley; September 30, 1842.
We are enabled to state the following particulars from good
authority. The unfortunate victim
was Miss Martha Goddard, of the age of 70, who had lived, together with her
sister, Sarah (a few years younger), in Stanley, for above 40 years, without any
other inmate in the house. The
account given by the survivor is, that her sister was gone to bed, and she was
sitting up, and about one o’clock in the morning of the 30th ult.,
she heard a noise, and on going to see where it was, she was met in the back
kitchen by two men who had entered through the roof by removing some slates, and
she was unmercifully beaten by them with an iron crow or bar on the face and
head, and dreadfully disfigured, and one of her fingers broken. She escaped from them into her bed-room and fastened the door
which they afterwards forced open, and demanded her money, particularly a £1
note, which they told her they knew she was possessed of, although she denied
it. They, however, obtained from
her two sovereigns and a few shillings, and then went into the bed room of her
sister, who was found by the younger one, about an hour afterwards, lying partly
across the bed, with her legs hanging down, weltering in blood; her head having
been heavily struck and bruised, apparently with the same instrument.
The younger one had not heard any noise in her sister’s room, and she
did not dare leave her own until she thought the men had gone away.
Her consternation may be imagined on entering the room and finding her
sister senseless. She attended upon
her, and did not leave her till about day-light, fearing she might die in her
absence, being in an insensible state, and in fact she never spoke intelligibly
after the attack. She then went to
a neighbour’s about 200 yards distant, and a surgeon arrived, and she breathed
her last about 7 o’clock the same morning.
The survivor is not in a state to give the account so
clearly as could be wished, nor is it ascertained what passed when the men were
in the bed-room of the deceased, nor what was the reason of the deadly attack on
both the sisters, as they were naturally quiet, harmless, and inoffensive, and
not likely to have offered any resistance.
The house was broken into by two men in April last, and the
deceased accompanied them during their search, when they carried off some
articles of silver, and a few sovereigns, and no violence was offered by them.
The house was entered through the same roof as on the previous occasion
about a month ago, when very little property was taken, and the sisters did not
know of this entry until the doors were found open, when they got up.
The three robberies are thought to have been committed by the same
parties.
Arrangements had been made, and two proper parties had
agreed to sleep in the house after the second entry, but the deceased, in
particular, persisted in preventing it. They
lived in close retirement, and never kept a servant, and were very kind and
humane, and much respected by their neighbours.
Their father was the vicar of Tideswell, in this county, and they
possessed a comfortable independence.
Two men are now in the county gaol for further examination
on a charge of being concerned in the outrage and we sincerely hope that justice
will overtake the offending parties.
INQUEST.
On Saturday morning, an inquest was held on the body before
Henry Mosley, Jun., Esq., and a respectable jury, at the White Hart, in Stanley.
The following evidence was adduced:-
Sarah Goddard, of Stanley, spinster, says, that the
deceased, Martha Goddard, was my sister; she was about 69 years of age, and
unmarried; she and I lived together, we kept no servant; on Thursday night last,
my sister went to bed about 10 o’clock; I sat up a great deal later; about
half-past twelve o’clock on Friday morning I was sitting by the fire in the
house-place and heard a noise like mortar falling, the sound came from the
coal-house, the door of which was open, and just as I got to it there came out
of it two men, who knocked me down, and afterwards went up to my sister’s
room; when I was able to get up again I went up stairs to my room, and the men
came into it and knocked me down again with heavy iron bars; they beat me very
much about the head and hands, and broke one of my fingers; I have no doubt they
killed my sister with the iron bars they had in their hands, they were very
stern savage men, they stayed in the house about an hour and a half, and they
then left it; soon after they had gone I went into my sister’s room and found
her lying bleeding, on her back across the bed, with her legs lying down; I put
her legs on a chair, and stayed with her till about 5 o’clock, when I went out
and alarmed the neighbours; when I first went in my sister said to me “Sally,
Sally, a man, a man;” and she moaned; I cannot describe the men.
William Scattergood, of Stanley, farmer – Yesterday
morning, Friday the 30th September, about five o’clock, as I and my
wife were in bed, I heard Miss Sarah Goddard, who lives about 100 yards from our
house, knocking at our door, and calling out that some men had taken her
sister’s life. My wife and I got
up, and went down stairs, and found miss Goddard had gone away, and we both went
to her house, and found her in the kitchen, and she said to us, that they had
killed her sister, and we must to up stairs and look at her. My wife and I did go up stairs, and found deceased, Martha
Goddard, lying on her back across the bed with her head towards the window, and
her legs projecting from the side of the bed, and resting on a chair
Catherine Harshorn, wife of Timothy Hartshorn,
of Stanley, collier, states-I have known the deceased Martha Goddard, a long
time; I live within 100 yards of her house, and near Mr. Scattergood’s; I have
heard the evidence of Mr Scattergood; I went to Miss Goddards’ yesterday
morning, immediately after he and his wife did, my husband having told me Miss
Goddards’ house had been broken into again, which he had just heard himself
from Mr. Scattergood; when I got to the house I went up stairs and found Mrs.
Scattergood crying, and the deceased lying across the bed precisely as described
by Mr. Scattergood; she appeared insensible and completely covered with blood; I
assisted Mr. Boden, the surgeon, in washing her; there were three holes at the
end of her forehead, and one at the back of her head, I saw the holes the two
men, that Miss Sarah Goddard stated, had broken into the house and got in at;
they were in the same state as when the jury saw them this morning, and the
small ladder shewed to the jury was reared against the outer wall of the
coal-house, just under the hole in the roof; the Miss Goddards’ were
considered rich people; their house was broken into at the same place about
three weeks ago, and robbed, and it was also robbed several months ago.
Robert Boden, of Smalley, surgeon-Yesterday morning,
between 6 and 7 o’clock, I was sent for to see deceased, Martha Goddard, who
had been much injured as I was told by some housebreakers. I went to her house directly, and arrived about 7 o’clock;
I found her lying in bed in the manner described by Mr. Scattergood and Mrs.
Hartshorne; she was insensible, and had lost a great quantity of blood; I found
three wounds above the left eye, each an inch and three quarters long; in two of
them the scull was fractured, in the other it was not; this latter wound
appeared to be the result of two blows; the other two wounds of one blow, but
all with the same instrument, which must have been a heavy iron one, and used
with considerable violence; there was also another wound near the top of the
head, apparently inflicted by the same instrument, and in which also the scull
was fractured; there was a considerable contusion on the right side of the neck;
there was a wound on the left wrist, and on the left forefinger; a bruise on the
back of the left hand; the ring finger of the right hand was fractured; I have
no doubt the fractures of the skull were the immediate cause of the death of
deceased, which took place in about half an hour after I got to her, during the
whole of which time she was quite insensible.
The Jury returned a verdict of “Wilful Murder against
some person or person unknown.”
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