Chapter 6

Robert Williamson

1842

There were a number of people lodging at 12 Royal Hospital Row, in Chelsea. One couple, Margaret and John Doolen, occupied rooms on the ground floor and on the evening of Wednesday, 26 October 1842, at around 5.00pm, both were enjoying their meal together when, suddenly, a blood-curdling scream rang out.

The scream had come from the direction of the stairs and Margaret Doolen immediately dashed out to investigate. She found Sarah Williamson, the woman who lived upstairs, using one hand to support herself against the banister. Her other hand she held underneath her chin and there appeared to be blood everywhere. Sarah explained that her husband, Robert, had just attacked her with a poker and struck her ‘about the top of her head’.

Margaret helped Sarah into her own rooms and sat her down on a chair. It was clear that the wound would need proper medical attention so Margaret took her wounded neighbour to see a doctor in George Street. He dressed the wound and Margaret then escorted Sarah to her daughter’s house.

Esther Tanner was Sarah’s daughter by her first husband and she insisted that her mother should be taken to the hospital. A cab was called and Esther took Sarah to St George’s Hospital, where she was seen by the house surgeon, Dr George Augustus Davis. He timed her arrival at a few minutes before 7.00pm and he noted a single deep wound on the crown of Sarah’s head. The skin was broken and Dr Davis could see the bone beneath but there did not appear to be any fracture of the skull. He also noted a second wound, on Sarah’s left arm and decided that both may well have been caused by a poker, used with some considerable degree of violence.

The police were called and Sarah Williamson was able to make a full statement to them. In this she explained that she and Robert had been together in the Coach and Horses public house for two or three hours and had left together at some time between 4.00pm and 5.00pm. Once they were inside their lodgings, Robert had called her an old whore, picked up a poker and said that he was going to murder her. Even before she could reply to this threat, Sarah received a massive blow on her head. She was dazed but managed to stagger out of the room and down the stairs. Robert, however, followed her and struck her a second time, catching her on the arm. It was at that point that Margaret Doolen had come to her aid.

Initially, Sarah Williamson responded to the medical treatment she received. For a time her condition improved but then, on 14 November, she fell ill again. This time she grew steadily worse and, on Saturday, 19 November, she died. Robert, who had previously been charged with assaulting his wife, now found himself facing a charge of murder, in addition to the one of assault.

Robert Williamson faced his trial on 28 November 1842. In addition to the evidence of Margaret Doolen, the court heard from her husband, John. He testified that he had also heard the scream, but left it to his wife to attend to the stricken woman. After Margaret and Sarah had left to go to the doctor’s, John heard a great deal of noise from the rooms upstairs. It sounded like breaking crockery and at one stage he heard Robert shout, ‘I will let them see who is master in this house.’

After his arrest, Robert had made an appearance before the magistrates at the Queen Street police court. After the proceedings had concluded he made a statement to the chief clerk, Richard Edwards, and this was taken down in writing. That statement was now read out to the court.

Robert began by saying, ‘I can only say she had been out and got drunk, and I left her at the Coach and Horses public house. I went home and lit the fire and boiled the kettle. She then came home. I went to make the tea and found tea-leaves in the pot and I asked her if she had had any tea.’

‘She said, “Damn you and your tea too.” I had put hot water to the tea-leaves in the pot and she took up the pot and threw it, and the water, at me. The hot water came all over my face. She then set to and broke the tea things and plates. She then went out to go downstairs and she stumbled down two pairs of stairs.’

This statement did not seem to agree with what Esther Tanner, Sarah’s daughter, had to say. After seeing her mother to the hospital, she had gone to visit her stepfather at Royal Hospital Row. She told him that his wife was in hospital and very badly injured. He replied, ‘A good job and a very good job if she went mad, for I do not want to have anything more to do with the gang of you.’

It seemed clear that this had been a domestic argument, which had got out of hand. It fell to the jury to decide if that argument had been instigated by Robert, or by his wife. In the event, they decided that Robert was not guilty of murder, but was guilty of assaulting his wife. Further, they recommended him to mercy on account of the provocation he had received and his previous good character. The judge took that into consideration and sentenced Robert to just one year in prison.