Middlesbrough Daily Gazette, 13 Dec. 1871.
(B. 1842 LINTHORPE, YORKS) – BROADMOOR NO. 188
In 1865 Ann Richmond began her married life with Richard Nicholls in Stockton-on-Tees, in north-east England. Richard had found work as a puddler in an iron works, which was the main form of employment in Middlesbrough; and by 1871 Ann and Richard had three children. The oldest, aged 4, was named after his father; Mary was aged 2, and James was aged just four months. Two months later, however, James’s life was cut short, and his mother stood in the dock accused of his murder. One afternoon, she had administered vitriol to the baby, which had caused very severe burning to the child’s hands, face and neck. Death would have been very painful, and the sight which greeted the witnesses as they rushed into help would have been pitiful.
Ann was charged with wilful murder, tried at Durham Assizes, and found not guilty due to insanity. The judge ordered Ann to be detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. This meant that she would be kept in a secure environment and could (at least in theory) be brought back to court at any time to serve a prison sentence. This was a legal device, where those who were unfit to plead, or who were clearly mentally unbalanced at the time of the crime, could receive treatment well away from the public gaze.
Ann was admitted to Broadmoor Hospital for Criminal Lunatics on 25 July 1871, aged 30. The files show that, although the courts had found her to be insane at the time of the murder, she now appeared to be quite sane: ‘Has been free from any symptom since admission. Good health. Not suicidal. Cause of insanity unknown. Delusions: none whilst in prison. No sign of epilepsy, not known if temperate or intemperate, Roman Catholic, imperfect education.’
Middlesbrough Daily Gazette, 13 Dec. 1871.
Her sanity was also never questioned by her husband, who wrote to Broadmoor in 1873 to ask if his wife could be discharged. The couple intended to leave the country for Germany to start a new life. Dr Orange, the Broadmoor Superintendent, replied that it would do no harm to apply, but he was generally pessimistic about their chances. He was right. Two years later, Broadmoor were still reporting that ‘there is no change in either her state of health, or in her general conduct. She may still be considered as sane. With the exemption of headaches from which she suffers occasionally her bodily health is good, but the recurrence from time to time of headaches indicates that the patient might not improbably relapse if subjected to anxiety or trouble’.
In 1877 some of Ann’s friends asked if it was possible to petition again for her release, and the following year, her husband petitioned once more for her early release. Broadmoor responded.
Ann Nicholls has not, to my knowledge, shown any sign of mental aberration or depression during that time in an equitable and even cheerful frame of mind, and at work in the laundry. She is sane and appears to have been so for several years, and I believe that, under ordinary circumstances, she might without insurmountable risk, be discharged to the care of her husband who is prepared and anxious for her to share the comforts of his home in America (Pittsburg). No doubt, if she again became pregnant and had children (being 38 years of age) there would be risk of relapse (more or less temporary) into insanity so that at such periods, special care and attention would have to be exercised.
This time the appeal was successful and she was discharged in the spring of 1878. She then sailed across the Atlantic on the steamship Greece to join her husband in New York.
Shortly after they were reunited, her husband sent a letter back to Broadmoor thanking them for their kindness and care. The family home was now 33 Penn St, in Pittsburgh.
Rest assured that I shall faithfully observe and carry out the conditions upon which she was released for my own comfort and duty will ever prompt me that way. She is now in the best of health and it will be my greatest earthly aim to keep her so. The faithfulness with which I have held to my wife during so long and trying a period will be I hope a sufficient proof to you to give you sincerity of my intentions. With a sincere prayer for the welfare of yourself and yours.
The 1880 US Federal Census showed that she was still living in Pittsburgh with husband and children, and with their newly born son, Ferdinand. They seem then to have moved to Ohio sometime after 1885. The Nicholls joined many other families who were moving westwards during this time, as new economic opportunities opened up. Ann appears to have died sometime between 1900 and 1910 (she appears in the 1900 US Federal Census but not the 1910 Census), and her widowed husband who had stood by her all those years continued to work as a night-watchman, living in rented accommodation with his daughter and grandchildren, until he died.
So, despite committing one of the most serious crimes, and suffering from post-natal depression, and also, let us not forget, coping with living in a secure institution for a number of years, Ann was able to remake her life in a new country. With the support of Broadmoor, and of her very supportive husband, she was able to have more children, and enjoy family life in Pittsburgh and Ohio long after she had walked through Broadmoor’s gates.