20

‘The devil overcame me’

Bolton, Lancashire, 1893

While most children were eagerly anticipating Christmas 1893, the family of thirty-eight-year-old James McDerby of Bolton had few festive treats to look forward to. James had been married to his wife Margaret for about twelve years, and the marriage had produced six children. However, the couple had lived unhappily together for some time and frequently argued and fought, mainly on account of Margaret’s addiction to drink.

On the evening of 23 December, James came home from his job to find that there was no fire in the grate and not a morsel of food in the house. Having given his wife money for coal and groceries only that morning, James was understandably furious and remonstrated angrily with Margaret, who seemed totally indifferent to her husband’s ire. Eventually, James grew so exasperated by Margaret’s attitude that he punched her, knocking her down and, as she lay on the ground, he gave her a single hefty kick in the stomach.

Margaret refused to get up from the floor so James left her lying there and sent his young daughter and son out for a loaf of bread. When the children returned, their mother was lying groaning on the sofa, her lower garments soaked with blood, which was still gushing heavily from her vagina. A ew minutes later, Margaret got to her feet with difficulty and staggered to a neighbour’s house for help but as soon as the door was opened, she fainted and although the neighbour sent for a doctor, Margaret had bled to death before his arrival.

James McDerby was arrested and charged with the wilful murder of his wife. He seemed absolutely distraught by what had happened and readily admitted, ‘Yes, I did kick her. I never kicked her in my life before. I never expected anything of this sort, God knows I did not. I could not hold my temper. The devil overcame me.’

On 27 December, borough coroner Mr R. Taylor opened an inquest on thirty-five-year-old Margaret’s death at the Town Hall in Bolton. The principal witness was eight-year-old Margaret McDerby junior, who appeared at the proceedings dressed in the uniform of the workhouse, where she and her siblings had evidently spent Christmas after the death of their mother and the arrest of their father. Having told the inquest that her father was always very kind and that she had never seen him kick her mother before, Margaret related that he had come home after a day spent posting bills in the freezing rain, cold and soaked to the skin, to find no fire or hot meal waiting for him. When he asked her mother for a clean, dry shirt, he was told that it had been pawned, as had the only blanket in the house.

The inquest was told that James McDerby was a former member of the Royal Irish Constabulary and had been an exemplary officer. However, his wife’s drunken and slovenly behaviour was so scandalous that he was forced to forego promotion and eventually resigned on her account in September 1893. He was allowed a pension from the RIC and, on moving to England, obtained a job as a bill poster and hand bill distributor, the wages from which, in ddition to his pension, should have allowed the family to live relatively comfortably. Yet, the dead woman’s children told the coroner that, when she had spent every penny of their father’s earnings, their mother often pawned the bed linen or their clothing so that she could afford to satisfy her seemingly insatiable cravings for rum and beer.

On 23 December, she had been blind drunk for four whole days, while her home was in a disgusting state and her children were hungry, dirty and inadequately dressed against the cold weather. Earlier in 1893, she was brought before magistrates charged with neglect and was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment with hard labour and now solicitor Mr M. Fielding, who attended the inquest on James’s behalf, told the coroner, ‘Her drunken and filthy habits have dragged her husband down in life and made existence for him and the six children utterly miserable.’

At the termination of the inquest, the jury had heard enough about Margaret McDerby’s dissolute lifestyle to make them extremely sympathetic towards her husband.

‘I should let him off altogether,’ one juror commented, to the horror of the coroner, who protested that, even if done in the heat of passion, the fatal kick that McDerby had given his wife was unlawful. Mr Taylor told his jury that whereas he agreed that McDerby had a very bad wife and had no doubt kicked her under the most extreme provocation, a human life had still been forfeited. Even though there was no evidence to suggest that there was any wilful malice aforethought, or any intention to take Margaret McDerby’s life, the jury could hardly avoid returning a verdict of manslaughter against her husband.

‘Can we not qualify it?’ asked another juror.

‘How can you?’ answered the coroner. ‘He admits that he kicked her. The kick was illegal and it caused her death.’

A third juror offered his views. ‘My opinion is that the man did right,’ he argued, saying that his verdict would be one of justifiable homicide.

‘You cannot say that it was justifiable homicide. I should advise you to return a verdict of manslaughter and leave the rest to be dealt with hereafter,’ said the coroner.

‘We might add that he did it under extreme provocation,’ chipped in another juror.

‘Put it as light as you can,’ another suggested. ‘Can you not say that it was accidental?’

‘Have I not already said that it was an illegal blow?’ asked the coroner, in exasperation.

‘The blow was given in self-defence,’ the juror persisted.

‘But the deceased was doing nothing physical to provoke her husband and it is illegal to use the foot at all,’ insisted the coroner.

Eventually, after a prolonged debate between them and the coroner, the jury unanimously agreed to follow his recommendation and returned a verdict of manslaughter against James McDerby. However, they insisted on the addition of a rider to their verdict, stating that they believed that he was under extreme provocation at the time.

McDerby was taken before magistrates at the Bolton Police Court charged with the wilful murder of his wife but was allowed out on bail to await his trial at the Manchester Assizes, where he appeared before Mr Justice Charles on 22 February 1894. By an agreement with the counsel for the prosecution, McDerby pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and his defence counsel Mr McKeand urged the judge to treat his client as leniently as possible, claiming that Mrs McDerby had made life ‘a perfect hell on earth’ for her husband and children. When McDerby was invited to speak, he told the judge that no earthly punishment the law could inflict could ever be equal to the remorse he felt at having caused the death of his wife. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, with hard labour.