Mary Morgan - for the murder of her “bastard child”.

Mary was a sixteen year old kitchen maid at the imposing Maesllwch Castle (photo) near Glasbury, the home of Walter Wilkins Esq., Member of Parliament for the county of Radnorshire (now part of Powys in Wales). She had become pregnant but had tried to conceal the pregnancy to keep her job and stay on in the servant’s quarters in the castle.

On Sunday the 23rd of September 1804 she complained of feeling unwell and went up to bed. The housekeeper took some warm wine up to her room and she was visited in the evening by Elizabeth Evelyn, the cook, who accused Mary of having given birth to a baby. Mary initially denied this but later admitted that he she had indeed given birth to a female baby and that she had killed it immediately, by stabbing it in the neck with the penknife she used in the kitchen, nearly decapitating the infant. According to the evidence given by Elizabeth Evelyn, Mary Morgan "owned that she had delivered herself of a child which was in the underbed cut open, amongst the feathers with the head nearly divided from the body supposed by a penknife which was found by the witness under the pillows of the same bed".

An inquest was held two days later and the jury returned a verdict of murder against Mary, declaring that : "Mary Morgan, late of the Parish of Glazebury, a single woman on the 23rd day of September being big with child, afterward alone and secretly from her body did bring forth alive a female child, which by the laws and customs of this Kingdom was a bastard. Mary Morgan moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil afterwards on the same day, feloniously, willfully and of her malice aforethought did make an assault with a certain penknife made of iron and steel of the value of sixpence, and gave the child one mortal wound of the length of three inches and the depth of one inch. The child instantly died."

Mary was therefore placed under arrest but was not well enough to be taken to Presteigne for trial until the 6th of October.

She thus remained in prison until the following April when she was arraigned at the Lent Great Sessions for Radnorshire, before Judge George Hardinge. Her trial took place on the 11th of April 1805 and she stated that “I determined, therefore, to kill it, poor thing! Out of the way, being perfectly sure that I could not provide for it myself.” She was convicted and received the death sentence which under the terms of the Murder Act of 1751 was to be carried out two days later, with her body to be handed over to the surgeons for dissection. She was returned to Presteigne Gaol to await execution, but a plot to spring her from the gaol on the Friday night was discovered and she was moved into a more secure cell. She was visited frequently by The Rev. Mr. Scott, Mr. Davies the Under Sheriff of Radnorshire and a Mr. John Brown. Prior to her execution she made a full confession and stated that the father of the baby was a fellow servant who worked as the waggoner at the castle.

It was quite normal at this time for executions to take place at a later time of the day then became the custom later, so as to give local people the opportunity to get to the execution site. Mary was hanged at Gallows Lane in Presteigne on Saturday, the 13th of April at around midday, having been conveyed from the Gaol in a horse drawn cart seated on her coffin. It was reported that the terrified girl was barely conscious when she arrived at the gallows and had to be supported during the preparations. It is probable that she was hanged from the back of the cart rather than on the “New Drop” style of gallows which was slowly coming into vogue at this time. Her body was buried in unconsecrated ground in St Andrew’s churchyard in Presteigne later that afternoon and was for whatever reason not sent for dissection as directed.

Mary’s case was one that attracted the conspiracy theorists of the day. It has been claimed that a gentleman who attended Mary’s trial immediately set off to London to seek a reprieve for her, but failed to get back in time to save her, due to his horse going lame. This is highly unlikely, as one could not ride to London and back on a single horse in two days in 1805. It is about 160 miles each way, going via Hereford, Gloucester and Oxford and the roads were poor in 1805.
George Hardinge wrote that Walter Wilkins Jnr., Mary’s “young master” “was intrigued with her”, implying a sexual relationship, but that he was not the father of her child. However it was still claimed that the father of Mary's daughter was Walter Wilkins, the son of her employer or alternatively that he was one of the men on the jury that convicted her. However there is little evidence to support either theory and Mary’s claim that it was the waggoner is far more likely.

Two grave stones were erected in Mary’s memory in St. Andrew’s parish churchyard in Presteigne. One by a friend of Judge Hardinge, Thomas Brudenell Bruce, Earl of Ailsbury and another by an anonymous donor. Photos here and here.

Comment.

Although to kill her baby in the way she did might strike most of us horrible, it is difficult to understand in this day and age the social and economic pressures Mary faced at the time. Had the pregnancy been discovered she would have almost certainly lost her job and with it her place to live and meagre income. There was no social security then and she could only hope for handouts to live on until she could find some alternative employment. Not easy with a baby to bring up and with the social stigma of being an unmarried mother which was a very real one two hundred years ago.

Between 1800 and 1827 14 women were hanged for the murder of their bastard child. The last of these was Sarah Jones at Monmouth on the 11th of April 1827. Unless it could be shown, as in this case, that the baby’s death was obviously caused by murder, it was not unusual for juries to find the mother guilty only of concealment of the birth, which carried a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Only one other person was to hang at Presteigne, he was Samuel Harley for the murder of Arthur Bedward in 1822. Presteigne Gaol was closed in 1878.

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