Sarah Polgrean - for the Petty Treason murder of her husband.

Sarah Treman had been born into a poor family in the parish of Gulval in 1783 and received no education, being unable to read or write. She moved from Cornwall to London where she worked as a prostitute and married a soldier there. Her father died in an accident in London and her mother left her when she was aged just four months old in the charge of the Parish. She had bigamously married Henry at Ludgvan on the 9th of November 1811.

37 year old Sarah Polgrean who lived at Crowlas in the Parish of Ludgvan near Penzance was convicted of causing the death of her husband Henry Polgrean by poisoning him with arsenic she had mixed into butter on the 15th of July. Henry succumbed three days later on the 18th of July 1820. Henry’s body was buried in the 20th of July, but the authorities became suspicious and it was exhumed on the 30th of July. Two local doctors, father and son Richard Moyle snr. and Richard Moyle jnr. examined the stomach, the lining of which was inflamed. They found some white crystals which tested positive for arsenic. The police were informed and investigation revealed that Sarah had bought arsenic from John Harvey, a druggist in Penzance prior to the murder, on the pretext of killing rats. No rat holes were found in the home and there was no evidence of infestation.

Sarah was tried at the Cornwall Assizes which opened on Monday the 7th of August 1820 and finished on Thursday the 10th of August. Elizabeth Martin testified that she had known the Polgreans for six years and that she had heard Sarah say “she would be damned if she did not poison the damned villain”. The day after Henry’s burial, Elizabeth said to Sarah she supposed that she would marry again. Sarah replied that if she did marry she would marry for love for she had not loved the deceased more that she had loved a dog.

The Drs. Moyle presented their evidence of the poisoning and several other local people testified for the prosecution. The jury quickly returned a guilty verdict.

She was sentenced, as was usual, at the end of the Assize and her execution was ordered to take place two days later, under the provisions of the Murder Act of 1751. Sarah had to supported in the dock and fainted as sentence of death was pronounced on her. As the crime was petty treason, rather than murder, she had to be drawn to the gallows on a hurdle. She was returned to Bodmin Gaol in a “state of insensitivity”.

At about 12.30 on Saturday the 12th of August 1820 the doors of Bodmin Gaol opened and Sarah emerged and got onto the hurdle. She was then conveyed thus to the New Drop style gallows in front of the Gaol, with the unnamed hangman driving the horse. She managed to climb the steps of the scaffold unaided, she knelt on the platform and prayed with the chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Fayrer. She then stood up and sang the hymn, “Come et us anew our journey pursue”

At the request of the chaplain she then said the Lord’s Prayer out loud. She confessed her guilt and solemnly declared that “her husband’s well founded jealousy and her aversion to him were the inducements for committing the crime”.

The hangman made the usual preparations and she gave the signal to be “launched into eternity”, reportedly dying without a struggle. After hanging for an hour the body was taken down and moved to a nearby building where it was dissected by Drs. Walde, Hamley and Phillips. Her heart was removed and preserved.
A broadside was printed about the case, as was usual at this time.

It is claimed that Sarah haunts the churchyard at Ludgvan wearing a white shroud with a faint trace of the noose. Here is how an artist imagined her.

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