Childhood and Death in Victorian England by Sarah Seaton

Author:Sarah Seaton [Seaton, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473877023
Google: 7AV9AQAACAAJ
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Published: 2017-11-15T23:52:33.911747+00:00

On New Year’s Day in 1848, Harriet Parker, described as a repulsive, downcast looking woman, aged between 30 and 40, sat in the dock at a packed Clerkenwell Court charged with the wilful murders of Armenia Blake, aged six, and Robert Blake, aged four, at their home at 3 Cupid Court, St Luke’s. She had been allowed to sit due to her weakly state and was described in The Morning Chronicle newspaper as ‘labouring under severe remorse and compunction of mind.’ The inquest was held at the Duke of Bedford public house on the same day. The trial continued over a few weeks.

Mrs Jane Moore who lived nearby at 9 Cupids Court testified that she and her husband had been woken up at about 4.00 am one morning by an agitated Harriet who was knocking loudly at their door. Mrs Moore had let her in to the parlour where she had allegedly said: ‘Oh Mrs Moore, I have done it!’. Mrs Moore asked Harriet what she had done, and she told her that she had gone out with her boyfriend Robert Blake (senior) the previous night intending to go and watch a play with him. Whilst out, he met up with a ‘strumpet’ and had gone off with her, so she returned home and murdered his two children. Harriet agreed to hand herself in to the police so Mr Moore sent for a policeman named George Fowler. Harriet ran up to him, and at first, she would not tell him why she wanted to hand herself in. Eventually she admitted murdering the two children, saying: ‘It was my intention to do this nine months ago and I have done it now to my sorrow; but I knew what I was about.’

In court, Mary Matthews was called to the stand and although no occupation was given she described Harriet Parker as her mistress, so it may be assumed that she was a servant at the Blake household. Mary described how the police entered the house by the parlour window where they found the two bodies of Armenia and Robert, dressed in their shifts and stockings with scratches around their throats. They were still warm and lying on an upturned bedstead. Mr Francis Wright, a surgeon, had been called to attend; and he concluded that due to the marks around their throats, the children were strangled and had only been dead for an hour. Armenia was lying at the foot of the bed near the wainscot and the way that she was positioned, indicated that she must have put up a struggle; there was evidence that a pillow was placed over her face to suffocate her and there was a three inch scratch on her neck. Robert was lying at the head of the bed and the state of the bedclothes suggested that he too must have put up a fight.

At the inquest, Jeremiah Donoghue, a bricklayer’s labourer who lived at 9 Cupid’s Court, testified that he heard a girl’s voice shout, ‘murder’ between the hours of 1.

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