Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in & Around Southend-On-Sea by Dee Gordon

Author:Dee Gordon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783408443
Publisher: Wharncliffe
Published: 2013-05-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

The Wife Beater

William Wilkes, a stockman from Canewdon, was incarcerated in Chelmsford prison for over four months in 1898 before his trial started on 1 July. His demeanour had evidently not deteriorated as a result of this experience, and he was compared favourably in the Southend Standard with the clear-headed, hawk-eyed representatives of the law in the shape of the judge, Mr Justice Hawkins, the prosecutor, Mr Grubbe, and the defence counsel, Mr Ogle. The Assize Court at Shire Hall was described as ‘close, ill-ventilated’ and ‘full of pigeon holes’, but this did not seem to deter the crowds. Wilkes was charged with ‘Feloniously, wilfully and of his malice aforethought, killing and murdering Ann Wilkes at Canewdon on the 30 January’. In a loud voice he pleaded not guilty.

Mr Grubbe quietly opened the proceedings, explaining that Wilkes lived at Pudsey Hall, Canewdon, a lonely, ‘sequestered’ spot with no near neighbours. The household consisted of the prisoner, his wife, two sons, and a lodger named William Cole, who worked with the prisoner. The prosecutor also made reference to the fact that Mrs Wilkes led an unhappy life with her husband. He had been known on previous occasions to have threatened her, struck her and kicked her.

Moving on to the case in hand, Mr Grubbe spoke of an evening a few days before the alleged attack on Mrs Wilkes when Cole and the younger son Ernest witnessed a quarrel between the couple over tobacco. This quarrel ended with Wilkes kicking his wife. Another quarrel broke out a few days later because Wilkes, instead of handing over Cole’s 15 shillings wages as usual, handed over only 7 shillings, keeping for himself the remaining 8 shillings which Cole normally paid to Mrs Wilkes for board and lodging. Similarly, he handed his son Ernest 2 shillings and refused to pay his wife the remaining 2 shillings that boy would usually hand over in housekeeping. Feelings ran so high on this occasion in the household that Cole slept away from home that night. This argument certainly seemed to be a factor in what followed the next day, Sunday 30 January.

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