Samuel Yarham

Samuel Yarham was convicted of the murder of Harriet Candler who he was said to have beaten to death with a hammer in her home on 18 November 1844.

Harriet Candler kept a chandler's shop and had recently received a legacy of £150 of which she made no secret of.

Initially four men were arrested in relation to the crime including Samuel Yarham based on circumstantial evidence. However, Samuel Yarham had a room upstairs where he lived as a lodger with his wife who was a servant to an attorney who had the upper part of Harriet Candler’s house, said that he was woken up by a noise in the shop and when he went to investigate that he saw two of the men there and the third standing a short distance away. He said that they offered him some of the spoil and threatened him with vengeance if he betrayed them. He said that when he saw the three men coming out of Harriet Candler's house that they told him that they had killed Harriet Candler and that he then went in to look and then went back to his room. He said he was so scared of the threat that he said nothing of the murder until he was arrested for it.

Samuel Yarham initially stood as a witness in the trial of the three men who were charged with the murder. However Samuel Yarham's testimony was thrown out and the three men were acquitted.