William Wilkes

William Wilkes was convicted of the murder of his wife 48-year-old Ann Wilkes and sentenced to death. They had a row and he kicked her to death on Sunday 30 January 1898. He claimed she had been kicked to death by a horse, but it was heard that there had been no horse within a mile of the scene. William Wilkes had been a stockman and they had lived together at Pudsey Hall to the north west of Canewdon in a lonely and sequestered spot with no near neighbours along with their two sons and a lodger. xxx1xxx They had married when William Wilkes was 18-year-old and Ann Wilkes had been 10 years his senior. He was said to have treated Ann Wilkes with violence on several occasion and upon the smallest provocation. On Thursday 27 January 1898 hey had a quarrel over some tobacco that Ann Wilkes had bought for him, it being thought that he had been dissatisfied with fact that it had not been made up into half-ounce packets. As well as telling her that he was dissatisfied, he kicked her on the thigh. On 29 January 1898 William Wilkes didn't pay Ann Wilkes the money he usually paid her. Instead he paid the lodger 7s, but kept the other 8s that he usually gave to her for the lodgers board and accommodation. He also failed to pay her 2s out of the 4s that one of their sons gave him that same day. They had words about it and the quarrel became so heated that the lodger actually slept away from the house that night. The next day, Sunday, the family assembled between 3.30pm and 4pm and after dinner the sons and the lodger went out to their various occupations among the sheep and cattle. However, they later heard screams coming from the lane near the house and Ann Wilkes was seen with a shawl about her head as though fleeing for protection with William Wilkes chasing her. The prosecution said that he then caught her and felled her with a blow from his fist, causing her to fall to the ground and that he then kicked her and when she got up again he kicked her again. That was said to happen a number of times and when Ann Wilkes was unable to get up any more, he kicked her another five or six times in quick succession with his heavy hobnailed boots. Ann Wilkes then fell into a ditch and William Wilkes picked her up and then struck her behind the head and threw her down and then kicked her again after which he dragged her into the house, which was about 90 yards away. The whole tragedy was witnessed by their 13-year-old son who afterwards went off to look after his sheep. However, when he returned home he found Ann Wilkes to be dead. xxx2xxx The lodger said that he had been in the horse yard feeding his horses when he heard Ann Wilkes scream. He said that he ran out and saw William Wilkes attacking Ann Wilkes and told him that he ought to be ashamed of himself, whereupon William Wilkes 'came for him'. He said that he then ran off to tell William Wilkes other son, aged about 20, who had been in the next meadow. He said that when he got there that they heard another scream and they both went back across the mead and the son halloaed at William Wilkes, but stopped at the hedge because he knew of William Wilkes's temper. However, they heard nothing more and went back to tend to the cows, but after a while the little boy came and told them that Ann Wilkes was dead and they went for the police. When the police constable arrived he looked in through the window and saw Ann Wilkes lying dead and then got in through the back door and upon touching Ann Wilkes, found that she was quite cold. When William Wilkes was arrested in the front garden, he said: xxxqxxx I can't see where I have caused my wife's death. xxxqxxx He then suggested that she might have had a fit as he had seen her like that before. However, when they searched the lane were the boy said he had seen William Wilkes attacking Ann Wilkes, they found a skirt that Ann Wilkes had been wearing, but with the pocket missing, which was found soon after in the pocket of a light coat that William Wilkes had been wearing at the time of the assault, which he had afterwards taken off and left on a chair in the room where Ann Wilkes was found dead. A doctor that examined Ann Wilkes's body said that her cheek-bone was broken, the ridge of her nose and the bone behind were smashed, that her collarbone was fractured, as was one of her ribs and that her spleen was also burst. The doctor said that her injuries were such as might have been inflicted by kicks, and were sufficient to have caused death. Following his conviction, when the sentence of death was passed on him, the following exchange took place: William Wilkes: I did not kick my wife, sir! Judge: You have said so. William Wilkes: No, sir, I didn't kick her. Judge: I cannot say that I can give credence to what you say. The jury have taken your case into their serious consideration, and so have I, so have your learned counsel. You have been found guilty of the crime of wilful murder, and nobody can say that the jury have not had abundance of evidence before them to justify that verdict. By the laws of this country a man who is guilty of the crime of murder forfeits his life. The judge who tries you has no other duty to perform than to sentence him to die. I have no duty cast upon me other than to obey the law. William Wilkes: My wife was alive on the couch! Judge: Although I have only one duty to perform, you ought to be reminded that in slaughtering your poor wife as you did with this brutality you have grievously offended against the laws of Almighty God, and I do pray you, during the few days which remain to you of life, that you seek pardon from Him, who alone can grant it to you. I have only to pronounce upon you the sentenced awarded, and justly awarded, you by the laws of this country to expiate the offence, the crime that you have committed against society, against your fellow creatures. The sentence of the court upon you is that you be taken from hence to the prison wherein you were last confined and that you be there hanged by the neck until you be dead, and that your body be buried within the precincts of the prison in which you shall have been last confined after your conviction. And may the Lord have mercy upon your soul. Sheriff: Amen! It was said that when William Wilkes was about to be hung that he asked a warder whether it would hurt, but that by the time the warder had a chance to reply, the executioner pushed the lever releasing the trap, killing him. 19/07/1898 William Wilkes Essex Chelmsford Wife murder Wilkes’s last words were “Will it hurt me?” The warder to whom he directed the enquiry never had chance to reply. James Billington pushed the lever and the trap opened. Wilkes had been found guilty of the murder of his wife. The couple had quarrelled and the 47-year-old shepherd from Canewdon, Essex, had kicked her to death. Wilkes was executed at Chelmsford on 19th July 1898.