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Murder most foul
THE CASE OF WILLIAM ALCOCK
Who first abandoned, and then murdered, his wife.
Executed at Northampton, March 9, 1733.
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The reporting of local
news began in the early 18th century and the first to publish such items
was the Stamford Mercury which claims to be Britain's oldest
newspaper. The murder of a Bourne woman in 1732 was among them and this
account is reproduced from The Newgate Calendar with original
extracts from the Stamford Mercury which also carried the
story. |
This unnatural and cruel man was
an inhabitant of the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire. He had been married only
two years, when he left his wife, who was afflicted with the palsy, giving out
that the cause of absence was in consequence of having found her in bed with
another man. He travelled to Colchester, married again, and set up his
business, that of a miller, in which he was successful. He employed a man of
the name of Peck as his assistant but upon some words arising between them,
Alcock discharged him, without suffering him to complete the job he had in
hand. Peck replied: "I'll do as good a job for you; for I have heard you have
a wife in Lincolnshire, and I'll travel the kingdom over till I find her and
send her to you."
Upon this he instantly set out, and bent his course in order to fulfil his
threat. He enquired at every town he came to in Lincolnshire, until he
actually found Mrs Alcock. In effecting this, he spent nearly two years and to
defray his expenses, he occasionally stopped for a few days to work and when
his wages were expended in his travels, he worked again, thus persevering
until he had accomplished his determined purpose. The Overseers of the Poor,
the parish officers at Bourne, who had the maintenance of the deserted woman
to provide, received Peck's information and despatched two of the parishioners
to Colchester with whom Alcock entered into a compromise on the following
conditions: to pay down £20 and within a month, £30 more, and to fetch away
his wife from Bourne.
He accordingly arrived there on the 22nd August 1732 on a good horse and a new
pillion for his wife to ride on behind him. He however, tried every means to
induce the officers to keep her, offering a yearly sum sufficient for that
purpose, and observed that "she was so disagreeable to him, that he would
rather be hanged than take her again."
Finding his offers all rejected, he set off with her on the 24th and on the
next day, the body of the unfortunate woman was discovered in a ditch under a
willow tree, near Pilsgate, in the parish of Barnack, in Northamptonshire, and
about eight miles from Bourne. It appeared that she had been strangled with a
short cord which but just met about her neck and the pillion was found a
little distance from her body. The murderer immediately proceeded to
Colchester and on the 28th was apprehended by officers from Bourne, and the
next day fully committed to gaol.
Alcock was tried
and convicted of the murder and sentenced to be hanged and the execution took
place at Northampton on 9th March 1733, amid the groans and detestation of
many thousands of spectators.
Though convicted on the clearest
evidence, yet this obdurate man, even to the last moment of his existence,
denied the justice of his sentence; and his behaviour, daring the short
interval allowed prisoners to make their peace with God, evinced the most
shocking depravity. He constantly refused the consolations of devotion, and
paid no attention to the warnings of a clergyman, who at length desisted from
farther exhortations, On the morning of his execution, he drank to
intoxication; yet, on coming out of the prison, he sent for a pint of wine;
which being refused him by the sheriff, he would not get into the cart which
waited to convey him to execution, until the money given for that purpose was
returned to him.
On the
road to the gallows he sung part of the old song of Robin Hood, adding to each
verse, the chorus of derry down, &c. At intervals he swore, kicked, and
spurned, at any person who touched the cart. When tied up to the fatal tree,
he kicked off his shoes, to avoid a well known proverb; and being told by a
person in the cart with him, and who wished, thus late, to reclaim him, that
he had much better read and repent, than thus vilely swear and sing, he struck
the book out of this humane man's hands, damned the spectators, and called for
wine. During the singing of psalms, and reading of prayers, this monster was
employed in talking and nodding to his acquaintance; telling some to remember
him; others to drink to his good journey; and with his last words, he
inveighed against the injustice of his case.
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FROM THE ARCHIVES |
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Extract from the parish registers at Bourne indicating that William Alcock
(entered as Aucock or Allcock) married Hannah North on 10th May 1713. At this
point in the registers, the entries are very brief and so no details of
occupation are given although he is known to have been working as a miller at
that time.
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NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS
The following relation being full of surprising incidents we have
given it a place in the Mercury, thinking it may be an
entertainment to our readers.
About twenty years ago William Alcock, miller,
wooed and married a wife at Bourne in the county of Lincoln; after he had been
married about two years, his wife was afflicted with a palsy. He went from her
under a pretence had catched her in bed with another person: from that time he
was never heard of till eighteen years after, during which time his wife was
maintained by the parish.
Some time ago, one William Peck, millwright, at
Colchester was at work for the aforesaid Alcock who had lived at Colchester
ever since he had left Bourne but they, disagreeing about his work, and Alcock
deteriorating he should work for him no longer; Peck told him since he would
not let him finish the work, he would therefore do him as good a job, for says
he, I have heard you have a wife in Lincolnshire and I will travel the county
through but I will find her out and send her home to you; accordingly, that
day he picked up his tools and set forward, and travelled in the country while
his money lasted, inquiring in all places through which he passed for this
Alcock's wife; when his money was spent, he then employed himself in his
trade, till he had acquired more, and then he travelled again, went to Boston,
Horncastle, Alford, Spilsby, Louth, Lincoln and most of the great towns in the
county.
From Lincoln he went to Sleaford and there heard
that the woman he had for so long inquired after was at Bourne; from Sleaford
he went to Bourne (having then travelled two years) and finding she was there,
he applied himself to the Overseers of the Poor, acquainting them that William
Alcock, the woman's husband, lived at Colchester in good repute and was a man
in good circumstances, and told his story with such an air of probability that
they soon believed him, and appointed two persons to go to Colchester who took
the Peek (sic) along with them; Alcock was taken up at Colchester by these
messengers with whom he made an agreement to pay the town £50 to the charges
they had been at in maintaining his wife; and accordingly, he gave them £20 in
money, and good security for £30 more, and promised them he would be at Bourne
on the 22nd inst. to take his wife away; he came as he had promised, and would
then have prevailed both with his wife to have stayed there, and the parish to
have let her, offering security for her future maintenance, saying, her
returning won't lessen his business, and she being so disagreeable to him in
her temper (see she had a tongue) that he had rather go to the gallows than
live with her; however, no arguments could prevail with the woman to stay; on
the 24th he set forward with her for Colchester and on the 25th in the morning she was found dead, with a small cord
about her neck, in a ditch under a willow tree, on which it is supposed she
was hanged, near Pilsgate in the parish of Barnack in the county of
Northampton, about eight miles from Bourne. Alcock has not since been heard
of. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Thursday 31st August 1732.
Last week William Alcock, miller, of who we gave to
particular an account in our last Mercury, was apprehended at Colchester and
committed to Chelmsford jail, for the supposed murder of his wife. He was
taken up by two inhabitants of Bourne who went on purpose to Colchester to
find him out; we cannot but observe that as the gentlemen of Bourne were in no
way concerned otherwise than the woman having lived some time with them, the
pains they have taken for the apprehending so execrable a villain, and their
for her designs of bringing him to justice is a worthy instance of the honour
of their tempers. The coroner has set upon the body and the jury has returned
the inquest wilful murder and supposed to be done by William Alcock her
husband. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Thursday 7th September
1732. |
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