The murder of Charlotte Pugsley in the Leigh Woods,Bristol, by John William Beale, in the summer of 1837, will probably live in the recollection of many Bristol people of that time. There were several circumstance connected with this tragedy which are worth recording, and which have not yet, that I am aware, been published.
Some days elapsed before the body of the poor girl was identified. The body was discovered on a Saturday evening, and the murder was in all probability committed on the previous Thursday. The weather was intensely hot, and the police refused to allow a photograph to be taken till the body had been viewed by the Coroner and jury. This did not take place till the following Monday, and by that time decomposition had set in, so that the photographs then taken were more likely to mislead than to assist in the identification of the deceased.
Now it happened that on the Thursday a woman dressed very similarly to Charlotte Pugsley went to a beerhouse in the Hotwell road, in company with a sailor with whom she informed the landlady they had travelled from Hull. and she stated that she was later going on to Appledore in Devon to meet her husband. who was the mate of a vessel expected to arrive at that port.
The landlady had relations at Appledore, to whom she recommended the sailors wife as persons who would provide her with comfortable lodgings.
The woman said she was going over to the Leigh Woods, and would call on her way back for the address of the Appledore people. She left with her companion. but never returned, as promised. The landlady was one of the hundreds who viewed the body of Charlotte Pugsley, and she expressed a belief that it was the body of the woman who had called at her public house with a sailor the previous week, and who had left with him with the avowed intention of going to the Leigh Woods.
The police were therefore on the look-out for a man answering the description of the sailor and the newspapers gave publicity to the landlady’s narrative. About this time the expected vessel arrived at Appledore, and the mate, like everyone else, read in the public prints the details given respecting the Leigh Woods murder. It would seem that he was not particularly pleased with the part played by his wife, as that good lady made an application for advice on the subject to a police inspector at Appledore.
He was a bit of a wag in his way, for, in writing about the affair to a brother officer in the Bristol force, he said he had done all he could for the poor woman, having told her to persuade her husband and that the story that had appeared in the papers about her travelling from Hull and going to the Leigh Woods with another sailor as a pack of lies and to, him to believe it -if she could.
About this time there was a little misunderstanding between the Coroner before whom the inquiry as to the death of Charlotte Pugsley came and the chief of police for the county of Somerset.
The Coroner was a warm-hearted generous man, but his orthography was defective. So, in taking down the evidence of witnesses, if a word was used about the spelling of which he was in doubt he would substitute a synonymous term respecting which he was more positive.
On this occasion, the surgeon who made the post-mortem examination, in describing the wound in the throat, said the edges of the wound had the appearance of having been gnawed away by some small animal, such as a weasel or a rat. For the word “gnawed” the Coroner substituted the word “eaten”.
The chief constable, who was sitting by, watching the depositions as they were written, said, “Mr. Coroner, you had better take down the precise words of the witness. The expression made use of was not eaten,’ but ‘ gnawed.’
“Yes”, said the Coroner good-humorously, “I know it was, but how do you spell “gnawed?”.
At another inquest held by the same Coroner in a poisoning case at Clapton, Mr. Herapath, the well known analytical chemist, was a witness. That gentleman was a little pompous in his way, and addressing the Coroner, he said. “I am a magistrate, and understand the nature of evidence. I will dictate m deposition to you.” Accordingly, he began, “William Herapath, of the city of Bristol, analytical chemist” – (the Corner looked aghast, but went on) – “and professor of toxicology.” Here the unfortunate Coroner changed his pen, and looked imploringly at the reporters. Mr. Herapath, probably perceiving the dilemma, deliberately spelt the formidable word, “ t-o-i-c-o-l-o-g-y “, and then proceeded with his deposition, from which he evidently studied to exclude all terms that might give further trouble to the worthy Coroner.
This, however, is a little digression from the story of the Leigh Woods murder. As usual in such Cases, a reward was offered by the Home Secretary of the day to any person or persons who should give such information as would lead to the apprehension and conviction of the murderer.
From information they received the Bath police were the first to get upon the right scent, and on a given evening Inspector Norris started for London on his way to Daventry in search of Beale. The same train conveyed a parcel to The Times containing some further particulars respecting the murder, and a description of the supposed murderer.
Inspector Norris stayed in London for the night and started out for Daventry by the first train on the following morning. Having purchased a copy of The Times, the Inspector was astonished to find that it contained an account of the person of whom he was in quest, and he came alarmed, not so much at the possibility of Beal’s escape, as at the chance of The Times report being telegraphed to Daventry and the criminal being apprehended before he arrived.
The fears, however, groundless. Mr. Inspector Norris arrived in due course at Daventry, and effected his capture. A vast crowd had assembled at the Temple Meads railway terminus, Bristol, to await the arrival of the train which it became known was conveying Beale from Daventry to Bourton. As the train steamed slowly into the station, a number of men sprang upon the carriages and climbed on to their roofs. At last the prisoner emerged in custody of Mr. Inspector Norris.
The mob made a desperate rush at the criminal, and it required the utmost exertion of a strong posse of the Bristol police to prevent his being lynched upon the spot. With a good deal of trouble Beale was at length lodged in a cab, the driver of which had instructions to proceed at as rapid a pace as possible to the petty sessions courthouse of the Somersetshire magistrate's at Bourton. Another cab, containing the representatives of the press, followed. For a considerable distance both vehicles were pursued by the lynch mob, but their numbers gradually diminished, though the running was taken up by others.
When we had got about half way towards our destination, a little practical joke was extemporised by the reporters. Among the number was one who was then attached to the staff of the Bristol Mirror, and who has since acquired fame in literary circles. In stature he was about the size as Beale, but there, it is hardly necessary to add, all resemblance between the two ended. He, therefore, was pointed out by some of his stenographic brethren to persons who rushed to get a view of the occupants of the cabs as the perpetrator of the Leigh Woods murder and,falling in with the humour of the joke, he acted his part to perfection.
Crouching back in his seat he put on a terrified air, and so well did he preserve his assumed character that at length it was obliged to be dropped, and we were forced to confess ourselves to be 'only reporters', in order to avoid some demonstrations on the part of the pursuers, which threatened to be more forcible than agreeable.
Although my friend has since been 'With a Show in the North', of which he has given the world an account in one of his delightful little books, and although he was then the companion of the most genial humorist of the day.
When we arrived at Bourton, Beale was fully committed for trail by the magistrates, and was afterwards tried and convicted at the Somerset winter assize held in December, 1857.
The execution took place the following month.
