The wagging tongue of Matilda Bradshaw. Four of the “Rugeley Tragedies.”
The fourth child of William and Annie Palmer, John, died. Mrs. Matilda Bradshaw, their cleaning lady, ran in to the Bell public house next door swearing that she would never go into Palmer’s house again and that he’d ‘done away’ with another child. When she was asked how he’d done it she said that she had been upstairs with baby John when Palmer had come in and said that he would look after his son. She said she had gone down stairs when she suddenly heard Baby John screaming. After rushing upstairs she found the baby dead.
She maintained that Palmer poisoned his children because he was heard to say that a growing family was too expensive for his slender purse and that he couldn’t altogether blame providence for his children’s deaths. Mrs. Bradshaw said he murdered them by dipping his finger in poison and then in honey and would make them suck his finger. She was asked if she had ever seen him do it and replied, “No, but I know it in my heart to be true”.
What their Death Certificates stated:-
| No | When and where died |
Name and surname | Sex | Age | Occupation | Cause of Death | Signature, description & residence of informant | When registered | Signature of registrar |
| 211 | Sixth January 1851 |
Elizabeth Palmer |
Girl | 10 weeks | Daughter of William Palmer Surgeon |
Convulsions 2 days Certified |
Matilda Bradshaw present at the death Little Haywood |
Eighth January 1851 |
Frederick Crabb Registrar |
| 342 | Sixth January 1852 |
Henry Palmer |
Male | 1 month | Son of William Palmer Surgeon |
Convulsions 2 days Certified |
X the mark of Matilda Bradshaw present at the death Little Haywood |
Eighth January 1852 |
Frederick Crabb Registrar |
| 471 | Nineteenth December 1852 Market Street Rugeley |
Frank Palmer |
Boy | 7 hours | Son of William Palmer Surgeon |
Convulsions 7 hours Certified |
Wm Palmer present at the death Market street Rugeley |
Twenty first December 1852 |
Frederick Crabb Registrar |
| 169 | Twenty seventh January 1854 Market Street Rugeley |
John | Male | 4 days | Son of William Palmer Surgeon |
Convulsions 2 days Certified | Wm Palmer present at the death Market street Rugeley |
Twenty eighth January 1854 |
Frederick Crabb Registrar |
An Alternative Explanation?
Kathleen Smith in her dissertation “Sinner, Saint or Political Pawn” suggested an alternative explanation for the four children dying in infancy and the subsequent death of their mother:-
“William had appeared a devoted husband and father and a devout churchgoer, were these deaths suspicious as rumoured? It was not uncommon for children to die in infancy at this time without speculation, it is also possible that William could have had RH Positive blood and Anne have RH Negative blood in which case the first born child would live while further pregnancies would be affected by blood poisoning in the womb*1 and after a fifth pregnancy the mother could die. Elizabeth Hamilton*2 in her book about the Mordaunt Family of Warwickshire mentions that the butler Tomlinson had five children who died at under a year old (c.1844). No one seems to have suspected foul play in this case so why in the case of William Palmer?”
*1By May 1968 all RH Negative women were injected with Anti D after giving birth to prevent this.
*2 Life on a Country Estate in the mid-nineteenth century, pub The Dugdale Society 1991.