Mount Stewart Murder: A Re-Examination of the UK's Oldest Unsolved Murder Case
160
Mount Stewart Murder: A Re-Examination of the UK's Oldest Unsolved Murder Case
160eBook
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780752482170 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 01/31/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
| Age Range: | 12 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Mount Stewart Murder
A Re-Examination of the UK's Oldest Unsolved Murder Case
By Chris Paton
The History Press
Copyright © 2012 Chris PatonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-8217-0
CHAPTER 1
Market Day
Early on the morning of Friday, 30 March 1866, fifty-year-old farmer William Henderson arose from his bed to prepare for the weekly journey to the agricultural market at Perth. He walked groggily towards the simple mahogany washstand in the corner of the room and poured some water from a white china jug into its large ceramic bowl, before lifting handfuls of the liquid to wash away the sleep from his tired eyes.
The big farmer was a typical example of his calling – at five foot eleven inches in height and with a somewhat stout but muscular frame, albeit one now growing increasingly worn with age. Throwing on the same white shirt that he had been wearing for the last week, and a pair of thick, stained corduroy trousers, the lack of a good woman's presence in the house was only too apparent. Still unmarried, despite the constant promptings of his sisters and nieces, Henderson's whole life was centred entirely on his farm; the thought of a bothersome wife getting in the way had never really appealed to him. It was not that he did not like women, of course, and far from it – it was the commitment that deeply disinterested him. Whilst that had led at times to a lonely existence, the daily toils of farm work were more than enough to keep him satisfied in his temperate life.
Fully dressed, the farmer stepped out of his downstairs bedroom into the hallway and opened the large wooden front door into the unkept front garden, carved out from the surrounding fields many years before and surrounded by a low stone wall. Standing at the doorstep of the property, he lifted his gaze to take in the view of the magnificent Ochil Hills which towered over the farm. Amid the chill of the fresh spring air the early morning sun had cast a deep orange light on the huge hills before him, making every ripple in the landscape stand out vibrantly against the cloudless blue sky.
Henderson's home was Mount Stewart Farm, situated within the parish of Forgandenny, at the very end of the beautiful Perthshire valley of Strathearn. Previously known as 'The Fluars' over half a century before, the old and dilapidated two-storey building had recently been renewed to a degree by the farmer, with one half extended and a slate roof added to replace the previous thatch. The house was tucked in snugly behind a small hill facing onto the main road connecting Forgandenny and Dunning, and was further hidden from many neighbouring steadings to the north by a screen of tall trees. To the east was Pitkeathly Wells, famed throughout Scotland for the supposed healing properties of its waters; to the west lay the two farms of North and South Dumbuils. Access to Mount Stewart was only possible by a steep track which hugged the east side of the hill and worked its way down to the road. As a consequence, visitors tended to be few and far between, giving the farmer the illusion at times of living in splendid isolation.
Like so many others in the area, William Henderson was a proud tenant farmer working his land under a nineteen-year lease granted to him by Lord Ruthven of the vast Freeland estate. The Ruthven family was one of two great dynasties which had dominated the area around Forgandenny for several centuries; the other was the Oliphant family. Between them, these two noble families had shaped the local environment, and still controlled much of the parochial economy.
The small village of Forgandenny, less than a mile up the road, had been built by the Ruthven family many years before to accommodate the labourers working on the estate. In the late eighteenth century, the agricultural revolution which had been rapidly transforming the traditional farming practices of lowland Scotland had also come to lower Strathearn. Taking note of the new farming practices to the south of the country and in England, the great estate owners had dissected the lower fertile plains of the parish into a series of much smaller steadings which could then be controlled by an emergent class of tenant farmers with long-term leases. With security of tenure, this encouraged them to be entrepreneurial and to see through any proposed schemes which might increase the yield of their crops. The improvements had been successful and the land now yielded considerably more crops and wealth than in the previous century.
Before becoming a farmer, William Henderson had grown up as a child much further north in Airntully, a small village within the parish of Kinclaven, historically home to a community of handloom weavers. His parents, Andrew Henderson and Janet McEwan, had married in March 1809, and had successfully raised a family of four. Born in 1813, William was the second eldest of the children, with his sister Janet just over two years older than him. By the late 1830s the household had started to see major changes, with the three daughters soon growing up and leaving the fold. In the 1841 census, only an unmarried William was recorded as still being resident at the family home alongside his parents and a couple of farm servants. When his mother had died of heart disease just a couple of years later, both William and his devastated father had reluctantly taken the decision to uproot from their long-established home to seek an opportunity elsewhere.
Mount Stewart was one of several farm leases on the Freeland estate advertised in the Perthshire newspapers throughout March and April of 1845. With its fifty-four acres of arable land and a further ten of pasture, the two Henderson men had found the idea of managing the property to be an attractive proposition. They applied to take over the concern from the term day of Martinmas, on 11 November, and were successful.
From the outset the two men had had much to do. The advertisement had suggested that the land was still capable of much improvement – in reality this had turned out to be a precondition for the acceptance of the tenancy. Two years prior to their arrival a huge drainage project had already been started on the Freeland estate. Long furrows were being dug out of the marshy soil and then filled with drainage tiles, through which excess water could be returned to the water table. This further increased the quality of the soil, and therefore the available acreage for crop growth. The Hendersons had enjoyed such a challenge.
As the land improved, father and son had eagerly set about raising new crops, rotating oats and barley annually with root vegetables such as turnips. Potatoes for the London markets were another important production, having become popular in Strathearn since their introduction to the area at the beginning of the century, where they had originally been grown as a staple food for French prisoners of war held in the nearby city of Perth. On top of this was the raising of livestock, primarily cattle and some pigs. Such a range of work could not be carried out by the two men alone, and so several agricultural labourers were employed seasonally to help work the farm, whilst a domestic servant provided their meals and did the cleaning. For several years, their efforts had generated impressive results, and life had once again become good for the two Henderson men.
And then Andrew had suddenly died. The death of his father in April 1851 from influenza had been a blow that William Henderson had never really recovered from, the shock of it still cutting deep within him. Upon his father's death, he inherited assets valued at over £164, and the lease was reconfirmed solely in his name. Although he would be financially comfortable in the forthcoming years, from that point on the farmer had nobody but himself to rely on at Mount Stewart.
The fresh air having fully awakened him, Henderson now walked through the small garden gate and along a path up the west side of the building towards the rear of the property. Crossing a muddy courtyard, he soon reached the complex of outbuildings which contained the cattle court and cart shed, as well as the stables which housed his three horses. The farmer entered the straw-filled byre inside and checked on the condition of a heavily pregnant cow that was resting in the corner. Although due to give birth at any stage in the next few days, the animal was quite comfortable. Stepping back outside, he passed the empty piggery, and filled a bucket of water from the well to give to the cow, the muscles in his arm and back aching as he turned the handle to bring up the water from the bottom. In days gone by, this would have been one of the labourers' jobs, but times had changed over the last fifteen years.
The strain of the business had greatly taken its toll on Henderson. For the last four months, life had been particularly hard within the Perthshire farming community. The county was currently in the midst of a deadly cattle plague epidemic, a blight that had already ravaged much of Britain following its arrival to her shores in the previous year. The rinderpest plague had first arrived in London in July 1865, its source attributed to the import of cattle to the Islington market from Holland and Belgium. Its timing could not have been worse, with the threatened return of cholera making itself felt in the English capital also, and the cost of meat already at a high premium. Within the first month of its detection, over 2,000 animals had been slaughtered in London to try to prevent the spread of the infection. It was a desperate ploy which failed, with many diseased animals having already made their way across the country in railway trucks and by sea up the coast.
The first case in Scotland had been discovered in the Borders town of Kelso in the first week of August, with some fourteen cattle afflicted. Those that survived were sent back to London, but the plague would not be so easily contained, spreading rapidly across the country. Soon Edinburgh was hit, and then the north of the country. In one case a farmer was reported to have paid £20 for an animal which had shown no signs of the malady; hours later it had died. By the end of 1865, more than 3,000 Scottish farms had been hit, and over 40,000 cattle infected, with most either dying of the plague or being slaughtered to prevent its further spread.
Perthshire had initially remained immune to its advances, managing to stave off the pestilence until the end of October. At this point an outbreak had then occurred at the Carse of Gowrie, followed a few days later within the city of Perth itself. To try and prevent further contact with the disease, a series of control orders had been imposed upon the county's farmers since January of the present year, to prevent the movement of livestock without a license. In the north of the county, many had initially chosen rather foolishly to ignore this measure; whole herds were soon slaughtered in consequence of their inaction.
Mercifully the parish of Forgandenny was as yet unaffected, but Henderson knew that it would only be a matter of time before the plague breached its meagre defences. Even the Presbyterian churches in the parish had weighed in to do their best to help. On the previous day, a Fast Day had been held, with local kirks of both the main denominations requiring their congregations to attend church and pray for repentance over the supposed misdemeanour that had led to the epidemic. Henderson had not gone, perhaps suspecting that if God had chosen for the country to suffer such pestilence, he might well have had his reasons.
Walking from the byre towards the kitchen, the farmer turned the handle on the door and stepped inside to find his sister, Janet, stirring a large pot of porridge over the fire. He grunted a good morning as he sat down at a large rounded oak table in the corner of the room, on which were laid a couple of porcelain bowls and spoons for the breakfast she was about to share with him.
Janet was not a resident of Mount Stewart Farm, but had come to stay temporarily to help her younger brother out. Her usual residence continued to be within the village of Airntully, where she and William had been raised as children. For thirty years she had been married to James Rogers, a labourer who worked regularly away from home on some of the more prosperous estates to the north of Perth. With her husband she had raised five healthy daughters, with only the two youngest, Ann and Mary, still living at home. Both girls had for many years worked a six-day week as weavers in the neighbouring factory town of Stanley, but a swelling that had recently been detected on Ann's brain had begun to seriously affect her eyesight, to the point where she had been forced to give up her job. Two other daughters, Catherine and Margaret, also resided close by, working in the vicinity as domestic servants. The couple's eldest daughter, twenty-eight-year-old Janet, had left home eight years previously after her marriage to a Perth-born currier, William Hay Paton. She now lived in Blackford, with her husband and three young sons, making her mother and father very proud grandparents.
Earlier that week, on the Monday, Henderson had travelled north to Airntully by cart to ask for Janet's help at the farm. His servant had just left his employment on the previous Thursday and he wondered if she might allow his niece Mary to come to Mount Stewart for a couple of weeks – there was an expectant cow on the farm and he could do with some assistance until a reliable replacement could be found.
'It will be better if I come down,' Janet had suggested. 'In any case, who knows how to pull a calf out better?' It was true, for she had often helped their father when it had come to calving at some of the local farms within the parish of Kinclaven. Henderson was grateful for the offer, but was then a little disappointed to discover that his sister would not travel back with him that day. It was therefore decided that he would pick her up at the railway station in Perth a couple of days later on the Wednesday. It was now Friday, and having had time to settle in, Janet was today intending to make a start with the cleaning whilst her brother was at the market.
The breakfast now ready, Janet joined her brother at the table to eat. During their meal, they discussed their respective plans for the day. Henderson would be shortly setting off for Perth to buy some provisions and fertiliser, and intended to look at the pigs that were for sale at the market. He also needed to pick up some slates at the neighbouring village of Bridge of Earn, or 'the Brig' as it was known locally, for repairs that were to be made to the roofs of his outbuildings on the following Saturday. As such, he envisaged being away for most of the day.
Janet noticed that her brother had no whitening with which she could clean the house. After chastising him for the state of the place, she asked him to pick up a quantity whilst he was out. In the meantime, she would spend the day bringing some general order back to the property, and would tend to the animals.
'Mind,' she added, 'I may have to drop everything and take the train into Perth, should Uncle William send a note.' Before leaving the station on Wednesday, Janet had posted a message to their revered uncle, Dr William Henderson of Perth, to ask if she could visit him. Both siblings were fond of their uncle, a truly remarkable pioneer in the field of medicine, and the family's greatest success story. Among his many achievements, he had in 1820 performed one of the country's earliest successful caesarean operations in Perth, when both Janet and William had still been young children; the resultant baby had been duly christened 'Caesar Anna' in honour of the occasion. The development of a 'stomachic elixir' medicine had also earned him a considerable fortune and reputation, and at eighty-two years of age he was a widely respected elder with the East Church of Perth. The younger William Henderson regularly dined with his uncle on his weekly forays into the city, though on this day would have to forego such a meeting in order to fetch his slates.
With breakfast completed, Janet cleared away the dishes, whilst her brother went outside to prepare for his trip ahead. The farmer's immediate priority was to now inform his ploughman of the work he wished to be completed in his absence. Observing his servant in the field to the east of the farm, he crossed over to address him.
James Crichton was a forty-four-year-old labourer from Portmoak in Fife, and had been hired by Henderson for a six-month term from Martinmas of the previous year. At five feet and six inches in height, he was of average build, with fair complexion and a bushy unkempt beard. After accepting the contract to work at Mount Stewart he had moved with his wife and two youngest children to reside at the nearby cottages of Linnlea, conveniently located some 500 yards down the hill from the farmhouse, just off the track leading to the main Forgandenny road. Crichton was a good worker, but Henderson's relationship with his employee had become immensely strained of late.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Mount Stewart Murder by Chris Paton. Copyright © 2012 Chris Paton. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Introduction,
Acknowledgements,
List of Main Characters,
1. Market Day,
2. Murder at Mount Stewart,
3. Investigation,
4. Betsy Riley,
5. Handbills and Interviews,
6. The Funeral,
7. Manhunt,
8. The Blairingone Killer,
9. A Questionable Witness,
10. The Hangman's Noose,
11. The Key,
12. Silence is Broken,
13. Her Majesty's Pleasure,
14. Trial for Murder,
15. The Second Victim,
Afterword,
Bibliography,
About the Author,
Plate Section,
Copyright,