Genealogy Chat

Murderfiles have just sent me two cuttings from the Times about my great-great granduncle WILLIAM MEALING. The first report is headed "Horrible Murder Near Cirencester" and gives brief (and gory) details of the deed. He cut a woman's throat. The second article is a report of the magistrate's hearing and is rather pathetic. Apparently the murdered woman had a child by a previous liaison and was now heavily pregnant with William's child. They were saving up to get married and at the time of the murder were living with the child and the woman's aged father. Before the murder William had been complaining of pains in his head and told his mother that it would drive him out of his mind. Aside from the actual crime however, there's a lot of useful genealogical detail of addresses etc - and its amazing to be able to read words my relatives actually spoke! Also, it mentions the village blacksmith at Rendcomb, Mr Tarrant, who had a sideline as the village constable and was William's godfather as well. This is interesting as William's sister Ann married and had a son Charles. Charles' son (my grandfather) was apprenticed to the Rendcomb blacksmith around 1912 or so. The blacksmith's name was Tarrant. obviously a job kept in the family!

Hi, Helen, Sounds like material for a novel - far more interesting than shoemakers and stonemasons. What happened to him?? Tricia

Hello Helen I too have an article from an Essex paper from the 1930s about my great grandmother's murder - spookily she had her throat cut too. The man who murdered her was her lover and was employed as a rat catcher. He had been off work suffering the effects of exposure to rat poison prior to murdering her and then committing suicide. The article also named my grandmother's siblings who I had not yet found. I'd recommend a visit to the Collindale Newspaper Library to anyone with a similar family mystery but caution that some of the details may be upsetting - there were some particularly graphic details on my great grandmother's death certificate. Debbie

I know that William Mealing was acquitted on the grounds of insanity and was kept in close custody in Gloucester Gaol until February 1863 when he was moved to the Criminal Lunatic Asylum in London. Sometime between then and 1871 he was transferred to Broadmoor, and he is there on 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses (which is what first alerted me to the possibility of his being a murderer). I've written to Broadmoor to ask for more details, if only to let me know when he died,and am awaiting a reply. I will keep you all posted! While the crime was horrible and it was upsetting to read his mother's evidence before the magistrates in the newspaper report, I know that this is the only way I will "hear" the words of my relatives, and get a physical description of one of them. Helen