Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men

Hannah Evans had not long retired to bed when she was awoken by ‘a great noise and two or three blows.’. It was the early hours of 12 April 1812. Hannah, a maid working at a farmhouse belonging to George and Edith Morrey in the village of Hankelow, Cheshire, had stayed up with her mistress awaiting the arrival of George from the Witton Wakes fair at Northwich.

George arrived home just after midnight, ate a late supper and then went to bed with Edith. Hannah busied herself, clearing the supper before taking herself to her bedroom next to the parlour, which she shared with some of the Morrey children. There were between four and six children in the farmhouse; numbers vary between sources.

It was around 2 am when Hannah Evans was roused from her slumbers by the noise coming from George and Edith’s room adjacent to her own. According to the Lancaster Gazette of Saturday, 25 April 1812, Hannah was ‘much terrified and got upon the floor.’ The servant made her way to the window, flung it open, and was climbing through it when her bedroom door suddenly opened.

Edith Morrey appeared in the doorway with a lighted candle, which she blew out as she entered the room. Edith put her hand on Hannah’s arm and said: ‘she must not go out, as there was murder in the house; and if she went through the window, she was sure to be murdered.’

The two women cowered in Hannah Evans’ room for a few minutes. The record is silent on what the children who shared the room with Hannah were doing, whether they were still sleeping or had been woken by the commotion.

John Lomas was the fourth adult living in the farmhouse; like Hannah Evans, Lomas was a servant. John Lomas had first worked for George Morrey in 1810, ‘when he quitted his service, and went to reside at a short distance.’ Lomas was re-employed by George around Christmas 1811 ‘through the entreaties of the wife.’

Lomas’ room, which he shared with more of the Morrey brood, was on the first floor directly over the kitchen. He was sleeping when Hannah burst through the door. She roused him, and he followed her down the stairs to where Edith and the children from Hannah’s room were gathered.

Hannah proposed that the neighbours be alerted and wanted Lomas to go out. After initially saying that ‘he durst not go.’ Lomas left with Hannah Evans to call on Betty Spode, the Morreys’ closest neighbour.

Lomas then called on James Morrey, George’s brother. James would later say in court that Lomas informed him that ‘his master was murdered and 150l. Was stolen out of the desk in bills.’

James found Edith and the children by the fireside when he arrived at the farmhouse. Edith told her brother-in-law that she believed that George had been followed from Witton Wakes. ‘Mrs. M…thought he had been bragging about his money, and they had followed him home and murdered him.’

Thomas Timmis also arrived at the farmhouse in the early hours of Sunday morning. He spent a few minutes with Edith, who was ‘sitting on a chair, holding her apron to her head.’ Timmis then entered George and Edith’s bedroom. ‘the deceased lay dead on the floor, with his face downwards…an axe lying by him, and the floor covered with blood; did not examine him, but saw his throat was cut from ear to ear.’

John Moors, another local, also arrived at the farmhouse. On the way, he met with John Lomas, who told him that he believed ‘his master was killed.’ When Moors entered the house, Edith was in the same place she had been when James Morrey arrived.

Moors requested a lit candle and then ventured into George and Edith’s bedroom, where he found the dead man in the same position as reported by Thomas Timmis. After leaving the scene of the murder, Moors asked Edith if she suspected anyone of the crime. Edith had no suspect, believing George must have been followed from the fair.

Thomas Hall came to the house in the company of three other men, including John Groom, a resident of nearby Audlem. After viewing the body, Hall noticed blood on Lomas’ smock Frock. On examining the house, he discovered blood on the floor, ‘which he traced into the back kitchen, and up stairs into the room where Lomas lay.’

Hall ‘secured’ Lomas, and John Groom asked the servant for the key to a box in the room. Lomas replied, ‘No constable had a right to look into his box.’ When Hall returned upstairs, Edith was in Lomas’ room; she had her back to Hall and threw an item on the floor.

Groom retrieved the item discarded by Edith from a pile of bags in Lomas’s room. He asked the servant whether the shirt was his own, and Lomas confirmed it was. Groom noticed blood on the wrists of the shirt he had just picked up.

John Groom ordered that Lomas should be stripped. He examined the coat the servant had been wearing, turning it inside out, ‘there appeared much blood.’ On the inside of the coat.

Groom ordered William Dooley, a constable, to take Lomas into custody. When Dooley asked Lomas about the bloody shirt, the prisoner answered he had worn it the week before when ‘he bled the calves and mare.’

Dooley told Lomas that he had convicted himself with that statement, to which the prisoner answered, ‘I have.’ Dooley ordered Lomas searched, Lomas was frisked, and a razor-sheath was found in his pocket. The razor was discovered in a pit, where Lomas told Dooley he had disposed of it. When Dooley examined it, he found that there ‘was a little blood on the handle, and two hairs on the steel of it.’

John Bellis jnr, a surgeon, examined George Morrey’s body; he noted several fractures to the skull, which were caused by a heavy instrument ‘he thought to be an axe.’ An axe having been found beside George’s body. He added that the wound in the dead man’s throat was ’sufficient to cause his death.’

On Sunday morning, Hankelow’s constable, William Hall, arrived at the farmhouse. He found Edith in her customary position next to the fireplace. He informed the newly widowed Mrs. Morrey that he had to take her into custody.

Constable Hall drew up a seat next to her, ‘about three minutes after, she dropped from her seat, and her throat was cut by a razor that lay by her side.’

John Bellis was summoned to attend to Edith. Bellis found Mrs. Morrey ‘lying upon the floor, with a large wound in her neck, produced by some sharp instrument.’ Bellis cleaned the wound and sewed it up.

Bellis alleged that Edith told him on the following day that: ‘Lomas had said that he was up three times the night before to murder her husband.’

The trial of John Lomas and Edith Morrey took place on 21 July 1812 at Chester. The hearing lasted for a mere six hours. The court was filled to bursting with the Newgate Calendar reporting that ‘four thousand persons attended to hear the verdict.’

Edith Morrey, displaying a ‘sullen, unmoved, hardness’, wore a veil, which she was ordered to remove when she appeared in court. Throughout the trial, she maintained her innocence and seemed confident there was insufficient evidence to convict her.

In contrast, the Newgate Calendar tells us that Lomas ‘confessed his crime in all its horrid circumstances.’ According to Hannah Evans’ testimony, Edith and George had been laughing and joking before bed.

Edith waited until George had fallen asleep before she tiptoed upstairs to rouse Lomas. After descending the stairs, Edith passed Lomas an axe, ‘while his mistress held the candle, Lomas struck his master three blows on the head.’ George cried out in agony, the sound of the assault waking Hanah Evans in her room next to the parlour.

George Morrey, lying in a pool of blood, continued to moan. After hearing Hannah Evans moving around, the two conspirators left the room where George lay stricken. Edith produced a razor and handed it to Lomas, ‘John, he is alive; go in and kill him.’ She ordered.

With renewed determination, John Lomas re-entered the room ‘their miserable victim was yet alive, and seemed to recognise Lomas, whom he caught by the shirt…the monster drew the razor twice across his throat, and terminated his struggles for existence.’

Then, Edith went to Hannah’s room and prevented her from climbing through the window. John Lomas was sent on his errand to alert the neighbours to the supposed murder of his master.

After all testimony was heard, ’The judge, in the most impressive manner, addressed the jury, who, without retiring, gave a verdict of guilty against both the prisoners.’

The judge, Chief Justice Robert Dallas, donned his black cap and sentenced the pair to be hanged at the New City Gaol the following Monday. On hearing the verdict, John Lomas stretched out his hands and said: ‘I deserve it all—I don’t wish to live; but I hope for mercy.’

On behalf of ‘His more miserable companion,’ John Cross, Edith Morrey’s defence counsel, pleaded that she was pregnant. After an examination by ‘a jury of matrons proving this to be the case,’ the women that had examined Edith declared her to be between three and five months pregnant. ‘she was respited’. It was to be only a temporary reprieve; Edith was to be executed after giving birth.

John Lomas was hanged at Chester City Gaol on the following Monday, 24 July 1812. The governor of the gaol had allowed John and Edith to meet twice over the weekend; they shared a last embrace.

John confessed before his date with Samuel Burrows, Cheshire’s hangman. He made a short speech from the gallows, encouraging those watching not to follow his example. After his execution, Lomas’ body was cut down and dissected at the infirmary next door to the gaol.

Edith Morrey gave birth to a baby boy on 21 December 1812; the infant was adopted by Edith’s parents, William and Edith Croomer. The baby was christened Thomas. In 1833, Thomas was convicted of theft and was sentenced to be transported to Australia for seven years.

Edith had slept well and, when she awoke, ate a hearty breakfast. The previous morning, she had been ’suffused in tears’ while listening to the Reverend Fish preach ‘the condemned sermon…her convulsive sobs were heard throughout the chapel.’

Edith held ‘hold of Mr.Hudson’s arm, with the utmost firmness, amidst an unusual pressure from the immense crowd assembled; she then got into the cart, and immediately laid herself down on one side, concealing her face with her handkerchief.

Edith arrived at the City Gaol and prayed with the chaplain till one o’clock. She climbed the scaffold with ‘a firm and undaunted step.’ As in the case of Lomas, the gallows had been placed on the gaol’s roof. Edith once more covered her face with her handkerchief and ’turned her back to the populace.’

After continuing to pray with the condemned woman for a short while longer, ‘the clergyman withdrew, and the executioner prepared to finish the awful sentence of the law.’

She twice called for John Robinson, her gaoler, ’to bid him farewell he came at the second call, and having taken leave of her she remained about half a minute, when she dropped the handkerchief,’ she was launched into oblivion. As Edith Morrey swung from the gallows ’she was very much convulsed for four minutes, when her pangs ceased in this world.’

After her body was left to hang for the requisite period, it was carried to the infirmary for dissection and then ‘was open to public inspection all day Saturday.’

© Mark Young 2024

Sources

The Newgate Calendar

The Lancaster Gazette

The Hull Packet and Original Weekly Commercial, Literary and General advertiser

Edith Morrey— A Cheshire love triangle. CapitalPunishmentuk.org