In September 1810, Richard Griffin, a 29-year-old journeyman blacksmith, from Saffron Hill, London was indicted at the Old Bailey for the ‘wilful murder’ of his 34-year-wife Ann.
Ann Griffin had been absent from her home for a day and a half when she encountered her husband Richard at Bartholomew’s Fair on 4 September. Richard had been accompanied to the fair by his brother Thomas, and by Prudence Griffin, who was described in different sources as either Thomas’ wife or sister.
When they met, Richard asked Ann where she had been, but Ann declined to answer. The pair entered a ‘liquor shop’ where they drank gin. Ann asked her for some money; Richard gave her a shilling, saying ‘that is more than you would do for me.’
Afterwards they visited a pub in Long Lane, where they swapped from drinking gin to supping ‘pots of porter’.
While in the pub, Ann started to flirt ‘with some lads’, causing her irritated husband to throw a sheep’s head bone at her, giving Ann a black eye.
Thomas then urged his brother and sister-in-law to return home, which they agreed to do so. The party of four walked back to Richard and Ann’s home on Onslow Street. On entering the house, the pair retired to the bedroom. Richard kissed his wife, remarking, ‘I know that is worse than death to you.’
Ann responded, ‘it is, and ever will be so,’ the pair then laid together on the bed. Richard left the house a few minutes later, saying: ‘I have done it.’
Almost immediately, Thomas heard Ann making a gurgling noise. Prudence ran to the window and threw it open and shouted ‘Murder!’ to the neighbourhood. Thomas and an unnamed second man left the home looking for a doctor.
Alerted by Prudence’s cry of murder, R. Winterbourn, Patrole of St. Andrew’s parish, entered the Griffin’s apartment, shadowed by William Faulkner. When Winterbourn began his search for the alleged perpetrator, Faulkner remained in the house; he asked Ann who had attacked her, when he asked if it was Richard, she nodded her head twice. Faulkner asked what weapon had been used to inflict her injuries and Ann pointed to a razor at the foot of the bed.
Richard Griffin was soon apprehended and transported to the watch house. On the way there, Winterbourn asked Griffin how he could commit such an act. Richard simply answered that ‘he hoped she was dead, then he could die happy!’ When the Hatton Garden Police Officer C. Cock spoke to Griffin at the watch-house, he asked the officer ‘How would you like it if your wife was to sleep out all night with another man?’
Ann Griffin was transported to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital at 2 am. Mr. Coedy, the house surgeon informed the coroner’s inquest which was held a few days later, that ‘the windpipe and gullet were both divided; and there was a small wound on the chest. He had no doubt the wound in the throat occasioned her death.’
When she gave evidence at the inquest, Prudence Griffin stated that Ann had told her just after her husband had sconed her with the sheep bone, that she had spent the hours she had been away from home with Richard’s ‘master’. She informed Richard that she would ‘Bring her Joe, meaning, as was supposed, the man she had been with, and punish him for giving her the black eye.’
The jury at the coroner’s inquest found Richard Griffin guilty of wilful murder and he was committed for trial at the Old Bailey.
The trial took place on Saturday 22 September 1810. The Judge Mr. Baron Wood, on learning that the Crown’s two most important witnesses, Thomas and Prudence were not present, stated that although it was regrettable that they couldn’t be found, ‘as their absence could not be attributed to any design or collusion on the part of the prisoner, he ought not to suffer from this circumstance, over which he had no control.’
Contemporary newspapers stated that when the prisoner testified on his own behalf, he had little to say, except ‘that he hoped he was not guilty.’
Witnesses attested that he was a man of ‘excellent character’. And in a case of 19th century victim blaming, ‘that the deceased was the reverse, and much given to associate with other men.’ And presumably deserving of her fate.
When he summed up, Judge Wood told the jury, if they believed that Richard Griffin had killed Ann ‘purely out of revenge for her infidelity it was clearly murder; if a quarrel had ensued, and he had perpetrated this deed during this quarrel and under the sudden impulse of the moment, this would only amount to manslaughter.’
Dismissed to consider their verdict, the jury’s consultations lasted for over six hours, which by the standard of the era was a long time.
They returned with a verdict of Manslaughter, which considering the character assassination that befell Ann Griffin at both the trial and the coroner’s inquest would likely not have come as a surprise to anyone present.
Richard Griffin was ‘discharged on Paying a small fine to the King’.
© Mark Young 2026
Sources
Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men 
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