1838, she married and had a child who died within a few months. Her husband
was distraught, not only by the loss of his son, but also by the promiscuity of
his wife. Then, suddenly, in 1840 he died.
Within weeks, Sarah began to see a labourer called William Dazley and
four months after the death of her first husband, she married him. They moved
away to the village of Wrestlingworth, where they lived with her first
husband’s fourteenyearold sister Ann Mead. Soon, William was to be found
drinking alone and very heavily. One night, on returning home, there was a
violent row, and William hit Sarah. Sarah turned to one of her admirers,
William Waldock, and told a long story of marital abuse, which most of the
village treated with disbelief.
Shortly after, William Dazley fell ill, with bad stomach pains and vomiting.
A doctor was called, and William began to get better. A few days later, young
Ann was surprised to find Sarah making up pills in the kitchen, which she
believed to be sweeteners to make the doctor’s medicine more palatable. A
neighbour saw Sarah throwing away some pills and substituting others in the
bottle but, when challenged, Sarah claimed that far from being better, William
was worse, and that she did not think the doctor’s pills were any good, so she
had got some others from a village wise woman. William noticed the
difference in the pills and refused to swallow them. Trying to help, Ann took
one of the pills herself to encourage William, and he agreed to take the
medicine. In short order, both Ann and William became terribly ill; William
ran out of the house and vomited into the pig pen. The next morning a pig that
had eaten the vomit was found dead.
This time, both William and Ann survived. But Sarah continued to dose
William with her pills, and in September 1842 he died. A few weeks later,
Sarah announced she was going to marry Waldock. The village took Waldock
to task and persuaded him to break off the engagement. They also took their
suspicions to the local coroner, who ordered that the body of William Dazley
be exhumed and a new postmortem be held.
The inquest was held in the Chequers Inn where Dazley had often drunk.
White arsenic was found to be present in his gut. A warrant for Sarah’s arrest
was issued, but she had taken off and headed for London. A police officer
followed her there and she was arrested, loudly proclaiming her innocence.
The bodies of her first husband and child were also exhumed and
examined. Poison was found in the child’s body, but the results from the
husband’s remains were inconclusive. Sarah now claimed that it was Dazley
who had poisoned her first husband and child, and that she had poisoned
Dazley in revenge. Noone believed her and when her trial began in 1843, she
VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN CRIME