THE VICTORIAN LIFESTYLE
There is no doubt that life in Victorian times was much more ordered than today. Social conventions were rigid, and one’s social standing was of critical importance. Any suggestion that somebody was not “respectable” was extremely damaging. Perhaps the Victorians were the ones who invented the phrase “what would the neighbors think?”
But while there was certainly the outward appearance of respectability, life behind closed doors was often very different. Just like today, people engaged in unwise liaisons and illicit affairs; children were born outside of marriage, and although divorce was very rare, fractured relationships in marriage were common.
The difference between then and now is that nobody seems to mind very much today, whilst in Victorian times getting caught out was usually disastrous. Being seen as less than proper would certainly damage one’s standing in society, and very likely one’s career prospects as well. Even a whiff of anything improper was enough, and anybody once tarnished by scandal could not expect to make a good marriage. The dinner invitations would probably dry up as well.
Crime when it happened was very widely reported, and often in lurid terms. “’Orrible murder!!!” would scream the headlines, and progress on investigations was daily updated in the press. Trials of major cases were the subject of intense public interest, and famous cases received massive press coverage. In the absence of any other reporting media, the press exploited every facet of scandal in boosting sales.
The case of Annie Pritchard was no exception, and the case, often referred to as “The Althorp Murder” was reported across the whole UK, and as you will see, as far afield as America.
THE DISCOVERY OF A BODY
On Saturday 6th August 1892, part of a bank holiday weekend, Jack Chapman, a labourer from East Haddon, and his brother, investigated a dreadful stench coming from a roadside ditch. Upon further investigation they discovered sacking, tied with cords, and containing a body with some items of clothing. The ditch was “about ½ mile from Althorp Station”, along the turnpike road leading away from Northampton, and inside the Parish of East Haddon (what is now the A428). The body was badly decomposed, and incomplete. The remains originally found were wrapped in bags marked:
E. M. Rae, Northampton
L.N.W.R.
Further bones were found in the same ditch the next day, Sunday, when Superintendant Alexander was in attendance. A Doctor came, and after he had seen the remains they were removed to The Red Lion Inn, at East Haddon. it is doubtful that the publican William Braines was pleased to be in receipt of such a grisly package. Police Constable John Henry Dench, of East Haddon, attended.
The Red Lion at that time was not the pub we have today – our present Red Lion pub was built in the early 1900’s. In 1892 the pub was some 40 yards west of that, in the farmhouse where presently Stuart Fraser lives, almost opposite Egerton & Butlers Cottages
On Monday, Mr John Isaac, whip to the Pytchley Hunt, passing the site, where police were still searching, at the request of the police lent the services of his fox terrier to aid the search. The dog was successful in leading them to other bones at the bottom of the ditch. These additional finds were sent to the house of PC Dench, in East Haddon, where they were received by his wife, Mary Ann Dench.
The bags also contained a quantity of lime, presumably included to hasten the decomposition of the body. The body could not be identified because it was headless and armless.
EXAMINATION OF THE REMAINS
The remains were examined, presumably while it was still at the Red Lion, by Mr William John Franklin Churchhouse, physician and surgeon of Long Buckby, who found them in a very advanced state of decomposition. He said the body was that of a female, at least 18 years of age, and of medium height. He could not determine the cause of death. He initially believed the body had been in the ditch for maybe a week or a fortnight. Later on, in court he revised his view, saying the body had been in the ditch a month or two.
The weather had been unusually hot for previous weeks……….
(Dr Churchhouse was Medical Officer of Health, Daventry Urban & Rural Sanitary Districts. He married late in life, to a very much younger woman, who in her late years was a client of Martin Eckford, in recent years a resident of East Haddon.)
WHO WAS ANNIE PRITCHARD?
Annie Pritchard was the eldest child of a family, which at one time lived at Highgate Road, Balsall Heath in Birmingham. Head of the family was Annie’s widower father, and contemporary press reports described the family as “numerous”; there were at least two brothers around, a third having died of consumption earlier. Annie also had at least one sister, Lizzie.. Next door lived a family called Macrae. The Pritchard family subsequently moved about between different rented houses, but maintained close links with the MacRae family.
Annie had apparently formed a close relationship with one of the Macrae’s, Andrew George, then aged 35. The relationship was such that Annie’s brothers had remonstrated with Andrew MacRae for “carrying on” with their sister. Andrew MacRae was indeed out of order, because he was already married, and already had two sons.
In February 1892 Annie announced she was leaving home to marry a Mr Anderson, a lithographic artist from Liverpool. She said they would marry in Liverpool, and would then go to America, returning hopefully in about 6 months. None of the family had ever met Mr Anderson.
A large box was packed with clothing and toilet requisites, and on 21st March 1892 Annie left home, having promised to maintain communications with her brothers and sisters.
Annie at this time was certainly pregnant (she gave birth 3 months later) so presumably her family, unless they were remarkably unobservant, were aware of her condition when she left home to marry Mr Anderson.
ANNIE’S FAMILY REASSURED BY HER LETTER
A letter dated 28th March was received by Annie’s family, postmarked from Liverpool, explaining that she was “now married this morning by special licence”, and that she and her husband would soon be off to America so he could complete his business obligations there. She also said that they would be back in a few months to settle in England, hopefully near the family.
So her family then had no reason anymore to doubt that Annie was now safely and respectably married, and away to America. They were very likely much relieved that Annie was now conforming to at least some of the social standards of the day.
But Annie did not post the letter in Liverpool. She had given it, in Northampton, to a commercial traveler who was taking a train to Liverpool, with the request that it be posted when he arrived there. Annie was not in Liverpool. And nor was she on her way to America!
In fact she was in Northampton, with MacRae, occupying lodgings in number 85 St John Street, under the name of Mr & Mrs Rae-Anderson.
A POSTCARD TO THE RAILWAY COMPANY ……….
In March 1892, a postcard had been sent, handwritten by Andrew MacRae, to the offices of the London and North-Western Railway, at Birmingham, requesting that some packages should be collected from Annie’s then home, Avon Cottage in Sparkbrook, and be delivered to 85 St John Street Northampton. Annie herself handed the items to the carrier, and made out the consignment note, so this must have been immediately before Annie herself departed for Northampton.
ANDREW GEORGE MACRAE
The day before Annie left home, Andrew George Macrae, her (very close) friend, also left home, having told Annie’s sister that he was going to Northampton to take up a position there working (at 30 shillings (£1.50) a week) in the business owned by his older brother Edward. The business was a bacon factor (distributor?), operating from premises in Dychurch Lane. They also had a stall on Northampton Market.
Andrew Macrea, despite being married, with two sons, seems not to have taken his family with him to Northampton.
SETTING UP HOME
Annie and Andrew took lodgings at 85 St John Street, Northampton, (just down from Derngate theatre), and she and her “husband” lived as Mr & Mrs Rae-Anderson. Landlady was Mrs Thornton. One month later, following the death of Mrs Thornton, the couple moved to another house in St John Street, where the landlady was a Mrs Pilkington.
It was at this address that Annie’s child, a son, was born 23rd June 1892.
MOVING OUT
On 20th July 1892 Mr & Mrs Rae-Anderson, with their infant son, left their lodgings to move to another address “near the racecourse”, as Annie said, for the benefit of her health. Their belongings were taken not to the new lodgings, but at Macrae’s instruction, to the bacon warehouse in Dychurch Lane.
The couple, with their child, when they left their lodgings, were accompanied by Elizabeth Elliott who carried the baby as far as the top of Bridge Street, at which point MacRae said there was no reason for her to go any further as they would from there be alright, and in any case were going to the Post Office before going to their new lodgings.
Annie and her child were never seen alive again.
It is reasonable, in view of Andrew’s activities in the days immediately following this, to believe that Annie and her child were murdered in the Dychurch Lane warehouse during the night of 20th / 21st July..
(The Northamptonshire Directory lists the premises in Dychurch Lane, and while the bacon business is no longer listed in 1894, the other premises along the south side of the lane are an astonishing set, having in mind what had happened there. Besides the yard and stables of the Black Boy pub, there was the back entrance to the Town Hall, the Borough Fire Brigade station, St Giles Mission School (now Buddies fast food establishment), and the Borough Police Station, which had its own Chief Constable Frederick Mardlin, plus eleven sergeants and sixty constables. Doubtless the police would have felt some embarrassment at having had a murder committed within yards of their station!)
SOME STRANGE BEHAVIOUR BY ANDREW MacRAE…………
The landlord of The Palmerston Inn, at 25 Market Square, Mr Henry Goulston, testified at the trial that on the morning of 21st July, Andrew had come in showing signs of exhaustion. Again he appeared there, in a similar state, on 22nd July.
Later that day, on 22nd July, MacRae alone took lodgings at Derby road. (Just off Kettering Road). He made a present to the landlady of a lady’s purse – it was later identified as having belonged to Annie.
Also on the 22nd, MacRae sold some women’s clothing to a second hand dealer, a Mrs Bland at 5 College Street. The shop was later (1894) listed in the name of Mr Thomas Bland, “wardrobe dealer”, which is perhaps a more genteel name for a second hand dealer in clothes. MacRae had told Mrs Bland that the clothing had belonged to his sister, who was detained in an asylum in Birmingham. He said to Mrs Bland: “Well, I don’t mind telling you – the clothes belonged to my sister, who is in an asylum in Birmingham. A man led her astray, and you can guess the rest.” It was later shown that there was no such sister. Mrs Bland paid MacRae a sovereign for the clothing.
Mrs Bland subsequently read an account of the terrible crime in the Northampton papers, but never for one moment thought she had the murdered woman’s clothing in her possession. It was not until Tuesday night that she had any suspicion. It was then stated for the first time in the papers that the name Rae was upon the bags containing the mutilated body of the woman. Instantly the thought flashed across Mrs Bland’s mind that Rae was the name on the bags which were in her shop. She thereupon took immediate action. Her husband was at Ramsgate. She sent him the paper, also a letter stating “I think the clothing belongs to the murdered girl, and not to the man’s sister”. Without losing a moment, the husband returned to Northampton and after due examination of the bag and clothing informed the police.
On 25th July 1892, MacRae sent a boy to collect a bag of lime, from Messrs J. Banks & Son, plasterers, at 40 Abington Street, and to bring the bag to the bacon warehouse in Dychurch Lane,
On 26th July, MacRae hired a pony and trap for the morning, and again he hired it for the evening, returning from this second trip after about three hours with the horse showing signs of having been driven very fast. Two journeys were made, so perhaps he had two loads to dispose of. While Annie’s remains were found close to East Haddon village, her missing parts, and the remains of the child must have been deposited elsewhere, and were never found.
THE CLUE ON THE BAGS
The bag in which the body had been wrapped was labeled: E. M. Rae, Northampton
L.N.W.R.
and while police inquired about this, they found no obvious reason to proceed further. There must have been lots of similar bags around from previous legitimate usage. Such bags, labeled with the name of both the business, and the carrier, were common.
Andrew George MacRae was requested to attend Angel Lane County Police Station in Northampton to answer some questions – he took his time and was eventually bought to the station on the direct instruction of Supt Alexander. The questions focused on the clothing he had sold to Mrs Bland. This time he claimed the clothing had been sent to him by his wife who was still in Birmingham, but enquiries to his wife Harriet in Birmingham showed this claim was untrue.
During investigations in Birmingham, the police found a strong link between the MacRae family and the Pritchards, and we can presume they became aware of the close relationship between Andrew MacRae and the Pritchard daughter Annie. By this time the Pritchard family had not heard anything from Annie, who had now been gone for some 6 months, and were surely worried at her silence. Perhaps their concerns became known to the police.
THE LINK TO ANNIE
The identity of the nameless corpse as Annie was established by her family, who were able to identify the items of clothing which had been found with the body, as well as those sold by MacRae, as having belonged to Annie.
.MacRae was then charged with the murder, and at proceedings on 19th and 20th September was committed for trial.
POLICE SEARCH WAREHOUSE
The police, as part of their investigations into Andrew MacRae, and the disappearance of Annie, then searched the bacon warehouse at Dychurch Lane. Not a long trip for them, as it was almost next door to their police station! Pieces of calcinated bone were found, some bearing marks from a bacon saw. In a copper boiler were traces of human hair – brown in colour, like Annie’s.
THE TRIAL OPENED ON 17TH NOVEMBER 1892
with Mr Justice Kennedy presiding.
At his trial, Andrew MacRae was described as a Salesman.
Newspaper reports of the trial describe the 36 year old MacRae as being rather smart – The Birmingham Post, reporting the opening day of the trial said:
“The prisoner stepped into the dock with a smile, and bowed. He was very neatly dressed in a black coat and vest and grey trousers, while a clean collar and spotless white tie assisted to give him a genteel appearance. A white handkerchief peeped out of the breast pocket of his coat and, as he advanced to the front of the dock and set down his hat, it was easily seen that physically he was in much better condition than when he was before the magistrates. The haggard look which then characterized him had given way to a much happier face. He looked very well, his face, if pale, presenting a healthy appearance, and he bore himself with a smile and confident air which fairly astonished everyone who had seen him at his committal. When the Clerk of Arraigns read out to him the charge he drew himself upright, smiled, and in a loud clear voice said “Not guilty””.
The charge against MacRae was that
“He, in the county of Northampton, at some time believed to be within the last 6 months, did feloniously, willfully, and of his malice aforethought, kill and murder one Annie Pritchard”.
There was a long queue to get into the public gallery, but the court had issued tickets to control the access of the crowds. Those unable to gain access remained around the doorway in attempts to hear snippets of the proceedings. There was a major public outcry at the time, that MacRae was charged only with the murder of Annie – no mention of her missing baby was made.
In those days Assize Court trials took place in the Sessions House, in George Row, near to All Saints church. The Sessions House saw its last case in 1991, and is now the Northampton Tourist Info office. The courts are still there, as are the cells beneath. The Court rooms are now used in training of legal and police staff in court procedures.
(In earlier times condemned prisoners were hanged in the yard behind the sessions house. The Sessions House included a Judge’s lodging, and he could view the yard, and the early morning executions there. Such a grisly start to the day is believed to have been the usual practice. Later, and certainly by 1892, hangings were carried out at Northampton County Jail – the hanging yard there is now the site of Northampton Swimming Baths.)
The “Althorp Murder” case had already achieved national importance in the newspapers of the day, and lengthy articles had already appeared in papers as far afield as Birmingham, Bristol, London and Leeds. Successive daily issues carried details of court proceedings, and slowly the full horror story emerged.
The opening of the trial was reported as far afield as the New York Times of 18th November.
The “Illustrated Police News” issue dated 24th September, after MacRae was charged but before the trial had even started, carried a front page illustration of Annie and Andrew, and artists sketches of some lurid scenes from the case.
A DIVERSION…………..
During a lunch adjournment in the trial, the jury was left in the charge of a constable sworn in for the purpose. Despite this restraint, one of the jurors, a Mr James Asplin, left the court, and was not back when the court reconvened. Constables were sent to look for Mr Asplin, and upon his return to the courthouse Justice Kennedy felt constrained to ask him where he had been. Mr Asplin claimed that he went out to post a letter. Justice Kennedy acknowledged that a juror had been absent from the court for about an hour. This being a serious matter, and uncertain precisely what to do, Justice Kennedy adjourned the trial till the following morning, and went hotfoot to London to consult The Lord Chief Justice on the matter. On his return the following day, he fined Mr Asplin £50 for gross contempt of court. And decreed that the murder trial would resume on 20th December.
THE TRIAL CONTINUES (20th December 1892)
During the trial, which lasted a total of 5 days, some 47 witnesses were called. All the evidence was circumstancial, but so overwhelming was the prosecution case that the guilt of MacRae was not in doubt.
There was considerable public outrage that no charges were bought concerning the disappearance, and presumed murder, of Annie’s child.
THE DEFENCE CASE, presented by Mr Attenborough, rested on a claim that the body found was not that of Annie Pritchard at all, and included evidence from Mr Squires, a “Birmingham detective” that Annie had indeed planned to go to America with a Mr Guy Anderson, who was the father of her child. The claim was that he had failed to return to marry her, and being unwilling to bring shame to her family, had gone to Northampton to conceal herself. Later, when Anderson did arrive, they had then departed to America, with the child. Wishing to make a clean break with Northampton and MacRae, she had left all her belongings behind with MacRae, for him to dispose of. MacRae, it was claimed, made disposal of the items very quickly, as he was anxious to avoid them, and his relationship with Annie, becoming known to his wife. The defence presentation lasted some 41/2 hours.
The Judge’s summing up took 5 hours.
The jury, returning to court at nine o’clock in the evening, had taken just 90 minutes to decide a “guilty” verdict. News of the verdict leaked from the court to the crowd outside, reported at “six or seven thousand”. Cheering from the crowd was heard in the courtroom.
At this point the Judge asked MacRae if he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed.
The brother of the accused then demanded access to the court, and harangued the judge to the effect that the Police had lied to get a “guilty” verdict. (Andrew’s brother Edward lived in Crick, and was listed in the Kelly’s Northamptonshire Directory for 1894, two years after the murder case, as a farmer. In the same directory, the MacRae bacon business in Dychurch Lane does not appear, presumably closed following the trial.)
MacRae, invited to speak, said: “I hope, my Lord, under the circumstances, you will excuse my Brother his excited state in making the interruptions in the court. I beg to say that no sentence you pass upon me has any terror for me, because I am perfectly innocent of this charge. There are many things I could say in regard to the evidence brought forward against me. But it is needless of course. All the evidence of the conversations supposed to have taken place between witnesses and myself is a mass of abominable lies. the Pritchards also know very well the existence of circumstances connected with Guy Anderson which they have purposely kept back.” Then, to the Jury: “Gentlemen, you have this day, each and every one of you, become what you have made me – a murderer. You have this day widowed a good, devoted wife. You have this night, this Christmas Eve, made fatherless loving children. Go home to your home, can you with a clear conscience? Have you in giving your verdict tempered your duty with mercy? I say No. As long as you live your consciences will accuse you.” To the Judge: “My Lord, in as few words as you possibly can, if you please.”
The Judge then donned the black cap, and sentenced MacRae to be hanged. A chorus of “Amen” came from all parts of the court.
The date was the 24th December – Christmas Eve, 1892.
He was hanged on 10th January 1893, (having had the statutory 3 Sundays between sentence and execution), within the walls of Northampton County Jail, the last murderer to be hanged in the county. He was reported as having slept well, and having enjoyed a breakfast. He was described as having borne up with great fortitude, and made no confession of the crime for which he was sentenced. His execution was attended by the Prison Governor Captain Bell, the Under-Sheriff Mr Markham, the Medical Officer Mr Cogan, the Chaplain Rev W H Phillips , plus some representatives of the press, and of course the hangman James Billington, and took place in a newly erected structure in the south corner of the prison yard, screened from public view by awnings. At 8.45am the bells of St Sepulchre’s church began tolling. The prisoner was reported as having walked to the scaffold with hardly any assistance. A very large crowd, reported as “thousands” was gathered in the square outside. The death of MacRae was signaled by the hoisting of a black flag, and cheering broke out from the crowd. The executioner, James Billington, was paid £10 for his work that day.
In 1931, when the jail was demolished, bodies buried there were disinterred and transferred to a common grave at a Towcester cemetery.
THE BURIAL OF ANNIE
In 1891 the yard at St Mary’s church in East Haddon had been closed to further burials because of the suspicion that a recent outbreak of diphtheria had emanated from water contamination from the burials there infecting the water table in the village. At that time water in the village was only available from wells, water cisterns, and pumped wells. Mains water only came to East Haddon in 1956(!).
A new cemetery was opened in 1891/1892 by East Haddon Parish Council, and like many such places, was not at the time consecrated. The consecration of the site occurred much later, but there is a nagging doubt that the grave of Annie, being separate from the others there, was not included in the ceremony. However, Jock Cooper many years ago expressed his belief that the Bishop had “sprinkled the holy water across all”.
The remains of Annie Pritchard are buried in this new cemetery at East Haddon – the event was reportedly attended by many people. Her interment, some believe the first burial in the new site, was the subject of major controversy as the Parish church refused to bury her. But a group led by Revd. Thomas Ruston, (?)Congregational Minister of Long Buckby, forced East Haddon church to accept its legal obligations and let Annie be buried in the Parish where she was found.
What was the cause of the resistance to her burial in the cemetery? Perhaps the notoriety of the case? Perhaps the incomplete nature of the corpse? Perhaps her being an unmarried mother, with the social stigma attached to this, was enough?
Her grave stands alone, in a position well away from all the others. Strangely, there is no reference on the headstone to her family – no grieving brothers, sisters, or father.
Her headstone, really quite a grand one, was “erected by “friends and sympathisers”.
It faces the wrong way.
ANNIE’S EPITAPH
Perhaps Annie Pritchard’s murder tells us a lot about the times in which she lived.
She was aged 31 at her death, so not a dizzy teenager. She was able to deceive her family, and go off with a man she knew to be married with children, and to live under a false name. She gave birth to a child outside of marriage. Such events today would probably not cause many ripples in society.
But in the Victorian age her position was quite unacceptable to society, and it seems doubtful that she could reasonably have looked forward to a happy future of quiet domesticity.
Why was she killed?
What distinguishes her position then against what it would be today, is that she had become an unacceptable social burden to MacRae. I believe she was killed because she and her partner had gone too far for him to maintain his position with her still around, and surely he knew that his relationship with Annie would become known to his own wife and family – his only hope was to wipe the slate clean by disposing of Annie and the child.
A tragic story. And while today we lament the loosening of many of our traditional social standards and conventions, the attitudes of today’s society would probably have meant that Annie and her child would have lived.
She was indeed a victim of her own recklessness, MacRae’s evil, and the social conventions of the day which placed them both in an intolerable position.
Rob Divall
2011
and revised 2018