The Murder of Adam Mather

The Murder of Adam Mather

Adam (my 3rd great-uncle) was born around 1808 in Saint Helens, Lancashire England to a coal mining family: by the age of ten years he was almost certainly working in the mines himself. In any event it is known that at the census in 1841 this was his occupation.

He continued in this work until sometime in the 1850s when he took The Railway Inn on Raven Street, still in Saint Helens. Although by 1867 he was once again a miner. This switching between selling beer and working down the mines was common to a number of members of the Mather family. By this time he also was renting out property.

By 1828 he had married Jane ¹ with whom he had at least eight children between 1828 and 1846. One, Daniel died at the age of four years in 1841 and, as was common practice at that time, their next son was given his name. Jane died in September 1858 and was buried in St Helens Cemetery.

One might speculate that it was the death of his wife, leaving him with a youngish child, which caused him to leave the mines and take a public house.

However, sometime in the early 1860s he married Ann ² and was once again down the mines working some miles away at Garswood Park Colliery near Ashton in Makerfield. In 1867 he was living in a cottage at Green Leach in the district of Windle, Saint Helens with Ann and his youngest son Daniel, now twenty years of age.

On the evening of Saturday 20th July 1867 Adam and Ann had visited a local pub before returning home and going to bed. At about 12-30am Ann was disturbed by a noise from downstairs and woke Adam who went down to investigate. On hearing a scuffle Ann also got up intending to raise their neighbour John Mort. This she managed to do but not before she was knocked down and cut on her shoulder and arms by the assailant. She did, however, manage to get out and shouted to her neighbour, John Mort, who with his wife, Mary, subsequently found Adam with a very large gash in his throat. The doctor was called and Adam pronounced dead. Later the Coroner would certify that death would have occurred within two minutes.

The murderer had run off without his coat, hat or shoes and escaped through a cornfield. A month later a women found a cut-throat razor - the murder weapon - about twelve yards from the footprints made on his escape. The razor was one taken from a draw in Adam's kitchen.

The Trial

At a two day trial conducted by Lord Chief Justice Bovill a John Smith, an ironfounder, was tried for murder. Contemporaneous records ³ indicate that the town had already found him guilty even though he completely denied the offence.

On the night in question Daniel had gone out with some friends visiting a vault kept by Robert Halsall ⁴ on Church Street, arriving home at 1-30am after picking up some repaired clogs. His parents had secured their cottage by placing a large bar across the back of the door and to open this Daniel would have placed his finger through a crack in the door to lift the bar out of its slots. It was the noise of this bar falling which had woken Ann. The evidence showed that Adam had been attacked from behind.

Under a relatively new scheme, John Smith was defended by a barrister appointed by the court who comprehensively tested the evidence put before the court by the police.

On the Saturday John Smith had started drinking at 7-30am and during the course of the day had been selling his clothing to raise money for drinks. The defence barrister pointed out that even if it could be shown that the clothing found at the scene was that of John Smith there was no proof he was wearing it at the time.

He also questioned the evidence of red stains found on the clothing of John Smith arguing that they could have come from materials used at an iron foundry. The doctor agreed that he could not prove they were actually blood stains.

Ann had identified John Smith as the murderer but her evidence was challenged on the basis that in the confusion she may have been mistaken. He also pointed out that the process of opening the back door was likely to be known only to close family acquaintances, and John Smith did not know the family at all.

The Verdict

After a few hours retirement the jury found John Smith not guilty; a verdict not well received by the public but approved by the judge. Lord Chief Justice Bovill went on to seriously criticise the police for delays in the murder being reported to their head office at Prescot, failing to take footprints from the scene and incompetence in following up evidence. He finally gave John Smith a lecture on the evils of drink.

Comment

Without questioning the verdict, the appointment of a court barrister for the defence seems to have played a large on the acquittal of John Smith. The poor police evidence probably reflects a history of them not being used to having their evidence questioned in depth.

Adam was buried in Saint Helens Cemetery interestingly in a new grave which has not been used since. By 1871 Ann had reverted to her previous name and in that year Daniel married Harriet Russell. Nobody else has been charged with the murder.

1 Neither Jane's maiden name nor the date of marriage is known

2 Ann's identity is a little uncertain, however, an Adam Mather married Ann Eden (probably her married name) in 1863. There is evidence that she had previously been married to the Halsall family and Daniel mentions that one of the people he had been with on the night of the murder was his brother in law.

3 Saint Helens Archives "The Trial and Acquittal of John Smith for the Murder of Adam Mather"

4 Thought to be the brother in law of Daniel Mather (Ann's son)

5 Visit Adam's Page