Frances Bennett / Thomas Yapp c1840 (General)

by rousseau , Herefordshire, England, Friday, June 12, 2015, 08:34 (3453 days ago) @ cmfenton

The case was a national sensation in November and December 1842, widely covered in the national press and in all the local newspapers throughout the UK (often taking their account from the Gloucester Journal). Unfortunately, the papers didn't go into the detail of names that would have helped nail her precise identity. They say she was married to a man called "Bennett" but didn't give his first name. They say her sister was a witness at the inquest into the deaths of the children, but don't name her.

However, the papers do give us enough clues to piece this together. For example, the sister is said to have lived "next door" and had never noticed she was pregnant at various times (six at least) over the previous ten years. They also say that Frances (Fanny) denied having any other children than the two she gave her husband, who were still alive. They say she had co-habited with Thomas Yapp some ten or 12 years since her husband had died. They say that in Gloucester Prison she told the nurse she was aged 38. There was some argument in the newspapers about whether she was a Forester or a resident of Ruardean. But it was clear established she lived in the extra-parochial part of Ruardean, and was therefore a Forester.

Using all these clues, it is possible to establish beyond doubt that she was the Fanny Bennett who appears with her sons Edwin Bennett and William Bennett in the 1841 census for Newman's Bottom in the extra-parochial part of Ruardean. Living next door to her were George and Hannah Marfell. Hannah was Hannah Walden before she married George Marfell. And a Hannah Marfell appears as a witness at Fanny's marriage to Charles Bennett in 1825. It seems clear that Hannah Marfell (nee Walden) is the sister referred to in the newspapers.

Fanny's age of 38 in December 1842 puts her year of birth at 1804 and there is a Fanny Walden baptised at Ruardean on 4 July 1804. Although the 1925 marriage register gives her surname as "Whalding" it seems clear she was in fact "Walden".

Fanny Bennett had only two children (which ties in with the newspaper reports) with Charles Bennett. And these are confirmed by the baptism registers and the 1841 Census (they are still living with her at Newman's Bottom). In fact, Edwin was born out of wedlock in 1822 and William was born after the marriage.

Fanny's husband, Charles Bennett, died in 1829. Although I have not found his will, the newspapers say that he left her a property and some money on the strict condition that she remain his widow. Should she re-marry, then she had to forfeit the inheritance. The newspapers naturally ascribed this to being the root cause of the tragic events that followed over the next 12 years. Charles' death in 1829 gives us the 12 years described by the newspapers as the period during which her relationship with Thomas Yapp developed. It seems that soon after Charles' death Thomas Yapp moved into Fanny's cottage. The newspapers claim she couldn't afford to marry him (he being a poor labourer) and so they co-habited. During this period she bore him six children and then killed each of them at birth (except the last) in order to conceal her relationship with Yapp. The last, a boy, was allowed to live for two days and then she poisoned him with arsenic.

About a year before she died, Fanny developed pulmonary consumption. In November 1842, feeling she was close to death, and expecting any minute a visit from the Ruardean curate, she confessed to her sister (Hannah Marfell) that she had given birth to six children all of whom she had killed and were now buried under the slabs in the brewhouse, an outbuilding on the property. She wanted the bodies exhumed and buried in consecrated ground. This was then repeated to the curate shortly afterwards. The curate told the police, and Fanny again repeated her story to a police constable. The slabs were taken up and the six bodies confirming her claims were then discovered.

Events moved swiftly. An inquest was held into the deaths of the children. Amazingly, Fanny now retracted her story claiming she had never said anything about this to the curate, her sister, or the police officer. There was some consternation in the coroner's court (and in the press) when the curate revealed that she there were other matters she had divulged to him but which he felt he should not reveal to the court. The coroner let that pass and the curate did not divulge. The press felt that as a protestant clergyman he was under no obligation to keep these secrets and that he had a duty to tell the "whole truth" as he had just sworn so to do.

The inquest jury returned a verdict that Fanny had wilfully murdered her six children and the coroner duly committed her to prison to stand trial in due course. There was little doubt in anyone's minds that Fanny would actually live that long. She arrived at Gloucester Prison in a fly and was carried upstairs to the hospital where she was nursed day and night for eight more days before she finally died on 25 November, 1842. Her body was claimed the following day by unnamed relatives and she was buried that same day in nearby St Nicholas' Churchyard, Gloucester.

Fanny's husband, Charles Bennett (1797-1829) was the son of William Bennett and Lydia Gagg. Charles and Fanny's legitimate son, William Bennett (b 1827) was later to marry Elizabeth Mason (b 1828) who was the daughter of Cornelius Mason (1799-1882) and Lydia Bennett (1804-1880). Cornelius had been Charles best man at the 1825 wedding and he and Hannah Marfell (nee Walden) were the two witnesses. Cornelius Mason's wife, Lydia (nee Bennett) was also a daughter of William Bennett and Lydia Gagg, and therefore Charles' sister. All these family connections are further proof in helping to identify Frances (Fanny) Bennett as the widow of Charles Bennett and the mother of Edwin and William. She must therefore be the Fanny Walden baptised at Ruardean in 1804 and sister of Hannah Marfell (nee Walden) who lived next door in Newman's Bottom in 1841.