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.

-Colin

Marriage at Abenhall - 4 August 1825

Charles BENNETT - Bachelor, Hundred of St Briavels

married

Frances WHALDING - Spinster, Hundred of St briavels

by banns

witnesses: (illegible) Mason and mark of Hannah MARFELL
--

!!!
2 very young children of Charles & Frances BENNETT are buried at Ruardean

William - 26 January 1826 - aged 2 weeks
Lydia - 1 November 1829 - aged 5 months

------
Charles BENNETT was christened 16 January 1797 - Ruardean -
parents William BENNETT 1775-1847 and Lidia GAGG - 1776-1826

Charles BENNET death 15 August 1829 - age 32 - Woodside Ruardean

---

Gloucestershire Parish Church Montages

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~engcots/MontageIndex.html

and go down to Ruardean - there appears to be Wall tablets in the Church for John & Lydia BENNETT and many more BENNETT's including Charles (photograph of his tablet, mentioning his two children who died in infancy)- so assume they owned the house that Frances was left to live in…..

John BENNETT's Memorial - date of death 27 September 1866

Ancestry: Probate Records

John BENNETT Effects Under £800 - Resworn a the Stamp Office April 1868 - Under £450

5 January …

The Will of John BENNETT late of Cinderhill in the Parish of Ruardean, Carpenter, deceased who died 27 September 1866 at Rurdean, was proved at the Principal Registry by the oath of Thomas THOMPSON, Farmer one of the surving Executors.

-- and back to the Newspaper article….

'The inducement to commit the murders was no other than a desire to retain property which would have been forfeited had her second marriage been known'

Ruardean - 21 December 1847

William BENNETT

age 20, Bachelor, Collier, Woodside

father: Charles BENNETT - Collier

married

Elizabeth MASON, Spinster, residence: Ruardean

father: Cornelius MASON, Innkeeper

witnesses: Edwin BENNETT and Sarah HITT

but also this…..

Marriage at Ruardean - 21 December 1841

William BENNETT age 30 - etc etc

and

Elizabeth MASON age 26 - etc etc

`notes: See Entry no. 60 in the Duplicate Register

On Gloucestershirebdm

---

Is this Edwin BENNETT' marriage at Newnham - 29 September 1842 (age 15 on 1841 census)

Edwin BENNETT of full age

Bachelor, residence: Hundred of St Briavels

father: Charles BENNETT - Carpenter

married

Elizabeth LEEDHAM

age 19, Spinster, Hundred of St Briavels

father: William LEEDHAM, flax dresser

by banns

witnesses: Wm. LEEDHAM and Mary Ann WHITSON

---

1841 Census Upper Bilson

LEESHAM

William - 56 - not born in County
Elizabeth - 55 - ditto
William - 34 - born in County
Elizabeth - 17 - born in County

---

1881 Census, Westbury on Severn East Dean

Edwin BARRETT - 58 - Coal miner, born East Dean
Elizabeth BARRETT - 56

----

FOD

Baptism(s) at Ruardean - 15 December 1822

ParentsSurname: WALDING - (there's another entry under the surname : BENNET

Edwin Bennet WALDING + Edwin BENNET BENNET

parents: Charles & Fanny

residence: Woodside

+ two memoranda:

Natural son of - may be known as BENNET - also may be known as WALDING

---

On GloucestershireBDM - Frances BARRETT was aged 38 on her death in 1842 = c1804

? this might be her baptism at Ruardean - 4 July 1804

Fanny WALDEN -

father's forenames: not stated

mother's forenames: Hannah

---

? Hannah WALDEN's burial??? age 71 - residence: Woodside (Widow)

27 January 1833 at Ruardean

and as Frances 'died' the next day (i.e. 17 November 1842)

Freebdm

Death: District: Gloucester

Oct/Nov/Dec Qtr 1845

Frances BENNETT

Volume: 11

Page 243

and GlosBDM: Frances BENNETT 1842 - age 38, Gloucester/Kingsholm

___

Fod Records

William BENNETT, parents, Charles (Farmer) & Fanny

residence: Woodside (the 1841 census covers Woodside)

1 April 1827

?? William aged 12 on the 1841 census

?? Baptism at Ruardean Congregational: 19 April 1832

Elizabeth BENNETT: parents James & Fanny

---

It would seem William BENNETT possibly stayed in the same house (1851 census, Ruardean, Woodside and subsequent census)

BENNETT

William - 24 - Coal Miner - born Glos East Dean (lots of children up the 1871 - mother's maiden name MASON)
Elizabeth - 23 - born Ruardean
Lydia - 5 - born Ruardean
Jane - 4 months, born East Dean

and next door

MARFELL

Levi - 31 Coal Miner
Lydia - 26
Triphena - 6
Rhoda - 4
Albert - 2

----

Ancestry: Criminal Register

Name: Thomas YAPP

Age: 34

Date of Trial: 5 April 1843

Location of Trial: Gloucestershire, England

Sentence: Acquittal

-----

Thomas YEAPES 1841 census, says he was born in the County

The Tablet, 12th November 1842

"HORRIBLE AND SYSTEMATIC INFANTICIDE. — A Gloucester paper states, that a woman, named Frances Bennett, residing at Ruardean Hill, in the Forest of Dean, being very ill, and probably fearing to die with the undivulged guilt of murder upon her conscience, communicated to the Rev. Henry Formby, curate of Ruardean, that about 12 months since she became the mother of a child by a man named Thomas Yapp, with whom she has been cohabiting for about eight or ten years, which child, after it had lived a few days, she destroyed by poisoning it, after which she and Yapp buried it beneath the pavement of the brewhouse. The wretched woman further added that she had been the mother of five other children by the same man, all of whom she had murdered at their birth, and, with Yapp's assistance, had buried their bodies at separate spots beneath the floor of the brewhouse, and near a barn adjoining her cottage. On searching the place the skeletons have been found to confirm the confession of the deranged mother."

and also (The Tablet, 3rd Dec 1842)

" . . . she was brought to gaol on the 17th, and on the 18th died—happy, as she said, in having made confession of her guilt. The unnatural mother was only in her 38th year. Before her intimacy with Yapp she had several children by a husband whose name she bore. The inducement to commit the murder was no other than a desire to retain property which would have been forfeited had her second marriage been known."

There appears to be a matching 1841 census entry:
FoD, Hundred of St Briavels

Fanny Bennett 35 (widow crossed out)
Edwin Bennett 15
William Bennett 12
Thomas Yeapes 30

Among the neighbours were (I believe I am related to at least three of these):
George Marfell 55
Levi Marfell 65
Thomas Marfell 45
Amos Yemm 20

A Thomas Yapp was acquited of murder as accessory at Gloucester Assizes in 1843.

-Colin