Three Little Marlow Scandals

The village today, above.

Breach of Promise

In 1885 Little Marlow resident William Goggs De Bunting was sued for breach of promise by Alice Maud Haygarth of Roseville, Bridge Road, Maidenhead. Alice was a widow and said that having promised to marry her William dropped her in favour of another, richer woman. William had no hope of winning the case after he first stated that there was no promise and then somewhat backtracked and said that if (hypothetically of course) there had been one it would of have quite rightly been ended by him as a result of her misrepresenting her wealth to him. The unimpressed jury awarded Alice £450 compensation.

William was a native of Norfolk born in 1837. He was a printer in London before moving to Little Marlow. He had been declared bankrupt 17 years previously.

The marriage he actually made was to Elise or Eliza Blackwell Macgregor in London in 1884. Two years later they sued each other for divorce. She alleged cruelty and adultery. He accused her of adultery herself with a Robert Standish.

It seems the divorce was granted as William was married again in 1888. He had moved back to London by then.

I was not able to trace Alice Haygarth further.

The Death Of Maria Young

In 1862 fourteen year old Maria Young of Marlow Bottom Farm contracted St Vitus dance. A complication of an infection, especially rheumatic fever, it results in the sufferer making involuntary jerking movements with their limbs. Some patients exhibit psychiatric symptoms too like uncontrolled weeping.

Her parents sent for a Wooburn doctor and chemist George Walter James. He told them that the condition was rarely dangerous and prescribed some medicine. He received letters from them saying that Maria was "rather worse" but still did not consider her case urgent. No one sent for him for a further visit so he presumed some nearer doctor was dealing with the case if necessary.

Nevertheless when his other duties took him around a mile away from Maria he asked after her and was surprised to hear that she was seriously ill. He visited her and told her parents that she needed to be put in a "straight coat" to prevent her accidentally harming herself with her movements. He said that he would bring her one.

But he didn't. Besieged he said with patients at his home, and working through illness himself he was unable to get away again before Maria died. A verdict of manslaughter through neglect came against him from the Little Marlow jury after an inquest at the Black Lion, Well End*

The furious doctor wrote a letter of complaint to the South Bucks Free Press. He said her parents, the vicar and others who had seen the girl had been neglectful in not sending to him with urgency when they saw her worsen further. Why they had not summoned a Marlow doctor if they were worried he could not understand. He also said he never took on outlying patients who needed repeated visits because he was too busy with walk-in patients at Wooburn. The implication was any family who did call him out would understand that. In any case he said he had to prioritise the obviously dangerous cases he had above rarely dangerous ones like a patient with St Vitus Dance. He had patients due to give birth and others dangerously ill. He could not afford to leave them to go on a 6 mile round trip to give a patient something that was not life saving, only a matter of comfort or to visit a patient whose life shouldn't be in danger.

A Grand Jury threw out the charges against him.

To be fair to George no doctor felt that the advice or basic treatment prescribed to Maria had been incorrect. I could find no cases of anyone dying of St Vitus's dance. It usually gets better in a few months of its own accord and isn't necessarily even treated today. You have to suspect whatever infection had caused the St Vitus was the real cause of her death. But if he had been able to see Maria more often might he not have realised she needed additional treatment? Her parents, having been told by him that her condition might seem dramatic but was really not a big concern, can't be blamed for taking George at his word in that respect and not pressing him more earnestly to return to her.

George himself died aged 62 in 1865. He had moved to Bucks only in the 1850s from Staffordshire. He was by then a widower.

I was unable to trace Maria and her parents. There are Youngs in Little Marlow on the 1861 census but no Maria. No Youngs were the tenants of Little Marlow Farm in 1860 or in 1869.

The Bailey Murder Case

In 1920 Kate Bailey (known as Kitty) was murdered by her husband George who became the last man hung at Oxford Gaol as a result. She had been poisoned. Kate was pregnant at the time. 

Three women were in the jury and one of them asked the judge to be excused service on the grounds that women should be shielded from hearing disturbing evidence. Many people male and female would have agreed with that view at the time but the judge dismissed their objections saying "There is no delicacy here [in a courtroom]". Counsel was also warned to stop hesitating to ask "indelicate" questions of the accused on the grounds that there were ladies present! The Bailey trial was the very first murder case in England involving female jurors. It took place in Aylesbury.

George was a dairyman and had administered prussic acid to poor Kate probably in her tea at their home Barn Cottage. (Aka Old Barn Cottage, Church Lane) Her body was found wrapped in a sheet and hidden under a camp bed in a bedroom. At trial the defence argued she had committed suicide. George claimed he saw her drink the acid from an eggcup and had in the act of dying invited him to "come too". They had an infant daughter Hollie, and Bailey suggested later he had intended to kill her too. He certainly drugged her and laid the girl next to her dead mother for several hours. 

A large number of locally bought drugs were found in the Bailey home. George said he bought then to use in a new business he wanted to set up as farrier while the bottle of prussic acid on his person when arrested was for killing ants and wasps he insisted. He had pretended to be a vet previously in order to get drugs from wholesalers but was refused. Hence the reckless local buying.

Shortly after the murder George induced a young woman Lily Marks to stay at his home saying he needed her to help him demonstrate a new "music system" he had supposedly invented. He then repeatedly tried to attack her over the course of 8 hours. It seems his plans to seduce Lily was the motivation for removing Kate from his life.

George appealed against his sentence but it was refused. He wrote many rambling letters to the public which stress he considered he had a great gift for music and was misunderstood. His greatest gift however appeared to be committing fraud, for which he had several previous convictions and had served jail time. The murdered woman had also spent a short period in prison for following Baileys orders and cashing a stolen cheque on his behalf. Their little daughter was therefore born in prison. 

Marlow's Inspector West was one of the policeman that discovered Kate's body, while PC Poole was one of those that arrested Bailey at Reading. Other local people involved in the case were Drs Dunbar Dickson and Wills of Marlow who carried out the post mortem in the presence of Home Office Pathologist Dr Spilsbury. He appeared twice at the Marlow Police Court in Trinity Rd, and on both occasions was met by a good crowd of angry locals, heavily dominated by vocal women who could apparently be heard from some distance. The same also saw Bailey off at Marlow train station on his way back to Oxford Prison where he was being held. The ladies "invaded" the platform and still more angry crowds saw him at Bourne End. 

Kate is buried in Little Marlow. 

*For a list of the Black Lion historic landlords with information about them see here

Sources:

Divorce File, National Archives, Kew. Ref J77/365/1018.

The Bookseller, the Organ of the Book Trade Volume 10. Booksellers Association. Published by J Whitaker 1867.

GRO marriage registration and death registration indexes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydenham%27s_chorea

My census transcriptions.

South Bucks Free Press 12th December 1862.

Newspaper Sources for Kate Bailey murder: Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 14th and 17th January 1921.

All newspapers at British Library Archives and accessed via their partnership with the BNA.

To IA ANY TYLERS, borgnis, Wright's. Cresswell.