2012/1 pp6–7

An attempted murder and suicide at Ewell in 1869

From The Times, Saturday 25 December 1869:

We reported on Thursday an extraordinary tragedy which occurred on Wednesday morning at Ewell, Surrey. A man named Thomas Huggett had been living with a woman named Lizzie Richardson for some months, and she left him, going to live with her sister, the wife of a carman named Spooner, in West Street. There was also lodging in the house a South Western Railway Company’s porter, named Smith, another man and Spooner’s two children. Hugett came down to Ewell by the last train on Tuesday night, and his strange appearance was noticed by the station master, who ordered him out of the premises. He went, as subsequently confessed, and stole a bag of powder from Messrs. Sharp’s mills, where he had worked as a carman some time ago. He hid himself in an outhouse, and when the woman Richardson came down in the morning at 3 o’clock to get Spooner’s breakfast, Huggett got into the house. She screamed, and Spooner ran downstairs, stopping Huggett from following the woman. During a struggle between Spooner and Huggett the latter broke away and threw the bag of powder into the fire.

A fearful explosion was the result, the partition wall of the next house being blown down. Huggett was blown through it, and Spooner so seriously injured that for a time his life was despaired of. Huggett died at half past 10 on Wednesday morning; Smith, who was in the house, was removed to Guy’s Hospital, and Spooner to the Hop Pole, where he now lives in a dangerous state. The dead man, who is Thomas Huggett, had lived with the woman Richardson for about six months, but why or when they parted had not transpired. He had been employed some time since in bringing kegs down from London to the powder mills of Mr. John Carr Sharp, and thus was well acquainted with the premises from whence he stole the powder with which he blew up the house. His body is much blackened, and when Dr. Barnes was called to him, a few minutes after the explosion, he found him lying in the adjacent house, having been blown through the partition wall, and for some time he could not be roused to consciousness. Upon the examination made in his dying condition, it was seen that he had a wound in his left side, and since his death it appears to be between the fifth and sixth ribs, penetrating the heart; but how the wound was inflicted is at present a mystery. The man Spooner had made no statement as to the knife being in Huggett’s hand at the time of the struggle. It is clear that Huggett could not have stabbed himself after the explosion, though, if he had the knife in hand, the stab might have been done by accident when the deceased was driven by the shock through the partition. His clothes were saturated with blood. Huggett had strewed the floor of the cottage with gunpowder, so that of his diabolical intention there can be no doubt. Dr. Barnes entertains strong hopes of Spooner’s recovery, although reports have been rife in the village that he could not live many hours. Rumour also assigns the cause to jealousy of the man Smith, who lies at Guy’s Hospital, but there does not seem to be foundation for it so far as it can be ascertained. The woman Richardson is, of course, reticent. Mr. W. Carter has appointed Monday for holding the inquest.

Barbara Abdy