Whittington families » Sarah PARKER (WESTWOOD) (1801-1844)

Personal data Sarah PARKER (WESTWOOD) 

• She was born in the year 1801 in Farewell, Lichfield, Staffs.
• She was christened on October 12, 1800 in St Mary, Lichfield, Staffordshire, England.

  Attention: Baptized (October 12, 1800) before born (??-??-1801) .

• She died on January 13, 1844 in Hung, The Last Woman To Be Hanged In Stafford Gaol, she was 43 years old.

  Age:42-43

• She is buried on January 13, 1844 in Stafford Gaol Yard (Unmarked Grave).
• A child of Charles PARKER and Elizabeth CRADDOCK (PARKER)
• This information was last updated on July 30, 2015.

Household of Sarah PARKER (WESTWOOD)

She is married to John WESTWOOD.

They got married on December 22, 1823 at St. Michaels, Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, she was 22 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Mary Ann WESTWOOD (DERRY)  1824-1889 
2. Charles WESTWOOD  1826-1916 
3. Elizabeth WESTWOOD  1829-1908
4. Harriet WESTWOOD  1830-1904 
5. Eliza WESTWOOD (LATHAM)  1833-1919 
6. Keziah WESTWOOD  1836-????
7. Amy WESTWOOD (WESTWOOD)  1838-1889 
8. John (Infant) WESTWOOD  1841-1842

Notes about Sarah PARKER (WESTWOOD)

1841 Burntwood (St Michael, Lichfield) Census -

quo;/b»

Mary WESTWOOD. 17. Nailor. Yes.

Charles WESTWOOD. 14. Nailor. Yes.

Elizabeth WESTWOOD.12. Yes.

Harriett WESTWOOD. 10. Yes.

Eliza WESTWOOD. 7. Yes.

Keziah WESTWOOD. 5. Yes.

Amy WESTWOOD. 3. Yes.

John WESTWOOD. 2mths. Yes.

Samuel PHILLIPS. 35. nailor. Yes - born in Staffs.

ohn Westwood

Body in good condition. Bowels in intense state of

inflammation. Lungs are dark coloured and turgid. The internal organs are

good. There is presence of Arsenic in the stomach. There are small grains in

the bowels. Arsenic from the stomach was produced in a medallic state onto a

piece of glass.

r. Before dinner had headache and feeling

cold. He had dinner at 12 of Gruel followed by meat and bread. He then went

to bed for a lie down. He was sick at 3pm. He was chilly at 5pm. 9pm he was

823 in St Michael, Lichfield, STS.

May 1801 in St

Bartholomew, Farewell, STS,died on 13 January 1844 in Stafford Gaol,

Stafford, Sts,, at age 43, and was buried in January 1844 in

eneral Notes:

ife of John Westwood, a nailmaker

at Burntwood in Staffordshire. In 1843 he was 40 and she 42.

They had been married for twenty years and, apart from an

illegitimate child of Sarah's from before her marriage, had

seven children. Three of their offspring had left home but

one son, Charles, who worked with his father, and four

little girls remained at home.

on the ground

in a lane. Sarah stood by and was encouraging Phillips with

cries of 'Kill him!. Her husband was heard to demand of

Phillips, 'Damn your eyes! What was you doing at her

when I knocked you down?'

rtly afterwards a row broke out between the couple when

they were at the home of Robert Westwood, John's brother.

John accused Phillips and Sarah of stealing some ale, which

denied. Her husband ordered her to stop going out with

Phillips, hut she refused and swore at him.

ed to reaping at harvest time. Women played as big a part

as men, walking behind the reapers and bundling the corn into

sheaves. That night Sarah refused to go home with John, sitting

all night by Robert Westwood's fire and complaining that, 'It's

hard work to go out reaping and have to sit by the fire'.

n John invited

Sarah to go 'a-tea drinking' at the Bell Inn. Sarah refused and

John replied, 'If I hadn't wanted to have gone you'd have been

there. Recollect you wanted to make a child of me by locking

the door last night'.

/p>

his son spent the morning working together, after which John

complained of feeling starved. Astonishingly, Samuel Phillips

was still lodging there but was not at home, so John, Sarah,

Charles and the three little girls ate together. John had gruel

with sugar and butter, some meat and fried bread. Eliza West-

wood, aged 10, remembered hearing him ask her mother what

was the white substance mixed in his gruel and Sarah replying

that she did not know.

of the Bible then went to rest on his bed, something

he had done after recovering from typhus a year before.

p>Charles heard his mother ask whether she should send for a

doctor. John refused, saying that he would be alright if he

could only get warm, but an hour later he was dead.

The dead man's family voiced some suspicions and there was a

postmortem, then Sarah was arrested and committed for trial.

The hearing opened at Stafford Assizes on 28th December1843.

on 1st November and

asked if Hannah knew how to cure 'the itch'. They had gone

together to a chemist's shop, where Hannah bought hellebore,

arsenic and red and white precipitate. She had mixed them

with her fingers, while in the shop, and had told Sarah that

the mixture would 'cure the rankish itch in twenty four hours

by wearing the linen for a fortnight '(sic).

chemist's shop in Walsall. She was

alone, but the chemist knew Hannah Mason well and sold her

the ingredients for the ointment.

stomach had contained

a huge amount of arsenic, between a quarter and half an ounce.

cy. Judge's disliked recommendations to

mercy for poisoners and she was sentenced to death. Pleading

pregnancy as a reason for a reprieve, she was examined by a

jury of matrons appointed by the Court. They found that she

was not pregnant, and she was hanged at Stafford on 13th Janu-

ary 1844. It seemed that no one was curious about the fact that

it was Phillips's mother who showed Sarah how to get arsenic.

Sarah Westwood

of Burntwood. She was convicted of administering Arsenic to her husband John

Westwood, a nailer, in a bowl of gruel. There was suspicion of a third party

nt. Samuel Phillips, who lodged with the Westwoods and worked with

the husband. After her conviction, Sarah claimed she was pregnant and a panel

of nurses were to consider her claim. Itwas considered unfounded. Samuel

Phillips tried to visit Sarah under the guise of being a relation, the visit

was not allowed.

trength deserted her and she was carried

to the drop by two officers. Sarah was seated on a stool placed on the trap

door and right up to the end pleaded her innocence, stating "it was hard to die

for a thing one is innocent of".

rles 16, Elizabeth 14, Harriet 12,

Eliza 9, Sarah 7, Amy 5 and a boy of two at the time of execution.

He died

October 25, 1893.

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Sarah PARKER (WESTWOOD)?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Sarah PARKER (WESTWOOD)

Click on the names for more info. Symbols used:  grandparents    parents    brothers/sisters    children