Seamus Breathnach’s Irish-criminology.

com examines Irish society through its norm-creating as well as its

norm-breaking agencies. These include the Church controls of Ireland’s State -- its Schools, Law, Police,
Courts, Prisons, Media and much more…

 
15.) Addenda

15a.) Memorable Irish murders (Book #17)

15c.) The Carlow calendar (Book #19)

15d.) Irish American cases (Book #20)

15e.) The criminology of selected Irish writers

 
 
Sarah Anne Pearson
 

Agnes Black
 
 A Case Of Nerves

30.03.1905 Sarah Anne Pearson (38) and Agnes Black ( ) were

capitally sentenced for the murder by poisoning of Alice Pearson
(74) at Mullalelist near Richill, Co. Armagh on 27th January 1904.
Judge: Mr Justice Wright, Co. Armagh
Hangman: Sentences Commuted
Trial Date: 30th March, 1905, Co. Armagh
Archives Ref: P – 4 –1905
+ (B –9- 1906) + (B – 27 –1910)
At the time of her death Alice Pearson was 74 years of age. She had worked as a domestic
servant for a respectable farmer named John Troughton for 20 years. Troughton lived at a place
called Troughton`s Hill, Mullalelist near Richhill, Co. Armagh .By all accounts Alice had been a
careful, thrifty and an industrious employee, and when she left Troughton`s employment in 1899,
she had £103.0.4 in her account with the Post office saving bank.
Too old for further service in 1899, Alice left John Troughton and settled down in a small cottier’s
house not far from where she had worked. She was a widow with two grown-up children - a son,
Isaac Pearson, who at the time had been married to Sarah Anne Pearson for some 10 or 11 years,
and a daughter, Agnes, who got married to George Black.
Up to 1903 Alice lived alone in the cottier’s house. In April she decided to send for her daughter
Agnes and to pay her fare to Richhill. At that time Agnes and George Black lived in Scotland. When
she came to Armagh, she stayed with Alice as planned. Indeed, she stayed on until February 1904,
when she left the cottage. Around this time also Sarah Anne came to live in Alice’s cottage.
The two younger women -- that is, the daughter, Agnes Black, and the daughter-in-law, Sarah
Anne Pearson – began to fight. The quarrels were frequent, and continued for about a month.
Then Agnes and George left the cottage and took up residence in another cottage about a half mile
away from Alice’s place.
This meant that Alice shared her house with Sarah Anne for some five months from the end of
January or the beginning of February 1904, until the 27th June , when Alice Pearson died. The
only other person – apart from the neighbours -- who visited the cottage was Isaac, Alice’s son and
Sarah’s husband. Isaac was employed as a labourer in Portadown and when he visited the
cottage, it was invariably on weekends. He would arrive on a Saturday afternoon, remain on until
the following Sunday evening, and then he would return to Portadown.
On the 27th June 1904 Alice Pearson died under suspicious circumstances. It wasn’t for another
four months -- until October, in fact - - that District Inspector Thomas Cottingham of Portadown RIC
had any notion that anything was amiss ;for by this stage Alice had been well and truly buried and
all the parties had fled the scene. Sarah and Isaac took themselves to Canada and Agnes and
George took themselves to England. It was when Sarah was arrested on something minor in
Canada that she mentioned the poisoning of Alice.
On October 14th Inspector Cottingham, now appraised of a possible murder in his district, made
up his mind to apply for an exhumation order.. An exhumation order – not always easy to acquire --
proved to be absolutely necessary. In his sworn Information Inspector Cottingham of the RIC swore
that he had reason to believe
 “That she (Alice) died from the effect of poison which was unlawfully
administered to her by her daughter-in-law Sarah Anne Pearson of Mullalelish,
and who is now living in or near Montreal, Canada, and her daughter Agnes
Black late of Mullalelish and now residing at No. 6 Hodgen Street, Wellington
Quay near Newcastleon- Tyne, England, and I pray a warrant for the arrest of
the said Sarah Anne Pearson.”
The subsequent post mortem examination carried out on November 7th confirmed the fact that
Alice had died from an intake of strychnine. After Sarah’s extradition both defendants were duly
indicted for murder in Armagh. The crown elected to try Sarah Anne Pearson separately, stating
that it would prejudice the case of both prisoners if they were tried together. When first arraigned
(on the morning of Thursday 9th March, 1904), Sarah Anne Pearson ` distinctly and audibly
pleaded guilty. `
The Judge of trial, Mr. Justice Wright, was uncomfortable with this early capitulation and would not
accept the plea. After some preliminary discussion, he directed that Sarah’s solicitor explain to her
the gravity of her position and, of course, the consequences of such a plea. After a short interval
Sarah Anne was again put forward and this time she pleaded `not guilty ` - whereupon her trial
commenced.
The motive behind the murder was never conceived as anything else but greed. That old Alice had
some money in her Post Office account was well known. And if her account had seriously
diminished, it had diminished mainly because of her generosity and the withdrawals made during
the period her daughter and daughter-in-law’s visit. The withdrawals notwithstanding, Alice still
retained the sum of £38.3.10d in her account, a fact that was not overlooked by Sarah Anne!
According to John Troughton, her old employer, Alice was a pale and hearty woman for her time of
life. Throughout all the years he knew her, she never had any serious ailment - but from the time
that her daughter came to live with her, she was constantly suffering from acute diarrhoea,
complain-ing uncharacteristically of what country folk called a `cutting of the bowel`. Even her
doctor conceded that he had not treated her for some eight years. `The only time I ever treated
her`, he said, ` was for an infection of the eyes -- and that was more than eight years before her
death.`
Things had surely changed. Troughton, who was the dispensary warden for the district, issued a
`red` ticket to her on 12th June 1903, under which the dispensary doctor treated her. He issued a
further ticket on 23rd January 1904.. And throughout 1904 these symptoms and complaints
became more frequent.
Of course it may have meant nothing but people noticed that from the time they ceased to live
together, the two accused persons, Agnes Black and Sarah Anne Pearson, were very friendly
toward each other.
They constantly met and were most intimate with each other. On one occasion, in March 1904
James Troughton met the two accused and Agnes Black asked him in the presence of Sarah Anne
to go into Richhill and buy quicksilver for her. She even gave him a bottle to take with him
- ‘ Who are you going to poison?’ He asked jocosely.
- ‘No one,’ said she; ‘I want it to mend a looking glass that my husband uses for shaving’.
Agnes Black hadn’t the money to pay for the quicksilver and Sarah Anne Pearson handed it to her.
She in turn gave it to Troughton, who bought the quicksilver that day in Richhill and handed the
bottle and its contents that night to Agnes Black, again in Sarah’s presence.
The trouble with the evidence was that it suggested – not one, but two means of murder,
quicksilver and strychnine. The medical experts tried to elucidate. According to Thomas
Richardson Griffiths, a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh and of the Royal
College of surgeons Edinburgh...........
“I am of the opinion that the cause of Alice Pearson’s death was strychnine
poisoning…
Strychnine is excreted very slowly. Strychnine acts entirely on the spinal cord,
and would not cause the inflammation found in the small bowel and rectum, in
 my opinion -- nor would the mercury that was found in the body be the cause
of the inflammation as it had not got that far. Continuous small doses of
metallic mercury given earlier would be sufficient to account for the
inflammation. The mercury found in the stomach must have been taken very
recently. In my opinion it was taken with the last meal the woman had before
her death or very shortly after that meal. Successive doses of metallic mercury
would cause diarrhoea. A large single dose might cause diarrhoea. The
symptoms of strychnine poisoning are violent contractions of all the voluntary
muscles with great anxiety of countenance and perspiration and great difficulty
in breathing. These attacks are intermittent with complete cessation between
them. The sufferer knows when an attack is approaching. This metallic
mercury is commonly known in the County as quicksilver.”
This medical evidence helped to clear up some of the misgivings between the two competing
substances and the evidence tendered. That Alice Pearson was given mercury with her last meal
or shortly afterwards was also helpful in confining the murder to her in-laws, while the evidence of
Alice’s neighbours, Elizabeth and Annie Troughton (widow and daughter), captured the
desperation of her final moments.
Elizabeth Troughton said:
“ I remember the day Alice Pearson died. It was a Monday she died - before
two o clock. I went into her house to see her about a quarter of an hour after
she took the illness that ended in her death. Just as I was going in I heard
Alice Pearson shouting `Sarah Anne don’t leave me`, and when I went in I
found Sarah Anne Pearson in the kitchen. Sarah Anne was in the outer
kitchen. Alice was in the sleeping room off the parlour as they call it. She was
in bed with all her clothes and her boots and bonnet on her. When she took the
turns she every bit shook and she would give loud screams and clutch the bed
stick with her right hand. She took a turn nearly every two minutes when I was
there, and I stayed more than a quarter of an hour.
Alice said to me: ‘ Bess, its the nerves’”
Annie Troughton, described by the police as "a single woman resident with her mother”, also
remembered the day Alice died. She happened to be "carrying water " that day, which meant that
she was carrying two empty cans past the Pearson house on her way to the well. Alice cried out
`You are carrying a lot of water today`. Elizabeth said she could hear the voice of Sarah Anne
Pearson admonishing her from within the cottage : `you could not let the girl pass by.’ She then
saw Alice Pearson sitting on a chair at the in front of the door:
"That was about 11 and half o clock. In the morning and she then appeared to
be in her usual condition of health. Later in the day, that is about one o’ clock
or a quarter past it, I went into Alice Pearson’s house and saw Alice Pearson in
her bed. She was dressed in her ordinary clothes and her boots on her. I
remained about half an hour there was no other person in the house but the
old woman and Sarah Anne Pearson .The old woman was tossing about on
her bed. She asked me to sit down and said she was going to die; that she
would not get out of this. I said to her it was sudden. And she said she had
taken a hearty dinner. When I went into the house Sarah Anne Pearson was in
the kitchen and before I went into the room where the old woman was, Sarah
Anne said to me: “You have been weak yourself and you are better.” Without
seeing her -- and while I was in the room with Alice Pearson -- Sarah Anne
said to her: “You had better keep praying.” Sarah Anne lived with her for a few
months and if Sarah Anne went out and stayed too long, they would have
some loud words when she would return. I was not there when Alice Pearson
died, as I went for a neighbouring woman Mary Troughton, and when we came
back in about five minutes she was dead. When I left to go for Mary Troughton
Agnes Black was standing beside her mother’s bed."
Sarah Anne Pearson was convicted at Armagh Assizes on March 9th, and sentenced to be hanged
on March 30th, 1905 by Mr Justice Wright.
In the meantime a rather monster list of signatures against the hanging began to fill out the Petition
for clemency. Artisans from Armagh, Portadown, and Lurgan signed up. There were farmers and
farm labourers; there were weavers, hairdressers, and teachers. Others signed as housewives,
housemaids, spinsters, and widows. They signed from Tandragee, Derryhale, Lisavague,
Artabrack, Drumkelly, Derrylard, Liskeyboro, Annaboe, Mullalitra, Kilmore, Money. Others still came
from Cavan, Tullygarden, Corglass, and Ballywilly. A winding master and 16 winders put their
names to the petition, and 25 soldiers from barracks made up the list that spread over 200
foolscap pages.
Their prayers were answered, not by God but by Drs. O’Farrell and Sir George Courtenay,
Inspectors of Lunatics, who helped to have both , sentences after examination commuted to Penal
Servitude for life.

 
 

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