A
Poisoning Mystery At Godley
From the book
OLD GODLEY
By Thomas Middleton
Godley
Hill was the scene of a brutal poisoning case during the 1840s, which
resulted in the death of a man named Brook. This man and his sons
were coal miners, and lived in a small house on Godley Hill. Brook’s
wife became intimate with a pedlar, and some time after the
commencement of this intimacy Brook died suddenly. Then the widow
married the pedlar, and the two lived very unhappily for several
years. At length the pedlar went to Chief Constable Little, of Hyde,
and made a confession. He stated that Brooks’s death was the result
of poison, and that he (the pedlar) had purchased arsenic from a druggist
in Stalybridge; that Mrs. Brook administered the poison to her
husband by mixing it with a pudding which he ate, and that a piece of
the pudding which was left was afterwards thrown away, and eaten by
some hens belonging to Israel Stott, who at that time kept the Olive
Tree Inn – the hens all dying from the effects of poison. Brooks
body was exhumed, and an inquiry instituted. Mr. Lancashire, the
coffin maker, testified that the coffin exhumed was the one which he
had buried Brooks; Israel Stott testified to the loss of his poultry;
a potion of Brook’s stomach was given to Dr. Alcock, of Hyde, and
another potion to Prof. Calvert, Analytical Chemist, of Manchester,
and both these gentlemen testified that the stomach contained
arsenic. The evidence against the pedlar and his wife seemed
condemning, but at trial both prisoners were acquitted on a point of
law as to the testimony of the husband against the wife, and the
wife against the husband. The public however, were convinced of
their guilt. There was a ballad composed concerning the above
tragedy, which runs as follows:
Oh, give attention, both young and old,
To
these few verses which I unfold,
It’s
of a murder, as you know,
Which
was committed six years ago.
The
neighbours all do remember still
That
one J. Brooks lived on Godley Hill
For
many years free from pain and strife,
Till
he was poisoned by his own wife.
This
wretched women, you’ll understand,
Kept
company with another man;
Her
faithful husband she did betray,
And
cruelly took his life away.
How
could she harbour it in her mind
to
slay a husband so good and kind?
He
was respected by each degree,
And
laboured hard in a colliery.
‘Twas
Satan tempted his wretched wife.
With
deadly poison to take his life,
Of
which she gave him, good people all,
But
no suspicion on her did fall.
Poor
Brooks was buried, you’ll understand,
And
she got wed to this other man;
Robert
Thornley is his name,
And
he assisted her in the same.
They
had been parted a year or more,
His
guilty conscience being wounded sore
By
night or day he could find no rest,
So
to the murder he now confessed.
Then
she was taken and brought to Hyde,
The
dreadful murder she has denied,
But
Thornley has confessed the whole
And
God above knows her guilty soul.
In
Mottram Churchyard, as I have heard,
His
moldered body was disinterred,
The
stomach carefully was analysed,
At
which result you will be surprised.
The
poison found by the medical men,
As
much, they say, as would poison ten;
What
a wretched partner must she be
To
slay the father of her family.
They’re
both committed, in woe and wail,
For
wilful murder to Chester Jail,
To
stand their trial for the horrid deed
Which
causes their wicked hearts to bleed.
