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The Mystery of John Webster

19/10/2017

6 Comments

 
Broadcast on Wednesday 18th October 2017 during 'Unsigned Madness' with Stephen and Anne on EGHRadio
Hannah Clive had us all enthralled in the chat room last week with the grisly story of the discovery of a skull in what is now David Attenborough’s garden in 2011.  An inquiry subsequently proved the skull to be that of Julia Martha Thomas who was brutally murdered, dismembered and then boiled by her maid Kate Webster in March 1879.  Body parts were scattered about London with a foot being found in Tottenham, but the majority of what was left of Mrs Thomas was unceremoniously boxed and dumped in the Thames. 

Well, being a general nosey parker as well as a genealogist more digging was required.  I was not disappointed – the papers of the day covered the story extensively and often graphically, such was the Victorian taste for the macabre.  The lengthy transcript of her trial at the Old Bailey on the 30th June that same year is also available online. 

It transpires that Kate Webster was born Catherine Lawler in Ireland in 1850.  She left a veritable trail of crime in her wake and served several prison sentences for theft between 1864 & 79 using several different aliases.  The case in question, however, appears to be her first and last foray into murder.  Perhaps she may have evaded capture if she had not left a note with her uncle’s address in Ireland at the crime scene.  It was to her uncle that she fled with her five year old son and where she was apprehended on the 29th March.  As a direct descendant of a gentleman who danced the hangman’s jig in 1816 I was intrigued to know more about her young son.  Fearing the worst I set off to find out.
A child named John Webster aged about 6 years was admitted here on March 29th.  His mother was charged with the murder of a woman named 'Thomas' in London.  The boy was sent to the Workhouse with an order from W Ryan R.M. to have him admitted pending inquiry being made as to his reception into an Industrial School
​That was narrated by my colleague Michelle Leonard @genealogylass reading from the Poor Law Guardians minutes held in Wexford County Archives.  So - the uncle washed his hands of his nephew the same day his mother was arrested.  Under the Habitual Criminals Act of 1869 made provision for children under 14 of women twice convicted of ‘crime’ to be sent to such Schools.  As such the result is not unexpected.  John Webster’s trail has run cold for the moment, and the lack of surviving census records in Ireland isn’t helping.  If the normal pattern of events unfolded John Webster would have been returned to the parish of his birth, allegedly Kingston upon Thames, or they at least would have been responsible for his costs.  A little more research may be required this side of the Irish Sea.
Picture
The murderess Catherine Lawler aka Kate Webster
6 Comments
Barry wells
25/1/2020 03:21:54 am

My wife is a descendant of John church , (implicated in the thomas murder ) we are wondering if you have found any connection between John church and John Webster , ie:son maybe ???

Reply
Carmen
8/5/2020 10:11:52 pm

Hello!
I am very curious about what happened to her son, such an innocent boy. I want to know for my inner peace what happened to him. I really love children and I am a bit too emphatic. I was wondering if you would let me know (so i could sleep better) if you find something more about his life?
Thank you very much!

Reply
Tom
5/8/2022 08:23:54 am

Indeed,

I happened across this page after seeing a mini documentary about the murder and I feel terribly for this boy.

Reply
Hope Burns
1/8/2020 04:20:07 am

Any news?

Reply
Ruby Hernandez
2/9/2020 07:47:03 am

Yes, I'd like to know what ever happened to to the son of Kate Webster.

Reply
B. Ansel
31/1/2021 07:26:55 am

My grandfather was born roughly about the same time as Kate Webster's son (a few years after actually.) He and his brother ended up in being sent to a trade school after his parents ended up in a workhouse. The mother died in the workhouse, the boys were sent to Dr. Barnardo's School for Boys and were both eventually sent to Canada to work as indentured servants for about 10 years (my grandfather ended up as a farmhand in Ontario. His brother ended up about 50 miles south working in an industrial job. Check the British Home Children archives. England didn't like to keep it's poor children in England. They sent many to other British protectorates (a younger stepbrother of my grandfather (whom he never met) also ended up in the British Home Child program years later and was sent to India.) I expect he probably got shipped off into servitude.

Reply



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    Borders Ancestry snippets of history as broadcast bi-weekly for EGH Radio.  To listen to the shows live, tune at 9pm on Mondays for Anne's Rock Show and 9pm Wednesdays for Stephen's 'Unsigned Madness'.

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Picture Susie Douglas Qualified Genealogist Family Historian and Writer https://www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/profiles/douglas-susie
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