Cambridgeshire Murders by Alison Bruce Read Free Book Online Page A

times by several members of staff. The last person thought to have seen him alive was Ann Gale, who had arrived at the house at half past five and had then remained there until half past nine, when she had been sent to hoe thistles. She reported that the rector had appeared in good health.
    The Revd Waterhouse was discovered by two of his staff, William Parker, aged 14, and Reuben Briggs, aged only 11. They had spent the morning working outside, mainly attending to Waterhouse’s hogs. Between 10.30 and 11 a.m. they went into the back kitchen to have their lunch, and heard a groaning. On investigation, in the passageway leading from the back kitchen to the main kitchen, they saw Waterhouse’s legs were protruding from a large brewing tub. The groaning sounds continued, and the boys were so frightened that they ran to the house of a neighbour, Ann Whitney, to seek help. Ann’s immediate assumption was that Waterhouse was either drunk or playing a trick on the boys. But as they returned to their work they saw a visitor, Frederick Rogers rapping on the door with his whip in an attempt to get a response from the house. The boys told him what they had seen. After some hesitation Rogers went in and found Waterhouse as they had described.
    Meanwhile the boys had summoned the help of the blacksmith, William Ashby, who, with the help of labourer William Harrison, hauled the old man from the tub. At the inquest Harrison stated that it had been half past eleven when he returned home and assisted Ashby in the removal of Revd Waterhouse from the tub, and that the body ‘was then motionless, but quite warm’.
    At seven o’clock on the evening of the murder William Margetts, coroner for the Hundred of Hurstingstone, began an inquest into the death. He convened the inquest at the Bell Inn with a group of respectable citizens assembled by the constable. From these a jury was sworn in. Also present were the Revd T. Brown of Conington and Henry Sweeting, Esquire, clerk of the county.
    The jury was taken to the rectory where they were required to inspect the body. Witness statements were also taken. The first of these was from George Oakeley, the surgeon who had first examined the body. He stated that he had found a very deep cut near the right ear and a fracture of the right-hand side of the jaw, which had severed a large proportion of it, separating vessels with sufficient severity to cause death. He stated that a heavy weapon, such as an axe, would have inflicted the wounds and that the wounds could not have been self-inflicted.
    Oakeley’s evidence was supported by that of Jonah Wilson, a surgeon from Huntingdon, who, at 4 p.m., had been the next to examine the body. Revd Waterhouse had suffered at least fourteen stab wounds. There were defence wounds to his wrists and hands in addition to several more serious injuries, including one that had separated his right lower jaw, another that had severed part of his left humerus and a fatal blow to the upper part of his throat, which, according to Wilson, had ‘separated the bone of the tongue from the windpipe, had penetrated the windpipe on its upper part, and completely cut across the large vessels of the neck on the right side, from which blood had spurted most forcibly, and stained the two walls of the passage in which the deed was committed’.
    The boys, Parker and Briggs, were next to give evidence. Parker in particular was criticised by Sweeting for showing a lack of courage and humanity in failing to assist Waterhouse sooner. Statements were then heard from all those who had eventually come to Waterhouse’s aid.
    Mary-Ann Wells of Wandsford testified on Tuesday morning, that between 10 and 11 a.m., the daughter of Ann Whitney had run to her and said ‘the old man is dead’, at which time Mary-Ann went to the rectory and assisted in getting him out of the tub. She recalled that his forehead was still warm and, despite a great quantity of