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In the strongly patriarchal society of the early 18th century. Men were considered more valuable than women. The Treason Act of 1351 stated that the murder of a husband by his wife was an assault on the majesty of the State as well as the actual victim and was viewed by society as being against the natural order of things. Meaning the woman would be charged with petty treason rather than ordinary murder. The punishment was much more severe; the woman would be burned at the stake.
Let’s explore the murder of John Hayes by his wife, Catherine.
Catherine Hall was born in 1690 in a village in the borders of Warwickshire, 4 miles outside of Birmingham. Her family were very poor to the point of receiving parish assistance; she didn’t gain any education. When she was 15 in 1705, Catherine left home after a dispute. She made the acquaintance of a group of soldiers who were canvassing the area looking for recruits. To make money to survive, she turned to prostitution, servicing the needs of the men. Yet when the group reached Great Ombersley, tired of her company, they abandoned her.
She would alternate between prostitution and domestic service for the coming years until she came upon the farm of John Hayes and his wife. Taking pity on the now 23-year-old woman, they offered her a position as a housemaid. The Hayes had 2 sons living at home, the eldest being John, a 21-year-old carpenter. Catherine set her sights on John. She was a good-looking and voluptuous woman, skilled in the flattery of men. He fell deeply in love with her.
In 1713, he proposed, and Catherine accepted; they both were well aware that his family would never welcome the union, so they eloped to Worcester to marry in secret. He had told his mother he needed money to buy new carpentry tools. However, it wouldn’t be a secret for long. Inexplicably, Catherine had arranged for some soldier friends to kidnap John on his wedding night and pretend to enlist him in the army. John panicked and contacted his father, who came to his rescue. She went on to enjoy her wedding night with other men.
Livid on finding out about the marriage, John senior gave Catherine a stern warning to mend her ways or she would be turned out onto the streets. The couple took residence in a cottage on the farm.
Catherine had one big secret that she would never tell John. Prior to them meeting, she had given birth to a son following a brief relationship with a tanner.
All was well for the next 6 years. Catherine began to grow restless; she longed for the excitement of city life, and she began to repeatedly request that they move to London. She had started to seek the attention of other men. John, often exhausted from a full day working in the fields, could not match the libido of his wife. Eventually, he relented, and in 1719, they moved.
John set up a business as a coal merchant, pawnbroker and money lender. He would thrive, and Catherine was given a generous allowance and even had servants. But she was quarrelsome and enjoyed creating and encouraging arguments between her neighbours. They would move several times.
John was described as a sober, sedate, honest, quiet, peaceful man and a very good husband; the only objection his friends had was that he was too frugal with his temper and too indulgent of his wife. Believing her to be entitled and spoiled.
The couple began to fight, Catherine demanding that she be provided with more money and a better standard of living. Things came to a head when Catherine threw a party while John was out of town on business. The neighbours were eager to tell him all the details of the men in his home when he returned. He responded by cutting her allowances, and the marriage deteriorated rapidly from here.
She would remark to her female friends that she saw no more sin in killing John than in killing a dog.
In 1725, Catherine talked John into taking in a lodger. Thomas Billings is a local tailor. Unbeknownst to John, this was Catherine’s illegitimate son, and the pair began an incestuous affair. She also started an affair with a friend of her son’s, Thomas Wood, a butcher who also began lodging with the Hayes.
At this point, Catherine decided that she wanted John out of her life, and to achieve this, he must be murdered.
Over the next 6 weeks, she began convincing Billings and Wood to help her. She told them lies about John; she told them he was an atheist who could have killed 2 of their children. Burying one under an apple tree and the other under a pear tree. She also promised them £15 from her inheritance.
On the 1st of March 1726, they began their plan. The lodgers took John out for a drink, funded by Catherine. They made a wager on who could drink the most and remain sober. John drank wine while Billings and Wood drank beer. He was in good spirits, dancing and singing.
Once home, he fell into bed in an alcoholic stupor. Knowing they would meet with no resistance, the men attacked. Billings entered the bedroom and struck John on the head with an axe; it was a non-fatal blow. John let out a cry. This disturbed the upstairs neighbour, Mrs Springate, who came down to investigate. Catherine reassured her that her company was leaving. Wood and Billings took turns with the axe to finish John off.
To prevent John from being identified, they severed his head, wrapped it in cloth and put it in a bucket. Wood and Billings later threw it in the River Thames at Millbank. Catherine busied herself at home, scrubbing the floor, walls and ceiling to remove the blood that covered the room.
The head was recovered very soon after lying on a sandbank next to the bucket near the Horse Ferry in Westminster. The lighterman would come forward and say he saw 2 men throwing something in the river. Later, he would identify them as Billings and Wood.
The next problem they had was what to do with the body. The first plan was to pack the body into a box and bury it, but the box they bought was too small. Wood’s skills as a butcher meant that he could dismember John’s body. However, the box was now too heavy to carry without detection easily. In the end, they wrapped the pieces in cloth and on the 2nd of March, around 9 pm, the men carried them to a field in Marylebone and threw them in a pond.
The head was taken to a surgeon for examination. The skull had 2 fractures, and the face had been lacerated. No one could immediately identify it, so the decision was made to clean it, comb the hair and place it on a spike in St Margarets Church Yard. This might seem macabre, but without photography, it was the only way for a lot of people to view the head in hopes of identification.
Three men came forward, identifying John. One was Mr Ashby. Catherine first told him that John was away on business, but Mr Ashby was due to discuss business with John himself, so he didn’t believe her. Catherine then claimed John killed a man in a fight and had fled the country.
He promptly went to the authorities with his suspicions. The constables and Ashby returned to the house to find Catherine and Billings in bed together. They were both arrested.
Thomas Wood had left London to return to Worcester, where he was from. Upon his return, he too was arrested. Mrs Springate was also arrested, but it soon became clear that she was innocent and was released.
On the 26th of March 1726, a gentleman and his servant were crossing the field in Marylebone and discovered the rest of the body.
The coroner’s inquest was opened on the 16th of April, to investigate the circumstances of John’s death, unsurprisingly a verdict of wilful murder was returned, naming Catherine, Thomas Wood and Thomas Billings as the prime suspects.
Newspapers were fledgling at this time, but the crime was widely reported through London; it is one of the first recorded cases where the victim was dismembered after death.
At the magistrates’ hearing, Catherine was shown the head, which had now been preserved in a jar of gin. The superstition of the day said that if a killer touched the head of the victim, their guilt would be revealed. Catherine knew this, though and happily touched the head and put on quite the show of grief and distress for the court, shouting quote “Oh, it is my dear husband’s head, it is my dear husband’s head. Shedding tears and kissing the jar.
It did nothing to convince anyone of her innocence, and she was remanded to Newgate prison. She was kept separate from Thomas Billings, but both protested their innocence.
Thomas Wood, however, was much more forthcoming; he confessed his part and implicated Catherine and Billings. It was Catherine’s plan, and she had given them the money to get him drunk. Billings struck the fatal blow, and he had cut up the body.
Catherine then confessed but claimed that the devil had possessed them all, and it wasn’t their fault.
All three were tried at the April sessions of the Old Bailey held between Wednesday the 20th and Saturday the 23rd, before the Lord Major, the recorder and several other judges. The indictment against her read as follows:
Catherine Hayes is indicted for petty treason, in being traitorously present, comforting and maintaining the said Thomas Billings in the murder of the said John Hayes, her husband.
Thomas Billings and Thomas Wood were simply charged with murder.
Catherine testified she hadn’t taken part in the killing, only holding a candle for the pair as they dismembered the body. She maintained the crime was the work of the devil through them.
The jury of 12 men returned guilty verdicts against all three.
Billings and Wood were sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn and afterwards be hanged in chains – gibbeted, and Catherine, guilty of petty treason, was sentenced to be drawn to Tyburn on a hurdle and burned alive at the stake.
They were all greatly distressed; the men begged to have the gibbeting be remitted.
They were all held in the condemned hold at Newgate prison. Thomas Wood became very pious and spent his time in prayer and repentance. He would be gripped with a high temperature and pass away from jail fever before his sentence could be carried out.
Catherine confirmed her confession and conceded that she deserved to die for her crime, but the manner of execution terrified her.
The execution was set for Monday, the 9th of May 1726. It drew a huge crowd. A ballad was written and hawked on execution day. Here is an extract:
A Ballad on the Murder of Mr Hayes by his Wife
She was of wrath so full
That finding no hole in his coat
She picked one in his skull
But then heart began to relent
And griev’d she was so sore
That quarter to him for to give
She cut him into four.
In the press yard, the irons were removed, and the Yeoman of the halter put the noose around Billings’s neck. He would sit on his coffin as he was driven to Tyburn in a cart. Catherine was tied to a hurdle and dragged behind a horse to Tyburn.
When they arrived, the cart was backed under the beams, and the hangman Richard Arnet secured Billings. After they had finished their prayers, the cart was removed, leaving him suspended. Catherine would have been watching and must have been emotional for her after all, Thomas Billings was her son.
Catherine was then taken from the hurdle and tied to the stake by an iron chain around her body. A cord was put around her neck and passed through a hole bored in the stake for the purpose of strangling her. This was actually a courtesy from the executioner- to kill the poor soul before the flames reached them. Two cartloads of bundled brushwood were piled around her, and the fire was lit.
Catherine begged for the cord to be pulled, but the flames blew in his direction as he tried to pull the cord, burning his hand, and he had to let go.
She reportedly shrieked 3 times before the fire engulfed her, and she fell silent. Richard threw a large piece of wood at her head, which, quote: broke her skull, her brains plentifully poured out. She would have been in great pain from terrible burns and shock before the fire, and lack of oxygen overcame her. It took over an hour before her body was reduced to ashes.
The botching of Catherine’s execution was not the only problem that day, 2 other prisoners freed themselves from their nooses and wrist ties whilst in the cart and tried to escape, and one of the spectator grandstands collapsed, killing at least 2 and injuring several more.
Thomas Billings was later gibbeted near Tyburn on the road to Paddington as a deterrent for other criminals.