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Maria Marten loved William Corder, but it was a complicated affair. William wanted to keep it a secret, but when a child was born in 1827, this was impossible. The couple eloped, or at least that’s what her family believed; they received letters often from William telling them of their new life on the Isle of Wight. But then Maria’s stepmother began to have dreams that she had in fact been murdered and was buried beneath the Red Barn. When the barn was excavated, Maria’s body was actually found, and she had been the victim of murder. This case fixated the public, it had it all: a wicked squire, a murdered mistress and supernatural prophetic dreams, so let’s explore the Red Barn Murder.
Maria Marten was born on the 24th of July 1801 in Polstead, Suffolk. Her father, Thomas, was a molecatcher, and she had a sister, Ann. She was described as an attractive lady; she had embarked on several relationships with men from the local area. She had already given birth to 2 children. A son with Thomas Corder, who passed away in infancy, and Thomas Henry whose father, Peter Matthews, didn’t marry Maria, but he did financially support the child.
In March 1826, she began a relationship with William Corder, the younger brother of the father of her first son. He was 2 years younger than her, born in 1803. His nickname at school was “Foxey” he was a sly and cunning child who grew into a criminal.
Mainly crimes of deception, he passed forged cheques totally £93, a small fortune in the 1820’s. He also aided in the theft of pigs from a neighbouring village with accomplice Samuel “Beauty” Smith, who, when questioned by the police over the theft, remarked regarding William quote “I’ll be damned if he will not be hung some of these days”.
William’s family, ashamed of his behaviour, sent him away to London in disgrace. But his exile would be short-lived when tragedy struck the Corder family. Thomas, the elder brother, drowned attempting to cross a frozen pond. In the following 18 months, William lost his father and his 2 remaining brothers. William returned to the family farm to run it with his grieving mother. Beginning his relationship with Maria.
William wanted their relationship to be kept secret, but Maria was very much in love, and when their child was born in 1827, she was hopeful that William would marry her. The child would pass away, how or why this happened is unclear, and there were suggestions that they had been murdered, which we will return to later. William was still prepared to go through with the wedding.
The plan was to elope to Ipswich, where the couple met at the Red Barn, and an official proposal was made. William suggested they leave quickly, as he had heard that the parish officers were discussing prosecuting Maria for having bastard or illegitimate children, which was illegal at this time. They were to leave on the Wednesday evening, but William would delay their departure with various excuses until arriving at the Marten’s cottage on Friday, the 18th of May 1827.
William told Maria, in front of her stepmother, Ann Marten, remember that Ann was there; it will become an important detail as the case unfolds. There was a warrant out for her arrest regarding the children. This was untrue, but it is not certain whether he was lying or mistaken. Maria thought they should wait until the cover of darkness to leave, but William was insistent; she was to dress in men’s clothing to disguise herself and to pack her things and bring them with her to the Red Barn.
Maria did as she was instructed, leaving quickly after William for the Barn, which was located on Barnfield Hill, about a half mile walk from her cottage. She was never seen alive again.
William also disappeared for a short time, returning with stories of the new life the couple had in Ipswich. He told people she was too scared of the reactions of her family and friends to the elopement to return herself. They knew Maria would never purposely stay away from them and pressured William to bring Maria home or to reveal their address to them so they could check on her safety themselves. Williams’ response was to disappear completely.
He wrote letters to Maria’s father, informing him that they had gotten married and were now living in the Isle of Wight, despite his letters bearing a London postmark. Again, the family pushed for direct contact with Maria all William could offer was excuses. She was unwell, had hurt her hand and couldn’t write; the letters must have been lost in the post. Worry and suspicion about the whole situation were growing.
It was at this point that Ann Marten, Maria’s stepmother, began to be plagued by frightening dreams. Maria’s ghost would appear to her and point to the place her body had been buried, in the Red Barn.
Finally, on the 19th of April 1828, Maria’s father, Thomas, relented and went to the Red Barn to dig for his daughter. Ann indicated an area in one of the grain storage bins. In a shallow grave, buried in a sack, were the remains of Maria Marten. Over the past year, she had decomposed significantly but was still recognisable.
An inquest was convened at the Cock Inn Public House in Polstead. Formal identification was carried out by her sister Ann. Her hair and some of her clothes were still present, and Maria had a missing tooth, which was also absent from the jawbone of the corpse. Mr John Lawden, a surgeon, examined the body and declared she had died by violent means. There was visible blood on her face and on her clothes. A wound was present on the throat from a sharp instrument, but the main injury was a wound to the orbit of the right eye; something had been thrust into it, fracturing the small bones and penetrating the brain.
She was wearing a petticoat, stays and stocking and shoes.
One curious item found with Maria was a green handkerchief tied very tightly around her neck. An item known to belong to William Corder.
Constable Ayres obtained an old address for William from a friend. He engaged the help of Constable James Lea, an officer from Lambeth Street, London. He tracked him from place to place until he found him. He was living at Everley Grove House, Ealing Lane, near Brentford. It was a boarding house for ladies and girls that he ran with his new wife of 5 months, Mary Moore.
William had met Mary by placing a lonely hearts advertisement in The Times newspaper. He had received 100 replies. He also placed adverts in the Morning Herald and The Sunday Times; he received 40 and 53 replies respectively, although he never picked those ones up.
James Lea posed as a father wishing to lodge his daughter at the boarding house. He found William dressed in a dressing gown, taking breakfast with 3 women in the parlour. He had his watch in front of him, minuting boiled eggs. When the officer identified himself and informed William he was there to discuss the death of Maria, he flat out denied he knew anyone of that name. The house was searched, and William was transported back to Polstead to appear before the inquest.
A large crowd assembled to see William return to town. He was agitated and angry when he took the stand. A verdict of wilful murder was returned, naming William Corder as the main suspect.
In the house search, a brace of pistols, a powder flask and some balls were found in a velvet bag. Ann Marten would later identify them as Maria’s and that she had them with her when she left for the Red Barn in May 1827. A sharp, pointed dagger was found, which was sharpened by a cutler named Offord a few days before the murder of William.
They also discovered letters written by a Mr Gardener, warning him that Maria had been discovered and a passport from the French ambassador. This suggests that William was preparing to flee.
The trial began on the 7th of August 1828, at Shire Hall, Bury St Edmunds. The public interest was huge, and local hotels were fully booked from the 21st of July. Queues to enter the courtroom started at 5.30 am despite a ticket-only system being in place. The courthouse was surrounded by so many people that the judge and court officials would need to push their way to the door. Chief Judge Baron of the Exchequer William Alexander presided; he was very displeased with the newspaper coverage, saying it was quote “to the manifest detriment of the prisoner at the bar”. Nevertheless, The Times and most other publications were sure of Williams’ guilt and congratulated themselves that the public agreed with them.
Maria’s exact cause of death couldn’t be determined. She could have been stabbed or shot through the eye, but strangulation couldn’t be ruled out because of the tightness of the handkerchief around her neck. To avoid a mistrial, he was indicted with nine charges, including forgery. He quote “murdered Maria Marten by feloniously and wilfully shooting her with a pistol through the body, and likewise stabbing her with a dagger”. William pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution alleged William never wanted to marry Maria, but she was aware of his criminal behaviour. He had stolen money from her that the father of her child had sent for maintenance, and that she was using that as leverage over William, so he lured her to the Red Barn to kill her.
William then took to the stand to tell his version of events. He admitted he was in the barn with Maria and that they had argued. He then left and heard a pistol shot. Running back, he found Maria dead, having shot herself in the eye. The pistols were lying next to her. He pleaded with the jury to believe him, despite the overwhelming evidence against him.
They didn’t, and it took just 35 minutes of deliberation before he was found guilty. Baron Alexander sentenced him quote:
That you be taken back to the prison from whence you came, and that you be taken from thence on Monday next, to a place of execution and that you there be hanged by the neck until you are dead and that your body shall afterwards be dissected and anatomised and may Lord God Almighty of his infinite goodness have mercy on your soul!
Over the next few days, William seems to wrestle with his conscience, and after visiting with his wife and meeting with the chaplain, he confessed to the crime and how he carried it out quote:
I acknowledge being guilty of the death of poor Maria Marten, by shooting her with a pistol. The particulars are as follows:– When we left her father’s house, we began quarrelling about the burial of the child, she apprehending that the place wherein it was deposited would be found out. The quarrel continued for about three-quarters of an hour upon this and about other subjects. A scuffle ensued, and during the scuffle, and at the time I think that she had hold of me, I took the pistol from the side-pocket of my velveteen jacket and fired. She fell and died in an instant. I never saw even a struggle. I was overwhelmed with agitation and dismay — the body fell near the front doors on the floor of the barn. A vast quantity of blood issued from the wound and ran onto the floor and through the crevices. Having determined to bury the body in the barn (about two hours after she was dead), I went and borrowed the spade of Mrs Stowe; but before I went there, I dragged the body from the barn into the chaff-house, and locked up the barn. I returned again to the barn, and began to dig the hole; but the spade being a bad one, and the earth firm and hard, I was obliged to go home for a pick-axe and a better spade, with which I dug the hole, and then buried the body. I think I dragged the body by the handkerchief that was tied around her neck. It was dark when I finished covering up the body. I went the next day and washed the blood from off the barn floor. I declare to Almighty God that I had no sharp instrument about me, and that no other wound but the one made by the pistol was inflicted by me. I have been guilty of great idleness and at times led a dissolute life, but I hope through the mercy of God to be forgiven.
“W. CORDER.”
Witness to the signing by the said William Corder,
“John ORRIDGE.” Warden
He seemed lighter after this and attended the chapel in the morning of his execution. On the 11th of August 1828, William was taken to the gallows in Bury St Edmunds. He had to be held up by a constable, his legs too weak to hold him. At one point, while the hangman was adjusting the noose, he appeared to faint. He managed to compose himself and, in a feeble voice, said quote “I am justly sentenced, and may God forgive me” before he was turned off.
It was a long process, and after 9 minutes the executioner pulled on his legs to finish the job. 7000 people had gathered to witness Williams’ death.
He was hanged 2 hours later. James Foxton, the hangman, took his trousers and stockings as was tradition. His body was taken to Shire Hall where it was slit open across the abdomen to expose the muscles. The crowd was charged a guinea to view the body, and people filed past until 6 pm. An estimate made by the Norwich and Bury Post was that 5000 people had queued to view William.
The dissection was carried out the next day in front of students from Cambridge University and doctors.
The skeleton was reassembled. It was not possible to study the brain, so they did a phrenological examination of William’s skull.
They found that the skull was profoundly developed in the areas of quote “secretiveness, acquisitiveness, destructiveness, philoprogenitiveness and imitativeness” with little evidence of quote “benevolence or veneration”
After the trial, doubts began to be raised about the dreams that Ann Marten had described. Ann was only a year old when her stepdaughter and there were rumours that she had also been having an affair with William, and they had conspired together to remove Maria as an obstacle to them being together. The dreams began only a few days after William married Mary Moore; they were just a way of revealing what she already knew to be true out of jealousy that William had left her.
People also began to question the fate of the couple’s baby; they told people the baby lived only hours and that William had taken the body in the night to Sudbury to be buried. There is no record of a burial in the local area. Neither of them could explain the circumstances of the little ones’ passing or the unusual way the body was disposed of. Leading many to believe that the child was murdered and that was the real leverage Maria had over William, that lead to her murder, revealing where the baby’s grave was located.
This murder captured people’s imaginations. Even while William was awaiting execution, plays, songs and writings were being made and performed, all depicting the author’s version of events.
Pieces of the rope used to hang William were sold for a guinea each. Part of his scalp with the ear still attached was displayed in a shop window on Oxford Street.
It turned Polstead into a tourist destination with over 200,000 people visiting in 1828. The barn was ripped apart by souvenir hunters, planks were taken from the sides and made into toothpicks and sold. What was left burnt to the ground in 1842. Even Maria’s headstone in St Mary’s churchyard wasn’t safe, eventually being chipped away to nothing by people taking a piece. A wooden sign now marks her resting place.
A replica of Williams’ death mask, some of Williams’ possessions and a book containing an account of the murder, bound in tanned skin from Williams’ body, made by surgeon George Creed, are all on display at Moyse’s Hall Museum. Another death mask replica is in the dungeons of Norwich Castle.
Williams’ skeleton was used as a teaching aid in the West Suffolk Hospital and then displayed in the Hunterian Museum in the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In 2004, he was removed, cremated and laid to rest.