Projects
The Annie Richardson Story
A real-life family history
25 years incarceration at Broadmoor Asylum
Annie Richardson
A real-life family history
Annie Richardson, aged 25, killed her only child, Charles, and was sent to Broadmoor asylum for about 25 years.
She was married to a German-born pork butcher, Johann Friedrich Rath, and the family lived in the small Northumberland village of Choppington.
Heather has written two articles about Annie, Johann and Charles so far, and she is gathering material for a book which will recount more details, not just of the murder and its aftermath, but of the social history of the time and the place, the late Victorian attitudes to mental illness and what happened by way of treatment .
The Anvil Inn, Guide Post, Northumberland. Late 19th century. The inquest into the death of Charles was held here in 1898.
Photo credit: bedlington.UK
What do we really know about our families?
Read Heather's Research Story - with added examples of others’ family history that turned out to be false in Discover Your Ancestors Magazine.
Click on each of the thumbnails below to view the full size.
One bright morning, in high summer 1898, Elizabeth Thompson, an elderly widow, living in Guide Post, Choppington, Northumberland, heard cries, shouts and other noises from the room above her.
The house where she lived in Blyth Terrace, in the centre of the village, was divided into two dwellings. Her own rooms were downstairs, and upstairs lived a young family, consisting of butcher’s assistant John Rath, his wife Annie, aged 25, and their toddler son Charles, aged just 23 months.
The commotion alarmed Mrs Thompson, and she hurried to the butcher's shop and reported the disturbance to John, who came straight home with her to investigate.
What he saw on that morning of June 29 changed his life forever,
His little son Charles was lying , silent and still, on a bed, blood pouring from his head. Annie was sitting at the bedside, by now quiet but clearly in a distressed state.
John immediately ran downstairs and ordered a passing youth to fetch a doctor. When he came back upstairs again, he took a closer look at his son, and watched him take his last few breaths.
Police were summoned, along with a doctor, and Annie broke her silence, telling Mrs Thompson and the local policeman that 'she herself had done it with the poker', in the words of the inquest. It was immediately clear that little Charles had been bludgeoned by his mother, and died as a result.
The local newspapers of the time reported the events soberly and with sympathy for the family, including the medical evidence that Annie was not fit to plead, guilty or not guilty to the murder.
Three doctors gave evidence to this effect at the Newcastle Assizes, according to the Newcastle Chronicle of July 8, including Dr Thomas William McDowell, superintendent of the County Lunatic Asylum in Morpeth.
Download the pdf document here to continue reading about The Choppington Tragedy
© Heather Welford
Heather's Photography © Derek Neil
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