Some events in the Life of Mary Ann Scholes(nee Bacon)

Mary Ann was Baptised in 1800

Some history of the period will go in this spot and at others in the text to give a flavour of the times which throughout the life of Mary Ann were often turbulent both in the town and nationally

She married James Scholes on Dec 6 1833
Mary Ann Bacon of Water Street, Stamford at St Martin's Church December 6th 1833. December 5th Banns. Witness John Bacon/ Mary Bull.

James was made a Freeman of Stamford in 1833.
The excerpt from the 'Mercury'  Friday Aug 27th 1841 gives the following account.

On Saturday last James Scholes landlord of 'The Chequers' St Peters Street, Stamford was passing thru Empingham having been to Oakham with a load of coal he stopped to refresh himself at the Black Horse while in the house his team started off he ran out to stop them but in catching at the reins of one of the horses he slipped and fell the wheel of the wagon passing over his head killed him on the spot. His remains were removed to the church. Monday and inquest was made J. E. Jones, Coroner. Verdict Accidental Death.
The deceased had taken a load of oil cake from Wansford to Oakham and it was shown before the Coroner that before returning he had been loitering on the way and was in a state of intoxication which due to his rash and negligent conduct he owed his death. A correspondent writes: The Kerbstone on the Empingham bridge are in a very dangerous state they standing so foul on the narrow bridge was no doubt the cause of the late fatal accident which occasioned the falling in the wheels of the wagon.

Mary Ann remaries

From the Mercury files, Friday July 2nd 1847

At St James Chapel, Pentonville, London on Sunday last Thomas Scholes late of Melton Mowbray Son of Edward, Farmer Scotgate to Mary Ann Scholes landlady of the Chequers Public House the eldest son of the late Edward.

Thomas died 1884 Aug 22nd at 8 Acres Age 83 (interred by side of wife)

Mary's brother, Nathaniel, lived a few doors away from the Chequers public house in St Peter's St. Nathaniel had three sons one of whom was Thomas Fuller Bacon. Thomas Fuller became an infamous individual.

Crime Thomas Fuller Bacon The 'Walworth Murderer' In Stamford Town he once did dwell,
Indeeds of darkness none could him excel;
Not all the world, you life can save,
They know the secrets of thy Parents' graves
Anonymous poem from contemporary London pamphlet.

In the late 1850's Stamford was the centre of an extraordinary murder case which filled the national and international press. Indeed, such was its noteriety that London broadsheets and poems were issued describing and exaggerating the incident. Tet there was never any definite proof that Bacon was guilty of the crimes with which he was charged. This account is taken from reports in the Stamford Mercury during 1857.
     Thomas Fuller Bacon was born in Stamford in 1824 and was considered to be stubborn, selfish and unsociable as a child. He followed his father's profession as a whitesmith, locksmith, bell hanger and general ironmonger and lived in a house in Broad Street where he fiddled the local gas company by bypassing the meter using a section of old piping. He then seduced the daughter of a respectable tradesman and is supposed to have deserted her after getting her pregnant. He later married her and after his father's death he was able to buy a house in St. Peter's Hill. At his father's funeral he is rumoured to have said  "There is now only the old woman's death to pray for" (he stood to inherit property in the town worth £900).
      Bacon, however, soon came into financial difficulties and he tried to foil a £90 debt owed to a local stonemason by forging a receipt. On discovery of the fraud, though, he destroyed the receipt to avoid incrimination. One night during 1856 his house was burnt to the ground and he was tried before Lincoln Assizes on a charge of arson of which he was acquited.
Around November 1856, Bacon and his family moved to Walworth in London and on 29 December their two children, Edwin Fuller Bacon aged 2 1/2, and Sarah Ann Bacon, aged 11 months, were brutally murdered by having their throats cut. As Thomas was apparently away in Reigate, Martha, his wife, aged 26, who had a history of mental illness, was charged with the murder. She pleaded that she did not do it and her husband's inconsistancies and contradictions aroused suspicion. Martha then blamed her husband for the act and this revived interest in the sudden death of Bacon's mother, Ann, at Stamford in May 1855.
     She had fallen ill following a dinner at her son's house and had shown symptons of arsenic poisoning. It was further established that Bacon had purchased some arsenic fom a shop in Red Lion Square only days before, allegedly to kill rats. The cause of death at the time was diagnosed as 'cerebal disease' and there was no inquiry. The Times later stated:
 

The public will learn with surprise that a circumstance so pregnant with suspicion should hve been allowed to occur in so populous atown as Stamford without a proper judicial inquiry.
 

     The exhumation of the body, which was buried at Great Casterton church, was ordered, but the Stamford and Rutland officials refused to co-operate, probably out of embarrassment if a different judgement were to be found. Eventually the Home Office intervened and in February 1857 a post mortem was held and a verdict of wilful murder recorded. In May, Thomas and Martha were tried in London for the murder of their children; Thomas was found not guilty - as there was no evidence to suggest a motive, or that he was in the area at the time - and Martha was acquitted on the grounds of insanity.
     Thomas Bacon was then brought to Stamford to face the charge of poisoning his mother and was committed to Lincoln for trial. Desoite a statement by Martha that she poisoned Ann Bacon, Thomas was found guilty, but as there was no absolute proof he was sentenced to imprisonment for life. The sentence disappointed many people whose predjudice had wnted him hanged, including those pamphleteers who had established his guilt long before any trial. The Walworth Tradgedy ____________________

     The long and continued examinationd into the horrible tradgedy of Bacon and his wife, hve einded in the commital of the prisoners for trial. The queation to be solved in bringing home the murder to Bacon seems clearly settled as well as that of his own mother.
     On Wednesay January 21st Mrs Martha Bacon who stood charged with cutting the rhroats of her two children was again brought up and accommodated with a chair at the solicitor's table and in front of the bench.
     Mr Elliot, addressing the prisoner, asked her if it was her wish to make any statement, or to say any thing to the charge against her?
     Cook the goaler: the prisoner tells me , that she does not feel equal to the task of addressing you, but she has handed me this piece of paper, which she wishes your worship to read.
     The most intense anxiety was here manifested and marked on the countenance of every individual in the crowded court, and all eyes were directed to the bench, when Mr.Elliot rose from his seat, and with some emotiion, read aloud from the paper in his hand, the following startling statement:-

Copy of a letter " Sir - I must confess I am an innocent person, and he who committed the dreadful deed is my husband, and there was no money on the drawers. He took the little boy down the stairs, put him in a chair and then cut his throat. He then went upstairs and cut the little baby's throat.
Martha Bacon"

In a  short time after he was brought to the court and placed in the felon's dock on  the following charge:- "Thomas Fuller Bacon. 15 Anglesea-street Mile end with wilfully murdering  your two children, Edwin Fuller  bacon, aged two years and a half, and Sarah Ann Bacon, aged 11months, on the 29th December 1856, at the house, No 4, Four-acre street in the parish of St Mary, Newington"

Startling Facts. Mary Scholes said that the deceased was a strong woman and generally enjoyed excellent health. Two days before she died Thomas Fuller Bacon came to my house and said the old lady, meaning his mother, was very bad, and that she would die, and I must go directly and remain with her all night. I followed him to his mother's house about five minutes afterwards.On arriving there I found Mrs. Bacon in bed. I enquired if she was ill - if her head was bad; and she replied that she was "bad all over." I remained with deceased all night. She was vomiting twice during the night. Deceased still got bad again between ten and eleven. Deceased told me she was put to bed ill about three in the afternoon. Deceased said it was not the pudding or meat had made her ill, but that they were preparing broth for F Bacon's little boy, and she made her dinner chiefly of that. She said she became suddenly ill and purged. Deceased was very thirsty during the night, and was stiff all over.
     Coroner:- Is it a common thing to use arsenic for hardening iron?
     Witness: We never used anything but primate of potash.
      Several other witnesses were examined and it was stated that arsenic was put in the broth.
Committal Proceedings
Mary Ann Scholes:- I am the wife of Thomas Scholes publican of St Peters St and sister of the late Nathaniel Bacon. I have identified the body of Ann Bacon (Exhumation)
Edward Bacon the prisoner's brother
William     "        "         "           "
Harriet Payne. Aunt of T.F. Bacon

Hopefully Mary Ann overcame these events  and enjoyed a comfortable life in retirement up at eight acres. Thomas died on the 22th Aug 1884 and Mary Ann at 5 Eight Acres 27 Feb 1890.