Mary Ann Weems 1819 (1)
Godmanchester, Huntingdon
As a warning
to the young of both sexes
This stone is erected by public subscription
over the remains of MARY ANN WEEMS
who at an early age became acquainted
with THOMAS WEEMS formerly of this Parish
this connextion terminating in a compulsory
Marriage occasioned him soon to desert her
and wishing to be Married to another Woman
he filled up the measure of his iniquity
by resolving to murder his Wife
which he barbarously perpetrated at Wendy
on their Journey to London toward which place
he had induced her to go under the mask
of reconciliation May the 7th 1819
He was taken within a few hours after
the crime was committed, tried and
subsequently executed at Cambridge
on the 7th of August in the same Year
Ere Crime you perpetrate survey this Stone
Learn hence the God of Justice sleeps not on his Throne
But marks the Sinner with unerring Eye
The suffering Victim hears and makes the Guilty die
A shocking murder was committed on the body of a female on Friday se'nnight, in the parish of Wendy, a little after 10 o'clock, which was discovered in a most singular manner.
About a year ago, a man named Thomas Weems was married to the deceased at the parish church of Goldington, in Bedfordshire; but it being a match of compulsion by the parish officers, she having
previously sworn a child to him, he left her immediately after the completion of the ceremony, and returned to his place, leaving her to go home to her friends, which she did, and it afterwards turned out that she was not in a state of pregnancy. On Monday the 3rd of May instant, he left Edmonton, where he had got a situation, for the purpose of going to Godmanchester, where his wife resided, whom he had never lived with, to prevail on her to go and live with him at Edmonton.
On his road from Caxton towards Godmanchester, he fell in with a return chaise and got into it to ride to Godmanchester, and there was a man in the chaise known to Weems. In the course of conversation, Weems stated to the man, that he was going to Godmanchester to get his wife to go and live with him at Edmonton; but that there was a girl at Edmonton he was acquainted with, a very nice girl, whom he liked much better than his wife, and should much like to marry her. On the man saying that was impossible, he being a married man, Weems replied, that "when he had got his wife at Edmonton, he should soon be able to get rid of her.'' Weems remained with his wife at Godmanchester till Friday, when they both left that place early in the morning to walk to Edmonton.
They walked from Godmanchester to the spot where the murder was committed, being about 16 miles, without resting. When they arrived at the fatal spot, they stopped; the woman being tired, laid herself down on the grass by the road side, about a mile from Arlington. While they were resting here, a woman named Susannah Bird, of Wendy, who was going to Royston, saw the deceased sitting on the ground on the right hand side, near Mr. Russell's fields, and Weems was on the other side, opposite his wife. Directly after she had passed, she saw both Weems and his wife go lo Russell's field; they stood looking about, and appeared as if they were noticing her, and she kept looking back at them. When she got to lord Hardwicke's white gates, she lost sight of them all at once, and then kept on her way to Royston. As she was returning from Royston, she met the same man near Royston with a bundle, whom she had before observed. She asked him what he had done with the young woman he had with him in the morning? He said, “I left her behind; she is about spun up. I cannot get her any further, so I left her to get on by the coach”.
Susannah Bird then came on, met the coach, and looked for the young woman, but could not see her outside or inside. She says something struck her that the man (Weems) had done something wrong to the woman, that he had killed her; she went on, and saw a person hoeing in Mr. Wilkinson's field, to whom she told the circumstances, and said to him that "she would go to the next field (being the place where she saw them in the morning), and see if she could discover what betided the young woman.''
She passed through the gate where she saw Weems and his wife go in, and immediately discovered the young woman lying in the ditch, her face nearly flat to the ground, her shawl over her face, and her bonnet on the shawl: her body was covered all over with grass, which was strewed over her by hands full; only a foot and one of her fingers could be seen; there were marks on the grass by the ditch, as if there had been great struggling and rolling about, and there was the trace of a man's foot from the place where the grass was tumbled about, to the spot where the body lay. She called to the man in Mr. Wilkinson's field; he came; they removed the grass, and on examining the body, her garter was found round her neck tied very tight; she had the fellow garter on her left leg; she was quite dead, and black in the face.
Pursuit was immediately made after the supposed murderer, who was apprehended in a waggon. Information of the body being found was sent to the coroner for the county; he arrived at eight o'clock in the evening, and he had scarcely finished swearing the jury before a chaise arrived, in which was Weems.
The jury sat till between one and two o'clock on Saturday morning, and, after taking a body of evidence, they returned a verdict of Wilful Murder against Thomas Weems, the husband of the deceased, who was committed upon the coroner's warrant to the county gaol to take his trial at the next assizes. We understand the prisoner has made a full confession, and described the means by which he perpetrated the horrid deed.
Mary Ann Weems 1819 (1)
Godmanchester, Huntingdon
As a warning
to the young of both sexes
This stone is erected by public subscription
over the remains of MARY ANN WEEMS
who at an early age became acquainted
with THOMAS WEEMS formerly of this Parish
this connextion terminating in a compulsory
Marriage occasioned him soon to desert her
and wishing to be Married to another Woman
he filled up the measure of his iniquity
by resolving to murder his Wife
which he barbarously perpetrated at Wendy
on their Journey to London toward which place
he had induced her to go under the mask
of reconciliation May the 7th 1819
He was taken within a few hours after
the crime was committed, tried and
subsequently executed at Cambridge
on the 7th of August in the same Year
Ere Crime you perpetrate survey this Stone
Learn hence the God of Justice sleeps not on his Throne
But marks the Sinner with unerring Eye
The suffering Victim hears and makes the Guilty die
A shocking murder was committed on the body of a female on Friday se'nnight, in the parish of Wendy, a little after 10 o'clock, which was discovered in a most singular manner.
About a year ago, a man named Thomas Weems was married to the deceased at the parish church of Goldington, in Bedfordshire; but it being a match of compulsion by the parish officers, she having
previously sworn a child to him, he left her immediately after the completion of the ceremony, and returned to his place, leaving her to go home to her friends, which she did, and it afterwards turned out that she was not in a state of pregnancy. On Monday the 3rd of May instant, he left Edmonton, where he had got a situation, for the purpose of going to Godmanchester, where his wife resided, whom he had never lived with, to prevail on her to go and live with him at Edmonton.
On his road from Caxton towards Godmanchester, he fell in with a return chaise and got into it to ride to Godmanchester, and there was a man in the chaise known to Weems. In the course of conversation, Weems stated to the man, that he was going to Godmanchester to get his wife to go and live with him at Edmonton; but that there was a girl at Edmonton he was acquainted with, a very nice girl, whom he liked much better than his wife, and should much like to marry her. On the man saying that was impossible, he being a married man, Weems replied, that "when he had got his wife at Edmonton, he should soon be able to get rid of her.'' Weems remained with his wife at Godmanchester till Friday, when they both left that place early in the morning to walk to Edmonton.
They walked from Godmanchester to the spot where the murder was committed, being about 16 miles, without resting. When they arrived at the fatal spot, they stopped; the woman being tired, laid herself down on the grass by the road side, about a mile from Arlington. While they were resting here, a woman named Susannah Bird, of Wendy, who was going to Royston, saw the deceased sitting on the ground on the right hand side, near Mr. Russell's fields, and Weems was on the other side, opposite his wife. Directly after she had passed, she saw both Weems and his wife go lo Russell's field; they stood looking about, and appeared as if they were noticing her, and she kept looking back at them. When she got to lord Hardwicke's white gates, she lost sight of them all at once, and then kept on her way to Royston. As she was returning from Royston, she met the same man near Royston with a bundle, whom she had before observed. She asked him what he had done with the young woman he had with him in the morning? He said, “I left her behind; she is about spun up. I cannot get her any further, so I left her to get on by the coach”.
Susannah Bird then came on, met the coach, and looked for the young woman, but could not see her outside or inside. She says something struck her that the man (Weems) had done something wrong to the woman, that he had killed her; she went on, and saw a person hoeing in Mr. Wilkinson's field, to whom she told the circumstances, and said to him that "she would go to the next field (being the place where she saw them in the morning), and see if she could discover what betided the young woman.''
She passed through the gate where she saw Weems and his wife go in, and immediately discovered the young woman lying in the ditch, her face nearly flat to the ground, her shawl over her face, and her bonnet on the shawl: her body was covered all over with grass, which was strewed over her by hands full; only a foot and one of her fingers could be seen; there were marks on the grass by the ditch, as if there had been great struggling and rolling about, and there was the trace of a man's foot from the place where the grass was tumbled about, to the spot where the body lay. She called to the man in Mr. Wilkinson's field; he came; they removed the grass, and on examining the body, her garter was found round her neck tied very tight; she had the fellow garter on her left leg; she was quite dead, and black in the face.
Pursuit was immediately made after the supposed murderer, who was apprehended in a waggon. Information of the body being found was sent to the coroner for the county; he arrived at eight o'clock in the evening, and he had scarcely finished swearing the jury before a chaise arrived, in which was Weems.
The jury sat till between one and two o'clock on Saturday morning, and, after taking a body of evidence, they returned a verdict of Wilful Murder against Thomas Weems, the husband of the deceased, who was committed upon the coroner's warrant to the county gaol to take his trial at the next assizes. We understand the prisoner has made a full confession, and described the means by which he perpetrated the horrid deed.