Medical Evidence in the Staunton Murder Trial. (Known as the Penge Murder)

Abstract

MR. PRESIDENT AND GE:STLEMEN, the history of this case is as follows: Harriet Staunton was born in 1841, the youngest daughter of a Mrs. Richardson. From childhood she had shown some traces of weak intellect, and derived little benefit from an ordinary education. She had always difficulty in expressing her thoughts in a letter and in spelling the simplest words. Yet she was fond of dress, neat and tidy in her person, and therefore should be described as mentally deficient, but not an imbecile. She had lived with her mother until 1874, but in that year she went on a visit to stay with a Mr. and Mrs. Hineksman, who lived in Heygate Street, Walworth Road. Mr.Hincksman was Mrs. Richardson's nephew and Harriet's cousin. He had married the widow of a man named Rhodes, and Mrs. Hincksman, by her first husband, had two daughters-the younger, Alice Rhodes, unmarried, and the elder, Elizabeth Ann Staunton, married to an artist, Patrick Staunton, who lived at 9, Loughborough Park Road. Whilst staying with the Hincksmans Harriet met Patrick's brother, Louis Staunton. an auctioneer's clerk, to whom she became engaged in 1874. Her mother strongly opposed the engagement, and made an unsuccessful attempt to place Harriet under the protection of the Court of Chancery as a lunatic. On June 16, 1875, Harriet Richardson, now thirty-five years of age, was married to Louis Staunton, and went to live at 8, Loughborough Park Road. Patrick Staunton lived opposite in No. 9