Thomas Smethurst

Thomas Smethurst (c.1810[1] - ?) was an apothecary, with a medical degree from a non-British university. Born in Budworth, Cheshire,[1] by the 1850s he ran the Farnham Hydropathic Establishment in Surrey and in the 1851 census was living in Badshot with his wife Mary.[1]

He is most notable for being convicted then pardoned of the murder by poisoning of Isabella Bankes, who had been living with Smethurst and his wife at 4 Rifle Terrace, Bayswater. He was sometimes known as "the Richmond Poisoner", as he and Bankes had lodged in Richmond (with Bankes going by "Mrs Smethurst") from 4 February until 3 May that year, when she died there.[2]

The coroner's inquest into the death indicted Smethurst for murder and his trial at the Central Criminal Court began on 7-8 July 1859,[3] with Serjeant-at-law John Humffreys Parry and George Markham Giffard as counsels for the defence, Sergeant-at-law William Ballantine, William Bodkin, Mr. Clark and Mr Merewether (a son of Henry Alworth Merewether) as counsels for the prosecution and Sir Frederick Pollock presiding[4] - Smethurst pleaded Not Guilty.[4] It was then interrupted by juror Thomas Instone[3] suddenly being taken ill[4][3] but resumed from 15 to 18 August.[5]

The chief toxicology witness was Alfred Swaine Taylor, though in his testimony he admitted contamination to one of his arsenic tests.[6] The trial ended in a Guilty verdict[4] but Queen Victoria accepted Benjamin Brodie and Home Secretary George Cornewall Lewis's advice to grant Smethurst a royal pardon for the murder conviction,[7] though he still had to serve a year in Wandsworth Prison for the bigamous marriage with Bankes.[6][8] After his sentence he successfully defended the validity of Bankes' will (leaving him all her property) against a challenge from her relatives.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c "1851 census".
  2. ^ 'The Suspected Poisoning at Richmond - Coroner's Inquest (This Day)', Sun (London), 13 May 1859, page 3
  3. ^ a b c "Old Bailey Online entry".
  4. ^ a b c d "Trial of Thomas Smethurst". British Medical Journal. 27 August 1859. pp. 707–711.
  5. ^ "Old Bailey online entry".
  6. ^ a b "Papers relating to the case of Thomas Smethurst". Science Museum.
  7. ^ "Case Of Thomas Smethurst". 27 January 1860.
  8. ^ "UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951".
  9. ^ 'The Smethurst Case', Maidstone Telegraph, 3 May 1862, page 6

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