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rebecca smith murderer wikipedia jump to content main menu main menu move to sidebar hide navigation main page contents current events random article about wikipedia contact us contribute help learn to edit community portal recent changes upload file special pages search search appearance donate create account log in personal tools donate create account log in contents move to sidebar hide top 1 early life 2 discovery 3 trial and execution 4 analysis 5 references 6 further reading toggle the table of contents rebecca smith murderer 4 languages español français עברית ไทย edit links article talk english read edit view history tools tools move to sidebar hide actions read edit view history general what links here related changes upload file permanent link page information cite this page get shortened url switch to legacy parser print export download as pdf printable version in other projects wikidata item appearance move to sidebar hide from wikipedia the free encyclopedia redirected from rebecca smith infanticide british murderer rebecca smith née prior chr 17 may 1807 23 august 1849 was the last british woman to be executed for the infanticide of her own child she was convicted of killing her infant son richard and was publicly hanged at devizes wiltshire after her trial she confessed to having poisoned seven of her other children early life edit smith was born in the village of bratton wiltshire the daughter of william and sarah prior or pryor her father who died in 1830 was a successful yeoman farmer while her mother was a prominent member of the local particular baptist sect 1 in may 1831 she married an agricultural labourer philip smith who had a reputation as a drunkard their first child jane was born the following year ten others followed none of whom lived more than a few months in 1846 following her mother s death smith inherited 100 equivalent to 10 000 in 2025 and moved the family to westbury 2 her husband squandered the inheritance forcing her to find seasonal work as a crop picker and vegetable grower consequently the family lived in a visible state of poverty and ill health 3 discovery edit smith s eleventh child richard was born on 16 may 1849 he was initially healthy but was taken ill on 7 june and died on the morning of 12 june the local registrar george shorland initially recorded the cause of death as unknown but was persuaded by local rumours to order an inquest 3 richard s body was exhumed on 22 june and autopsied on 24 june traces of arsenic were discovered in his stomach smith s neighbours claimed that she had made a series of attempts to purchase poison both before and after the birth culminating in a purchase of white arsenic on the morning of 7 june inquests into the deaths of two more of her children sarah and edward were conducted on 18 july and both their bodies were also found to contain arsenic 4 trial and execution edit smith was put on trial for richard s death on 9 august 1849 at the devizes assize court eighteen witnesses were called many of whom testified about her attempts to buy poison and false statements she had made about her son s health 4 the jury took 30 minutes to find her guilty but also issued a recommendation of mercy the judge ignored this and sentenced her to death 5 a week after the trial smith made a confession to the prison chaplain in which she admitted using rat poison to kill seven of her other children 6 of her eleven children only the first born survived to adulthood two died of natural causes and the other eight were killed smith said her husband was an abusive alcoholic and was terrified that her children would come to want 2 smith was publicly hanged in devizes on 23 august 1849 despite two petitions for mercy being sent to the home secretary george grey 5 the press and general public were heavily in favour of her execution despite infanticide usually being viewed as less repellent than standard murder and thus less deserving of capital punishment factors that were atypical and thus weighed against her included the premeditated nature of the act and its apparent brutality poisoning was considered much more cruel than the more common methods of drowning or smothering 6 as an older married woman she was also viewed with less sympathy than younger women who gave birth out of wedlock and killed their babies to avoid social stigma 7 analysis edit according to a study of women charged with infanticide between 1829 and 1913 smith s treatment was unique the vast majority of women in similar circumstances were found not guilty by reason of insanity while the few others that were convicted of killing their children were sentenced to death but had their sentences commuted 8 it has been suggested that the usual insanity defence was unavailable to her given the number of victims 9 references edit watson katherine d november 2008 religion community and the infanticidal mother evidence from 1840s rural wiltshire family community history 11 2 119 doi 10 1179 175138108x355148 s2cid 143927181 1 2 watson 2008 p 120 1 2 watson 2008 p 121 1 2 watson 2008 p 122 1 2 watson 2008 p 123 1 2 watson 2008 p 124 watson 2008 p 125 forst christina 2012 creators destroyers and a judge infanticide and puerperal insanity in victorian english courts historical perspectives santa clara university undergraduate journal of history 17 12 forst 2012 pp 18 19 further reading edit hendry sally 2022 mother and murderer the sad true tale of rebecca smith hobnob press isbn 9781914407345 retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title rebecca_smith_ murderer oldid 1354932669 categories 1807 births 1849 deaths 19th century british murderers 19th century executions by england and wales british female serial killers british serial killers english murderers of children english people convicted of murder english serial killers executed british serial killers executed english women executed female serial killers executed people from wiltshire female murderers of children filicides in england infanticide in the united kingdom poisoners people convicted of murder by england and wales people executed by public hanging perpetrators of filicide hidden categories articles with short description short description is different from wikidata use dmy dates from april 2022 this page was last edited on 19 may 2026 at 01 26 utc page was rendered with parsoid text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike 4 0 license additional terms may apply by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc a non profit organization privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia legal safety contacts code of conduct developers statistics cookie statement mobile view search search toggle the table of contents rebecca smith murderer 4 languages add topic