John Bishop and Thomas Williams were convicted of murder at the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, in London on Friday, December 2, 1831. The jury returned its verdict against them and against a third man, James May, on an indictment for the wilful murder of a boy. Two days later Bishop and Williams made written statements at Newgate prison in which they admitted two further deaths in October 1831. Those two deaths were never the subject of a trial. Both men were executed at Newgate in December 1831.
The case is remembered for its connection to a public argument about how the medical schools of Britain obtained bodies for teaching. In the months after the executions, Parliament took up the Anatomy Bill, and the Anatomy Act 1832, regulating schools of anatomy, carries the date August 1, 1832.
Little is on record about either man before 1831. Bishop's age is known from his own written defence at the trial, where he gave it as thirty-three. He said he had worked as a carrier until about five years before the trial. A witness at the trial said Bishop was believed to be the father-in-law of Williams, whose wife is also mentioned in the evidence.
The second man appears under two names. The verdict names him "Thomas Williams, alias Head". In the written statement he signed at Newgate he is "Thomas Head, alias Williams". The trial record uses Williams as the principal name, and a witness said he had gone by the name Head when he rented a cottage. His age, birthplace and earlier occupations do not appear in the trial record. At trial he denied any part in the trade of obtaining bodies for the anatomy schools.
The prisoners were brought before the court on Friday, December 2, 1831, a month after what the Recorder called their first committal for the offence. Bishop, Williams and May were indicted together. The first count charged the wilful murder of Carlo Ferrier, otherwise called Charles Ferrier. The second charged the wilful murder of a male person whose name is unknown.
Little is on record about the boy named in the indictment. Witnesses at the trial described him as about fourteen years old, and one account of the proceedings describes him as twelve. His family, his home and his early life do not appear in the trial record. He is named in the indictment only as Carlo Ferrier, and Bishop later said in writing that the boy was someone else.
The trial was held at the Old Bailey before Chief Justice Tindal, Mr. Justice Littledale and Mr. Baron Vaughan. The Duke of Sussex attended. The prisoners were arraigned in the morning, and the prosecution was led by Mr. Adolphus with Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Bodkin. Mr. Curwood and Mr. Barry appeared for the defence. Mr. Adolphus opened the case by explaining that a jury may convict on circumstantial evidence.
The trial continued through the day. The Chief Justice summed up the evidence and told the jury to decide only on what had been proved in court. He directed them to consider first whether the boy had died a natural death, then whether the prisoners were responsible, and to what extent each of them was involved.
The jury retired in the evening and returned a short time later. The verdict, as the trial pamphlet gives it, was that John Bishop, Thomas Williams, alias Head, and James May were severally "Guilty of murder". The Recorder then sentenced each of the three to death, the sentence to be carried out on the Monday morning. The Recorder ended with the traditional words, "and the Lord have mercy upon your souls".
On December 4, 1831, Bishop and Williams each made a written statement at Newgate. The statements are dated Newgate, December 4, 1831. They were taken down from the prisoners, in the presence of the Under-Sheriffs and the Governor of Newgate, Mr. Wontner. Bishop signed his statement in the presence of a witness, and Williams confirmed it, so far as it related to him.
A second, undated account says Williams first confessed in writing to the Governor on the Saturday morning after the trial and that Bishop gave his statement to a clergyman.
The statements admit three deaths in October and November 1831, all carried out by the two men together. The first was a woman, whom Bishop believed had since been identified as Fanny Pigburn, about October 9. The second was a boy who gave his name as Cunningham, about a fortnight later, on a Friday which Bishop thought was October 21. The statement gives his age as about ten or eleven. The third was the boy for whose death all three men had been tried. Bishop wrote that the boy supposed to be the person named in the indictment was in fact a boy from Lincolnshire, and he denied any knowledge of the death of a boy of the name in the indictment.
Both men said that James May knew nothing of how any of the three had died. Williams wrote that May was "wholly innocent and ignorant" of the killings in which he himself had been concerned, and that May was "a stranger" to him. Bishop wrote that he and Williams alone were concerned and that no other person knew anything of any of the three. Williams wrote that he had never been concerned in or privy to any other transaction of the same kind. Bishop likewise denied knowledge of any murder for the same or any other purpose beyond those listed.
Neither of the two October deaths was put before a jury. They are admissions in a signed statement and are not convictions. Only the indictment tried on December 2 produced a verdict.
Parliament gave one reason for killings of this kind: the price paid for bodies to be used in teaching anatomy. In the Commons on January 17, 1832, Mr. Hume said the inducement to murder for the sale of the body of the victim came from the high price. The Attorney General said the obvious and only way of preventing the crime was to take away the motive.
Bishop and Williams were executed at Newgate on the Monday after the trial, in December 1831. The trial pamphlet reports that James May was respited on the night of the execution, on the order of the Governor of Newgate. A second account says he was respited "during his Majesty's most gracious pleasure" and that his sentence was expected to be commuted to transportation for life. The archives of King's College London state that May was transported for life. The date of that sentence is not on record.
Mr. Warburton, the Member for Bridport, introduced a Bill for regulating schools of anatomy in the session of 1832. Debate on its second reading on January 17, 1832 ended without a vote, because there were not forty Members present. On April 11, 1832, when Mr. Warburton moved that the Bill be recommitted, Sir Robert Peel told the House that systematic murders had been committed to obtain bodies. Mr. Hunt and others opposed the Bill, arguing that it would fall mainly on the poor.
The Anatomy Act 1832, 2 and 3 William IV, chapter 75, is titled "An Act for regulating Schools of Anatomy". The King's Printer copy carries the date August 1, 1832. Its first section allowed the Home Secretary to license people to practise anatomy, on an application countersigned by two Justices of the Peace.
The identity of the boy named in the indictment is the main open question. The indictment names Carlo Ferrier, otherwise Charles Ferrier, and, in the alternative, a male person whose name is unknown. In his signed statement Bishop said the boy was a Lincolnshire boy and that he knew nothing of any boy of the other description. The jury's verdict was "Guilty of murder" on the indictment as a whole. Which count the jury found proved is not on record.
The court convicted on one indictment. The deaths of a woman and of a boy named Cunningham in October 1831 rest on the written statements of Bishop and Williams alone. No other proceedings about them are on record.
The accounts differ on the boy's age (about 14 or 12), on the day and the recipient of the first confession, and on whether May was already marked for a reprieve when he was sentenced. The differences are small, and the sentence of the court was the same for all three prisoners.
About October 9, 1831: the woman whom Bishop's statement connects with the name Fanny Pigburn dies, as confessed on December 4.
About October 21, 1831: the boy who gave the name Cunningham dies, as confessed on December 4.
Early November 1831: the boy named in the indictment dies; the three men are committed to Newgate.
December 2, 1831: Bishop, Williams (alias Head) and May found "Guilty of murder" at the Old Bailey and sentenced to death.
December 4, 1831: Bishop and Williams sign confessions at Newgate.
December 1831: Bishop and Williams executed at Newgate; May respited.
January 17, 1832: Commons debate on the Bill for regulating schools of anatomy.
April 11, 1832: Commons debate on recommitting the Bill.
August 1, 1832: the Anatomy Act 1832 is dated.
Later: May transported for life.