Elizabeth Longfoot was murdered at 4 o’clock in the morning of Tuesday, 6th March, 1838. She was an eccentric woman in her forties who lived alone at Easton-on-the-Hill. Her home had been broken into and there was evidence that items were missing. Local Magistrates met to consider the cause and circumstances of her death and a number of people were interviewed and held as suspects. On the 19th March, 1838, the Coroner recorded his verdict of wilful murder by person or persons unknown. At this time, because of the need for expert help, the Bow Street runners in London were contacted and one officer, Henry Goddard, travelled overnight to supervise the investigation. Of the suspects, three were charged: John Stansor, John Archer and Richard Woodward. The four other suspects were released.
In the meantime, Stansor had absconded and Goddard set up a search and pursuit whilst the other two were held in custody. Stansor was eventually found in the Huntingdon area on 4th April, 1838 and was returned to custody. On 14th May, 1838, the Magistrates committed Stansor, Archer and Woodward to the Northampton Assizes on a charge of murder. At this point, John Stansor offered to turn Queen’s Evidence against the other two in return for leniency. Goddard said it was not in his gift to do such a deal and there is no trace of how the final agreement was arrived at. However, court papers for the first hearing describe Archer and Woodward, as accused and Stansor as “an approver”.
[An approver is a person involved in a crime but at a later stage confesses and offers to serve as a witness for the prosecution in return for a reduced punishment or even a pardon.]
The potential punishment for this crime could have been either hanging or transportation. The three prisoners were then incarcerated in separate prisons to avoid any conspiracy.
The trial was set for the summer assizes at Northampton for 17th July, 1838. However, two key witnesses William Read, the Stamford Constable and Mr. Farrer, the Magistrates’ clerk had an accident whilst driving to court and both were injured. As a result, the trial was put back to the next assizes. In fact, the case was not heard at the next assizes and were finally set for the Lent assizes on 4th March, 1839, before Lord Denman.
The trial, which is well-documented in the attached account, took all day. Woodward and Archer appeared as defendants and Stansor attended to give evidence for the prosecution, in the course of which he said that he had also been charged with the murder. The prosecution appears to have relied entirely on Stansor’s deposition to carry the verdict. However, a rigorous defence claimed that Stansor alone has been the murderer and had implicated the other two as part of a means of avoiding punishment. Late in the evening the Jury in consultation for a very short time found both prisoners not guilty. The verdict caused surprise and astonishment to the Judge, but he was obliged to acquit them. The court record confirms their acquittal, but does not say what happened to Stansor, who remained cited as the accuser.
There is no record of John Stansor being tried on his own account at either Northampton Assizes or the Old Bailey. He does not appear on any criminal listings of the time and is certainly not on the register of deportations for that year. We must assume, therefore, that his plea-bargaining had succeeded and that he also was acquitted.
After the trial, Woodward and Archer returned to Easton-on-the-Hill where the infuriated inhabitants called to an assembly by the “the call of a drum” and attacked Archer’s house, destroying his furniture and other property. Woodwards’ property was subjected to similar treatment. During this riot, which did not calm down until midnight, the villagers were unable to find either Archer or Woodward, who had, presumably, fled.
John Stansor did not return. He lived with his sister who was not implicated in the murder and thus, her property remined unscathed.
What happened to these three men? A search of the 1841 census shows no trace of Richard Woodward or John Stansor. A possible John Archer appears to be living in Ryhall and has married one Hannah Parker. If this is indeed him, he is shown as dying in the county asylum in 1880.
However, purely by chance, in the gossip column of the Leicestershire Mercury, dated 20th April, 1839, is an entry which records that “John Stansor the self-convicted Easton murderer is at work on the Midland Counties Railway at Knighton Hill, near Leicester. Owing to the disclosures he made respecting this foul dead of blood and to his having been the mean of transporting several of his former companions for various robberies, he has been compelled to fly from Easton, his life not being safe and is now passing under an assumed name.” The assumed name is not given.
Was justice done? Certainly not for Elizabeth Longfoot.
Archer and Woodward were tried by due process and clearly, due to the lack of determination by the prosecutor, were found not guilty, despite the evidence.
John Stansor, who admitted to robbery, but not to murder, effectively got away with it by plea-bargaining. It is worth noting that he had already served three months for larceny in 1834 before Lincoln Assizes and was described in several accounts as a known petty criminal, mainly for poaching.
Here are our previous posts about this
Blood on their Hands (29th March, 2022)
Easton Murder Latest (5th April, 2022)
Labourers from Easton Charged (26th April, 2022)
Justice for the Deceased (10th May, 2022)