At some time around 1845 a Sheffield girl called Ann Laycock was being courted by a young man called Joseph Wadsworth. They had been going out together for some years when Ann got pregnant. Wadsworth swore that he would marry her and take care of her and the child, and at first all seemed well. Ann lived with her father at Charlton Brook, Ecclesfield, Sheffield and he was furious with her when she told him she was expecting Wadsworth’s child. Mr Laycock didn’t like him, and he thought that his daughter could do much better than to get involved with a man like him. Consequently he urged her to take Wadsworth before the magistrates in order to get a maintenance order against him.
Reluctantly Ann did as her father asked, and the magistrates ordered him to pay a sum of money each week for the little girl who was born soon after. With such opposition from her father, it was not long before the relationship between the two former lovers broke down. Consequently it was some time later when Wadsworth abandoned his promise to her and married another woman. Ann was left heartbroken and she became more and more depressed. After some months she appeared to recover and assured her father that she was over her romance with Wadsworth. Nevertheless he could see that it still played on her mind and he often found her quiet and withdrawn.
As time went by, these periods became more frequent and her father’s concern grew as Ann’s moods became much more violent and unpredictable. At some point towards the beginning of February 1850, she became so violent that Mr Laycock was forced to call in a medical man. The only advice the surgeon could offer was to have his daughter closely watched all the time. He strongly felt that it would be very unsafe to leave the girl on her own. Mr Laycock was devoted to his daughter, so he took some time off work in order to stay with Ann and tried to cheer her up. He patiently soothed her when her moods appeared to be down, and comforted her as much as he could.
Gradually Ann improved to the point where, around the last week in February, Mr Laycock felt able to leave her and go back to to work. He had that arranged that Ann and her little daughter would stay for a few days with her uncle, a man called John Smith who lived at Potters Hill, Ecclesfield. Ann assured her father that she would be fine and that she and the baby would enjoy the break, so Mr Laycock went back to work. Her brother also worked for Mr Smith in a workshop at the back of his house, so he knew that he would also be able to keep an eye on his sister. What neither men had anticipated however, was that Joseph Wadsworth and his now pregnant wife Jane, had taken over a shop nearby to their uncles house at Potters Hill.
At first Ann appeared to have fully recovered from her obsession, so her uncle never realised just how ill she still was. He had no idea that she was planning to extract revenge on the woman that she saw as having replaced her in Wadsworth’s affections. Consequently on Wednesday 27 February 1850 at some time around 10 am, Ann told her uncle that she fancied some oranges and went off with her little daughter to the shop run by Wadsworth’s wife. Entering, Ann was smiling as she asked Jane for some oranges. The woman leaned into the window of the shop to get some out, and taking her opportunity Ann struck out at her with a sharp razor she had hidden in the pocket of her dress.
Quick as a flash, she stepped behind the heavily pregnant woman and slashed her across the throat, inflicting a most serious cut. In order to save herself and the baby she was carrying, Jane made a grab for the razor and the two women scuffled together. At this point Jane was screaming at the top of her voice for help, realising how frenzied the girl was in her mad attack. As she screamed, Ann threw the injured woman onto the floor and leapt upon her determined to slash again at the pregnant woman’s throat. Still trying to get the razor away from the madwomen, Jane tried to grab the blade in her left hand. Finally she succeeded, and managing to hold onto the razor until neighbours came to her rescue.
Together they pulled Ann off the stricken woman on the floor, but her anger was so frenzied that it now took several men to hold onto her until the local constable, a man called Shaw arrived and took her into custody. Neighbours put clean handkerchiefs, towels and other cloths onto Jane’s cuts, in order to stem the blood pouring from her wounds. A surgeon. Mr Turton was hastily called and he found that the pregnant woman had received some very serious wounds to her throat. He examined her injuries, which he found to be most serious. In the frenzied attack one of the gashes across her throat was almost six inches in length, which had severed a large blood vessel. Jane’s hands had also been badly cut as she fought off her attacker.
The ends of two fingers and a thumb on one hand had been almost completely sliced off, as had four of the fingers on her left hand. These the surgeon saw with horror had been almost cut down to the bone. Most of these wounds had been caused as she had grabbed at the blade whilst trying to save herself. Due to the trauma the young girl had suffered, the following morning Jane Wadsworth was prematurely delivered of a child. Thankfully the baby miraculously survived the horrific attack made on its mother. Meanwhile Ann Laycock had been taken to the Town Hall where she was locked in a cell with a female wardress in constant attendance. The Chief Constable, Mr Raynor had quickly realised that the poor girl was quite demented.
He had no facilities for persons of unstable, mental health, and so he applied for a medical certificate to have Ann removed to, what in those days was called the Lunatic Ward of the Sheffield Workhouse. There she was locked away in a padded cell for her own protection. Later newspaper reports claimed that even being locked up had not eased the woman’s frenzy. It was stated that even in this state of absolute mania, she had made several frantic attempts to commit suicide. As a result of this, the master of the workhouse had been forced to keep her under constant watch by members of his own nursing staff.
On 23 March 1850 the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent reported that several statements had been taken from the workhouse medical staff to prove that the girl needed more specialised help than the workhouse was able to offer. These statements were forwarded to the Home Office in order to support an application to have Ann Laycock removed from the workhouse and taken to the Wakefield Asylum. There it was hoped that the poor woman could be taken care of by professionals. The first statement was from the victim herself, Jane Wadsworth who stated that she had been married for about 15 months. Prior to that she had been acquainted with her husband for two years before they married.
Jane stated that she knew Ann Laycock by sight, and also knew that she had an illegitimate child by her husband. However she claimed that she had never spoken to the woman until the date of the attack on 27 February and had not had any dealings with her prior to that date. Jane described how she had been alone working upstairs in the house above the shop, whilst her husband was at his work. Suddenly she heard someone knock at the shop door and came downstairs to find Ann Laycock and the little girl, who she introduced as her daughter. Jane knew quite well who the woman was, and so she smiled and tried to appear friendly. In the statement she described how the woman asked for some oranges, before attacking her for no reason with the razor. Jane said that the prisoner had said nothing to her, apart from asking for the oranges.
However during the attack she had screamed incomprehensibly at her in complete fury, whilst the two women struggled. A statement made by the prisoners brother, James Laycock was also included in the application, which said that he had heard that Jane had not been in good health. He explained that he had a workshop which was situated at the bottom of his uncle’s yard. Laycock’s statement revealed that on the morning of the attack, he had met his sister outside his uncle’s workshop, and had noted her frenzied agitation. He asked her what was the matter, but she didn’t answer. Laycock said that it was around 10.30 am and that his little niece, Ann’s daughter was with her mother, and so he was quite concerned for her. He had asked her where she was going and she told him she fancied some oranges.
His statement described how he had watched them enter the shop, before returning back to work. Laycock stated that about 3 or 4 minutes later, he heard screaming and ran back to see his sister fighting with a woman in the shop. The two women were both now on the ground and Jane was bleeding heavily from the slash in her neck. Seeing that the woman was heavily pregnant, Laycock dashed across and pulled his sister off her. Other witnesses made similar statements including Jane’s husband and Joseph and Ann’s uncle, John Smith. He said that having been shown the razor with which Ann had made the attack, he had identified it as being his own. Police Constable Thomas Shaw’s statement reported how he had apprehended the prisoner, and taken her into Sheffield.
The officer said that when he arrived he could see that the front of the prisoners gown was soaked with the blood of her victim. During the journey to the Town Hall the woman had rambled furiously to herself and PC Shaw had been forced to put on handcuffs on her to prevent her from hurting herself. The surgeon Mr Foster’s account said that he had attended to Jane Wadsworth and described the defence wounds which had been made to her hands, as she had valiantly tried to fend off her attacker. He then statedthat despite the victim’s terrible wounds, she had safely given birth to a child the following day. Thankfully he added that the child had survived the trauma and was alive and well and expected to thrive.
He concluded that he was still attending to Mrs Wadsworth, as she had not sufficiently recovered from both the birth of her child or the terrible ordeal which had prematurely led to its birth. As a result of these statements, the Secretary of State ordered that Ann Laycock would be removed to the Wakefield Asylum and to be kept confined there. Consequently on Monday 15 July 1850, under a writ of Habeas Corpus the prisoner was finally removed to York Castle to await her trial. Ann Laycock was brought before the judge Mr Justice Cresswell at the Yorkshire Summer Assizes on Tuesday 16 July 1850. She was charged with ‘cutting, stabbing and wounding Jane Wadsworth at Ecclesfield on 27 February 1850 with intent to murder her.’ However it was clear that the poor girl was not in a fit state to be tried.
When asked whether she pleaded guilty or not guilty, Ann simply replied ‘its right.’ The judge asked the matron of York Castle who accompanied the prisoner, if the prisoner understood what she was being tried for. However the matron simply shook her head. She added that she had only received the prisoner the night before, and had little time to observe her. Mr Justice Cresswell then asked if the prison surgeon, Mr W Anderson had been able to assess the prisoner, but again the matron said that he had not had time. However she maintained that during that time the prisoner had been under her watch, on occasions she had spoken quite rationally to her. The judge then ordered that the prisoner be removed and that Mr Anderson was to interview her in order to establish whether or not she was fit to plead.
The matron escorted Ann out of the dock and Mr Justice Cresswell proceeded with the next case. However Mr Anderson’s assessment of Ann Laycock’s sanity was not to be an ‘in depth’ analysis. Later the same day Ann was brought back before the Assizes and the indictment against her was read out once again. When the prisoner was asked whether she pleaded guilty or not guilty, she replied quite lucidly ‘No, I did not intend to murder her.’ The judge took this as a plea of ‘not guilty.’ The surgeon Mr Anderson was asked by Mr Justice Cresswell as to whether she was fit to stand trial. Thankfully the surgeon replied that in his opinion the prisoner was clearly insane.
However even though the surgeon had given his advice, a strict protocol had to be followed. Therefore the judge ordered that a Special Jury was to be sworn in and, untrained though they were, they would decide on the prisoner’s fitness to stand trial. In order for them to do this, the jury heard evidence from the medical staff that since Ann’s confinement in Wakefield Asylum, she had on several occasions tried to kill herself. Mr Justice Cresswell finally told the jury that after hearing all the evidence, they would not have much difficulty in coming to a decision.
The foreman after a short consultation with the other jurors agreed, and the judge ordered that Ann Laycock be kept in safe custody until her Majesty’s pleasure be known. The prisoner was then removed from the dock. I would like to think that Ann Laycock found a more professional treatment for her affliction in Wakefield Asylum but sadly, it is a slim hope.