Sarah Chesham

Sarah Chesham (9 July 1809 – 25 March 1851) was the last woman to be executed for attempted murder in the United Kingdom. She was accused of having poisoned her husband and several children over her lifetime, with locals giving her the nickname Sally Arsenic.

Biography Chesham was born Sarah Parker at Clavering, near Saffron Walden in Essex, in July 1809. She married a farmer named Richard Chesham in 1828 and they had six sons together, which placed a severe strain on their finances.

In January 1845, two of the Chesham children, Joseph and James, became ill and soon died. Symptoms included vomiting and stomach pains. Many locals suspected that they had been poisoned, although the local doctor concluded that both had died from cholera. The body was examined by leading toxicologist Alfred Swaine Taylor (no relation), who found no evidence of poisoning. The bodies of Joseph and James Chesham were then exhumed, and Taylor found fatal doses of arsenic in their stomachs.

Sarah Chesham was first tried for the murders of James and Joseph Chesham on 11 March 1847. Despite the expectations of most observers, she was acquitted by a jury after ten minutes of deliberation on the grounds that the prosecution had not proved that she had administered the poison (while arsenic and various other poisons were found in her home, no witnesses had actually seen her administer poison to either child). She was then tried for the murder of Solomon Taylor the following day but was once again acquitted, this time at the direction of the judge, on the grounds that it was never proved if the victim had been poisoned. the sack recovered from her house contained enough to be visible to the naked eye. Sarah Chesham was found guilty of attempted murder and publicly hanged by William Calcraft on 25 May 1851. and had openly accused her of being a serial poisoner during the trial.

In 2020, the Criminal Case Review Commission was asked to review whether Sarah Chesham should be granted a posthumous pardon. In 2022 the CCRC refused to grant a pardon, citing a lack of evidence to cast doubt on Sarah's guilt.