Ada Chard Williams was a childcare provider in Victorian London. She was convicted of murdering toddler Selina Ellen Jones and disposing of her body in the Thames. It’s suspected that many more children in her care may have met the same fate.
Location: Barnes, London, England
Date: September 27, 1899
Baby farmers were Victorian child care providers catering for the lower end of society. They were typically used by mothers of illegitimate children who paid for them to be looked after and sometimes adopted.
Ada Chard Williams was 24, and lived with husband William aged 42.
In September 1899 Florence Jones, a young unmarried mother who lived with her parents in Woolwich read an advert in the local paper, offering to find adoptive homes for unwanted children.
Young married couple would adopt healthy baby. Very small premium. Write first to Mrs. M Hewetson, 4 Bradmore-lane, Hammersmith.
Jones contacted Mrs Hewetson (an alias for Ada Chard Williams) and agreed to pay £5 (approximately £500 in today’s money) for her 21-month-old daughter to be adopted by an affluent family with the arrangement that she would see her child once a fortnight.
On the day she dropped little Selina off with Hewetson, Jones could only afford to pay £3 and provide a bundle of baby clothes, but promised to return the following Sunday with the outstanding £2.
When Jones returned with the balance payment, she found Hewetson and her daughter had disappeared. Anxious and upset, Jones reported the disappearance to the police.
During the police investigation, they discovered that Hewetson was actually Ava Chard Williams, but since there was no body, there was no proof that the child had been murdered.
That was until 27th September, when Selena’s body washed up on the banks of the Thames at Battersea. Her little limbs were “bound together with cord like a trussed fowl”.
Dr Kempster, who did the post mortem, said the child was first stunned, then strangled and after death was thrown into the river.
Chard Williams wrote to police denying the crime, but admitting she was a baby framer who bought and sold babies for profit.
To the Secretary, Criminal Investigation Department, New Scotland Yard, W.
Letter sent by Ada Chard Williams to police
Sir,—I must apologise taking this liberty, but I see by the papers that I, in conjunction with my husband, are suspected of murdering the little female child found at Battersea on September 27th. The accusation is positively false.
The facts of the case are these: I, much against my husband’s wish, in August last advertised for a child, thinking to make a little money, the result of which was the adoption of this little child, with whom I received the sum £3. My next act was to advertise for a home for a little girl; I used some shop in Warwick Road, West Kensington, I forget the number, but I used the name of Denton, or Dalton, I am not sure which. I received about 40 replies, from which I chose one, from George Street or George Road, Croydon.
The lady from Croydon, Mrs. Smith by name, agreed to take the child for £1 and clothes. I met her at Clapham Junction, the Falcon Hotel, on a Saturday about the middle of September; we were to meet at 7 o’clock. I arrived at time, but Mrs. Smith was 20 minutes late. I handed the child over to her, and she was then quite well. That is the last I saw of her.
I have, it is true, been carrying on a sort of baby-farm; that is to say, I have adopted babies, and then advertised and got them re-adopted for about half the amount I had previously received. I have had five in this way; two died while in my care, but I can prove that every attention and kindness was shown them; no money was grudged over their illness. I can prove this by the people with whom we lodged, and also by the doctors who attended them. Two I have had re-adopted; one went to Essex, the other to Bristol, and the last one I parted with as above stated.
From the accounts in the papers I am alleged to have carried on this system for six years; now, that, too, is utterly wrong. I am evidently mistaken for someone else, as the first one I ever adopted was in November, 1897. You will say, ‘If innocent, why not come forward?’ There have been innocent people hanged before now, and I must admit that at the present things look very much against me, but it is not fair to go entirely on circumstantial evidence.
I am trying to find the woman to whom I gave up the child, but, unfortunately for me, I destroyed her letters, and if I came forward there would be no possibility of clearing myself unless I could find some clue about her.
In conclusion, I must tell you that my husband is not to blame in any way whatever; he has always looked upon the whole matter with the greatest abhorrence, but only gave way to me because he was, through illness, out of employment; he never, however, once touched any of the money I made by these means.—
Yours truly, (Signed) M. HEWETSON.
P.S.—We left Barnes simply because we were unable to meet the rent, and some time before we heard of this lamentable affair. The shop in Warwick Road is a newspaper shop, the Hammersmith Road end, and only a few doors down on the right hand side.
She was charged with murder and was tried at the Old Bailey on 16-17 February 1900.
When arrested William Chard Williams stated:
We are guilty of fraud, but innocent of murder
William Chard Williams
A crucial piece of evidence in the case against Chard Williams were the knots used to tie up the body. She had used an unusual knot called Fishermans bend, and similar knots were found at her house.
The jury deliberated for half an hour and found her guilty of wilful murder. She was sentenced to hang at Newgate Prison.
Her husband was declared accessory after the fact, but since he was not the one on trial he was acquitted and liberated, despite the possibility that he had murdered the children and his wife may have just been involved in disposing of the bodies.
However as soon as he emerged from the dock, he was immediately re arrested and charged with fraud.
Ada Chard Williams was executed by James Billington on the gallows in the execution shed in the prison yard of Newgate Prison Wednesday 8 March 1900.
She was suspected of killing other children left in her care although no evidence was found and she was never charged with this.
She was last woman to be hanged at Newgate and was buried in an unmarked grave within the prison.
Source:
Unknownmisandry.blogspot.com
Murderpedia.com
Daily Mail, 19 February, 1900
Wikipedia.com
Dying for a Cuppa 