The Most Extraordinary Trial of William Palmer, for the Rugeley Poisonings, which lasted Twelve Days

LONDON: W. M. CLARK, 16 & 17, WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
The prisoner, William Palmer, Surgeon, of Rugeley, aged 31, was indicted for having at Rugeley, county of Stafford, on November 21st, 1855, feloniously, wilfully, and with malice aforethought, committed murder on the person of John Parsons Cook.
William Palmer is a member of a wealthy family, and is thirty-one years of age. He was educated for the medical profession, was a pupil at St. Bartholemew’s Hospital, London, received the diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1846, and shortly afterwards settled at Rugeley, his native place. He seems, however, to have paid more attention to the “turf,” and what are commonly called sporting pursuits, than to his profession, and to have confined his practice to his own family and friends.
His name appears in the “London and Provincial Medical Directory” of 1851, and again in 1855, as that of one of the persons who had neglected to inform the editor of that work of the nature of their qualifications. He married, in 1847, Anne, the natural daughter of Col. William Brookes and Mary Thornton, his housekeeper. Col. Brookes, who, after quitting the East India service, took up his residence at Stafford, died in 1834, leaving considerable property, and more than one natural child.
To Anne Thornton he bequeathed, by a will dated July 27, 1833, nine houses at Stafford, besides land, and the interest of 20,000 sicca rupees, for herself and her children, and appointed Dr. Edward Knight, a physician of Stafford, and Mr. Dawson, her guardians and trustees. To Mary Thornton, the mother of Anne, the colonel bequeathed certain property, which was to pass to her daughter at the decease of the mother. Mary Thornton departed this life—it is said, while a guest at Mr. Palmer’s house,—in 1848 or 1849.
Now, although the will of Colonel Brookes would seem clear enough to anyone who was ignorant of law, and although, in the present state of the law, as we are informed, it would be sufficient, yet it was discovered by the legal fraternity, some years since, that the language conveying the bequest to Anne Thornton was not sufficiently forcible to convey it to her absolutely, but only to give her a life interest in it, insomuch as, at her decease, it was liable to be claimed by the heir-at-law to Colonel Brookes.