Extract from Smethurst's Luck.
Thomas Smethurst and his wife Mary had gone to stay in a lodging house in Bayswater...
On 20th September 1858, five days after her forty-second birthday, Isabella Bankes came to stay at the boarding house in Rifle Terrace. The terrace was in Queen’s Road (now Queensdale Road), not far from Holland Park in London. The Smethursts had been in residence there on and off for about eighteen months.
Isabella Bankes was the second of six children of George Bankes and Hannah Vernon. Isabella’s grandfather, John Bankes, had made his fortune refining sugar, ‘white gold’, presiding over a ten-fold increase in consumption in Britain during his lifetime. He left well over £60,000 when he died in 1809, and Isabella’s father, George Bankes, inherited the business along with £10,000 in cash. In fact, the business had been left jointly to George and his younger brother Charles, but the latter incurred his father’s wrath by his intention to contract an ‘inappropriate marriage’. As a consequence, a portion of his share of the assets such as would not impede the proper conduct of the ‘sugar baking business’, was invested in government securities with only the interest paid to Charles. In a codicil to the will, John Bankes’ trustees were charged to ‘prevent any imprudent marriage connection by him’, and were apparently empowered to continue the arrangement at their discretion. Consequently George Bankes took over the business and when he died he left it to his only son, George Vernon Bankes, Isabella’s younger brother.
The Bankes family were not generally favoured with good health. Isabella’s mother had died in 1826 at the age of 32 from ‘a cold that turned to inflammation’. George Bankes died in 1843 aged 55. The official cause of death was stated to be typhus, although it was said that he suffered greatly from diarrhoea ‘which they were unable to arrest’. The eldest daughter Anne, for whom George Bankes had made special provision in his will, must have been an invalid for some time; she died of consumption in 1844 aged 29. Isabella herself was subject to bilious attacks and flatulence, as were the whole family. She also suffered from travel sickness and was afflicted with a ‘womb complaint’ for which she used silver nitrate douches administered using a glass syringe. She had been under the care of several doctors for various complaints before she met Dr Smethurst. Mrs Smith at Rifle Terrace reported that she was sick twice in the house and always complained of nausea when eating. Mrs Smith considered Isabella to be very delicate; she ate very little.
Isabella had three sisters living, she being the eldest. In descending order of age they were Jane, who had married Alfred Haffenden, Louisa, unmarried, and Elizabeth the youngest; she was married to Friend Tomlin. The four sisters each inherited around £1,750 from their father, and this was lent on mortgage to Mr Tarte, a lead merchant, father of the deceased first wife of Isabella’s brother George. The money was secured on property, and at 5% per annum yielded around £7 6s per month to each sister.
The sisters had an uncle, James Rhodes Bankes, their father’s youngest brother, and he had been ill for some time. James Bankes had been diagnosed with cancer of the bladder in 1856 and by the time that Isabella arrived at Rifle Terrace, he must have been quite ill; he died a month later. James Bankes had been left £10,000 by his father in 1809. He seems not to have been involved in sugar refining, but when he died in 1858, not being married and having no children of his own, he left most of his £60,000 fortune for the benefit of his nephew and nieces. Isabella, Louisa and Elizabeth were each left the interest on £5,000 invested in 3% government stocks and securities. They had no access to the capital, which reverted to the other legatees on their deaths, but during their lifetimes they received the dividends of around £140 a year each. The other sister, Jane, was left nothing in the will, possibly because she was already quite well-off. She had married a widower, Alfred Haffenden, a landed proprietor, in 1851. Ten years later she was living with her husband, two step-daughters and eleven servants in a manor house in Nottinghamshire.
In September 1858, Isabella and Louisa were living with their sister Elizabeth, her husband Friend Tomlin, and their three-year-old daughter Mabel in Paddington. According to Tomlin, Isabella left because he was giving up the house and her medical man had suggested a change of air. She may have done this, deciding to live independently, in anticipation of the legacy from her uncle. However, since Elizabeth sued for divorce in 1861, and Friend Tomlin was bankrupt by 1867, it seems possible that Isabella might also have left to avoid an ‘atmosphere’ at the Tomlins’.
It was the habit of Mrs Smith’s lodgers to eat together at one table and thus Isabella would soon have met and got to know the other occupants of the house including Dr and Mrs Smethurst. What happened next has been described by Mrs Smith, Mary Smethurst, and Thomas Smethurst himself. Isabella took a fancy to Thomas. Perhaps it was the fact that he was a doctor – and an MD addressed as “Doctor” – not just a surgeon-apothecary. Since Isabella’s health was precarious he probably treated her in some way. Possibly he romanced her with stories of his times in France, Germany and Austria or tales of various well-known persons that he had treated at Moor Park. In any event, she took a shine to him, and he, perhaps flattered by the attentions of a younger woman (he was 53 years of age by this time, while his wife was 74) responded to her interest, possibly finding within himself something rekindled that he might have forgotten was there... According to Smethurst later, Isabella had proposed a secret marriage while they were out walking together in Kensington Gardens. She had said that both a cousin and a friend had been secretly married, and she mentioned the latter fact in the presence of Mrs Firth, another boarder at Rifle Terrace. Isabella insisted that Smethurst visit Doctors’ Commons in order to read the will of her uncle James, and thus confirm the value of the income she was to receive under that will. See note below.
Mrs Smith, the landlady, decided that Isabella’s behaviour towards a fellow boarder and married man was incompatible with her sense of decency and gave her notice to leave. Smethurst tried to intercede on her behalf but Mrs Smith was adamant. Isabella had to go, and go she did, leaving on 29th November. She went to lodge with a Mrs Grabouska at Kildare Terrace, Bayswater, barely a mile away, where she stayed until 9th December. On that day, in the parish church of St Mary’s at Battersea, Thomas Smethurst and Isabella Bankes were married by special licence. Witnesses were James Sprice, the parish clerk, and Lucy Ambrose. Whether ‘the Smethursts’ spent the next one or two nights together is not recorded, but Thomas Smethurst finally departed Rifle Terrace either on 11th or 12th December, telling his wife Mary that he was first visiting friends and then making a ‘tour’. By way of a honeymoon Thomas and Isabella spent two weeks in Tunbridge Wells and a week in Dorking, followed by three weeks in Surbiton. In January they were in Withyham in Sussex, from where Isabella wrote to her sister Louisa, telling her that she was ‘quite well’, albeit ‘covered in “plaisters” and...obliged to wear flannel drawers’. She carried her pet bird, Bob, with her who ‘[sang] in the railway carriage’. In February 1859, Dr and Mrs Smethurst went to live at No 6, Old Palace Terrace, Richmond; the landlady was Mrs Robertson. Old Palace Terrace was at the corner of Richmond Green not far from the eighteenth-century stone bridge over the river, and effectively in the centre of the town.
After a month or so, Isabella began to suffer from sickness and diarrhoea. Initially, Smethurst treated her himself, but she did not improve so he decided to call in a second opinion. Mrs Robertson recommended a local doctor, Dr Julius. Dr Frederick Gilder Julius was the senior doctor in the area. He was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and had the degree of MD; following the Medical Act of the previous year, he was also registered with the new General Medical Council. He first visited Isabella on 3rd April 1859. After questioning her as to her state of health, he prescribed a mixture of chalk and catechu which was made up by his assistant Mr Caudle and sent up to the house. He visited Isabella the next day to find her no better. Smethurst had also given her some medicine, castor oil and some laudanum – the latter probably as an enema since it was described subsequently as ‘an injection’. Dr Julius visited again on 5th April to find still no improvement. This time he prescribed pills containing Grey powder and Dover’s powder, again with no effect on Isabella’s state of health. Grey powder, containing metallic mercury, was a laxative and Dover’s powder was either a laxative or emetic depending on the dose. Dr Julius commented later, ‘[his prescribed medicine] seemed to have no effect [on Isabella] whatever...’
Smethurst suggested a mixture of quinine, gentian, ether, dilute sulphuric acid and hydrocyanic acid (hydrogen cyanide) to give Isabella an appetite. Dr Julius thought it was not the correct medicine, but reluctantly agreed to provide it since Smethurst would be present to observe any adverse symptoms and stop the treatment if necessary. In the event, although it had no negative effects, the treatment produced no improvement either. Dr Julius continued to visit Isabella trying other medicines but her condition deteriorated. Mrs Robertson reported hearing her retching in the early mornings. She reported ‘green and yellow vomit’, and evacuations that were ‘just like coloured water’. Isabella had virtually no appetite.
At this point Mrs Robertson decided to increase the rent from eighteen to twenty-five shillings a week; it may have been because of the extra and unpleasant work she was having to do in relation to Isabella’s illness. Smethurst refused to pay any more, and on 15th April, he and Isabella moved. They went to 10 Alma Villas, now Rosemont Road, about a mile away at the eastern end of Richmond. Alma Villas was a row of semidetached houses on Richmond Hill surrounded by fields and orchards, with the Wesleyan College and chapel to the south, and plenty of open ground to the north. The rent there was only fifteen shillings a week, probably because the situation was less convenient than the town centre with further to walk to the shops. Smethurst said later that they moved to Alma Villas because the air was healthier on the hill. The landlady there, Mrs Wheatley, recalled that by the time Isabella arrived in a cab she was so weak that she could hardly walk, and did not leave the house the entire time she was there. Dr Julius continued to attend her most days, but was starting to wonder why his medicines were having no effect on the patient who was becoming weaker. He asked his partner Mr Bird to examine Isabella. Mr Bird had had considerable experience dealing with dysentery in the Crimea. He carried on with the hydrogen cyanide mixture, agreeing with Smethurst that the enemas of laudanum which he had been giving Isabella should also continue. He also recommended enemas of beef tea and the use of ice to cool the liquids Isabella was drinking. None of the medicines seemed to have any effect. After consultation with Smethurst, he prescribed lead acetate with opium. They decided that the opium was having ‘too much effect on the patient’ and used instead pills of silver nitrate which caused ‘violent burning’ and increased the diarrhoea.
On 18th April, Smethurst wrote to Isabella’s sister Louisa, who now lived at Maida Hill near Ladbroke Grove, asking her to visit them in Richmond as Isabella was very ill. He told her to ask for ‘Dr and Mrs Smethurst’, cautioning her to relate the contents of the letter to no-one. She arrived on the 19th and spent some hours with her sister before leaving. While she was there Isabella was sick twice, once after being given some milk to drink. There was some discussion about the possibility of consulting an uncle of theirs, Mr Lane, who was a surgeon at St George’s Hospital. Isabella said she preferred not to involve him. The next day Louisa wrote to her sister commenting on her ‘tender and kind nurse’ (Smethurst) and his ‘commendable patience...and ...amiability of disposition’. On the 21st Smethurst replied, saying that Isabella had passed a very bad night with ‘vomiting and purging...at a fearful rate’. Louisa made her a jelly which she despatched to Richmond via the omnibus. She also wrote saying that she would visit again the following weekend. Smethurst replied on 23rd saying that she should delay her visit as Isabella was very weak and her doctors had ‘...prohibited everything of a nature that might try her very weak powers...’ He wrote again on 27th April saying that Isabella had eaten some of the jelly, managing to keep some of it down. He also mentioned that he ‘insisted’ on having a consultation with Dr Robert Bentley Todd of King’s College Hospital, one of the most celebrated physicians of the day. In fact, it seems that Dr Julius had suggested Dr Todd.
Dr Todd, who was a very busy man, arrived around 10 o’clock at night on Thursday 28th April, accompanied by Dr Julius who had met him at the station and briefed him on Isabella’s symptoms and the treatments used. Dr Todd examined Isabella by candlelight in the presence of Dr Julius and Smethurst, and commented on the rigidity of her abdominal muscles. He prescribed pills of copper sulphate and opium. According to Smethurst later, the pills thus prescribed produced a burning sensation all through Isabella’s body.
On the 29th April, Smethurst wrote to Louisa again. He told her that Dr Todd ‘entertains favourable hopes’ of Isabella’s improvement. The sickness at least had stopped, although she was still retching and having large numbers of bowel movements and she was too ill for a visit from Louisa. On 30th he wrote once more. Isabella was worse, and he had ‘a great dread for the result...’ He now asked Louisa to come as soon as she could. He also went to see a solicitor in Richmond, Frederick Senior, and asked him to come to the house on the following day (Sunday) to make Isabella’s will. A draft will had been prepared for him by an old friend, James Mellor Smethurst. He was a barrister entirely unrelated to Smethurst – someone he had successfully treated at Moor Park. James Mellor Smethurst had written to say that the will ought to be properly drawn up by a solicitor. Mr Senior said he would come on Sunday if it was absolutely necessary. Smethurst called on him again on the Sunday morning asking him to come immediately and Mr Senior reluctantly agreed to attend. The will left everything except a brooch to Isabella’s ‘sincere and beloved friend, Thomas Smethurst...’, and was signed Isabella Bankes, 1st May 1859. (Author’s italics). It was witnessed by Mr Senior and Susannah Wheatley, the landlady’s daughter.
Meanwhile, on 30th April, Dr Julius had obtained a sample of one of Isabella’s evacuations from Smethurst, ostensibly to examine it for evidence of ulceration of the bowels. Mr Bird had obtained another sample. They were sealed in two bottles and sent to Dr Thomas Buzzard in London. Dr Buzzard was a friend of Mr Bird; they had practised medicine together in the Crimea. On Sunday 1st May, Dr Buzzard took the samples to Dr Alfred Taylor, a professor of chemistry at Guy’s Hospital. Dr Taylor made an initial examination and thought he could detect metal, but it being Sunday, he was reluctant to proceed without a magistrate’s order. In the evening, Dr Buzzard brought him an authority from Edward Penrhyn, the chairman of the Surrey Magistrates, to finish the analysis. This he duly completed by the Monday morning, 2nd May, concluding that arsenic was definitely present in one of the samples tested. He immediately wrote to Dr Julius telling him of the result and commented that considering Isabella’s symptoms, he was of the opinion that she was being slowly poisoned with arsenic and recommended immediate use of magnesium hydrate, the antidote for that poison. He advised that her life depended upon her being immediately placed ‘under the care of some trustworthy person...’ who should, henceforth, administer all of her food and medicines. Dr Julius then went to see Edward Penrhyn.
Louisa had arrived at Richmond at around 2 o’clock the previous day. She brought some soup with her that Smethurst diluted with warm water. Smethurst gave it to Isabella but she brought it up immediately. He advised Louisa not to stay in the room as Isabella was so ill. Louisa wanted to stay all night with her sister, but Smethurst said it would be better if she didn’t and she took lodgings nearby. She came back on Monday morning around half past nine. Smethurst and Dr Julius were in conference about another medicine. After Dr Julius had left, Smethurst sent Louisa to London to have a prescription made up. She was away about three hours. When she returned, Smethurst told her that Isabella was too ill to see her.
Around five o’clock in the evening, Inspector Robert McIntyre of the Richmond Police arrived accompanied by constable John Jukes. Inspector McIntyre lived a few doors away from the Smethursts, at No 7 Alma Villas, but this was no social call. He had a warrant for the arrest of Thomas Smethurst. Leaving Constable Jukes at the house, Inspector McIntyre took Smethurst to appear before Mr Penrhyn, the magistrate who had authorized the analysis of Isabella’s stools. Shortly afterwards Dr Julius’ assistant, Mr Caudle, arrived at Alma Villas with a nurse, Jemima Chetwood, who was to look after Isabella from now on.
No doubt Mr Penrhyn called upon Smethurst to account for the arsenic found in the stools of his wife. Exactly what was said has not, unfortunately, been recorded. However Smethurst convinced the magistrate that his wife was dying – at this point, no-one else was aware that they were living bigamously – and that he should be with her. Since there was now a constable at the house, all Smethurst’s medicines had been impounded by Inspector McIntyre and there was a nurse to look after Isabella, Mr Penrhyn concluded that even if he had been poisoning her, Smethurst could not now continue to do so. He was released on his own recognizance. When he arrived back at Alma Villas at around 9 o’clock in the evening, he told Louisa in a very excited state that Dr Julius had charged him with poisoning her sister but that it was he, Dr Julius, who was killing her.
Louisa Bankes and Jemima Chetwood stayed with Isabella all night and through to the next day, Tuesday 3rd May. Isabella took some arrowroot, tea and brandy during the night without retching, but she sank steadily, and at five past eleven in the morning she died. Inspector McIntyre immediately rearrested Smethurst on a charge of murder.
Doctors’ Commons, was a society of ecclesiastical lawyers, already virtually obsolete in Smethurst’s time. It was effectively abolished by the Court of Probate Act of 1857. Charles Dickens described it as ‘the place where they grant marriage-licences to love-sick couples, and divorces to unfaithful ones...[and] register the wills of people who have any property to leave...’
Where to find the book...
Copies of Smethurst's Luck can be found in the Chelmsford Central Library, the British Library at King's Cross, the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, the Cambridge University Library and the National Libraries of Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Thomas Smethurst and his wife Mary had gone to stay in a lodging house in Bayswater...
On 20th September 1858, five days after her forty-second birthday, Isabella Bankes came to stay at the boarding house in Rifle Terrace. The terrace was in Queen’s Road (now Queensdale Road), not far from Holland Park in London. The Smethursts had been in residence there on and off for about eighteen months.
Isabella Bankes was the second of six children of George Bankes and Hannah Vernon. Isabella’s grandfather, John Bankes, had made his fortune refining sugar, ‘white gold’, presiding over a ten-fold increase in consumption in Britain during his lifetime. He left well over £60,000 when he died in 1809, and Isabella’s father, George Bankes, inherited the business along with £10,000 in cash. In fact, the business had been left jointly to George and his younger brother Charles, but the latter incurred his father’s wrath by his intention to contract an ‘inappropriate marriage’. As a consequence, a portion of his share of the assets such as would not impede the proper conduct of the ‘sugar baking business’, was invested in government securities with only the interest paid to Charles. In a codicil to the will, John Bankes’ trustees were charged to ‘prevent any imprudent marriage connection by him’, and were apparently empowered to continue the arrangement at their discretion. Consequently George Bankes took over the business and when he died he left it to his only son, George Vernon Bankes, Isabella’s younger brother.
The Bankes family were not generally favoured with good health. Isabella’s mother had died in 1826 at the age of 32 from ‘a cold that turned to inflammation’. George Bankes died in 1843 aged 55. The official cause of death was stated to be typhus, although it was said that he suffered greatly from diarrhoea ‘which they were unable to arrest’. The eldest daughter Anne, for whom George Bankes had made special provision in his will, must have been an invalid for some time; she died of consumption in 1844 aged 29. Isabella herself was subject to bilious attacks and flatulence, as were the whole family. She also suffered from travel sickness and was afflicted with a ‘womb complaint’ for which she used silver nitrate douches administered using a glass syringe. She had been under the care of several doctors for various complaints before she met Dr Smethurst. Mrs Smith at Rifle Terrace reported that she was sick twice in the house and always complained of nausea when eating. Mrs Smith considered Isabella to be very delicate; she ate very little.
Isabella had three sisters living, she being the eldest. In descending order of age they were Jane, who had married Alfred Haffenden, Louisa, unmarried, and Elizabeth the youngest; she was married to Friend Tomlin. The four sisters each inherited around £1,750 from their father, and this was lent on mortgage to Mr Tarte, a lead merchant, father of the deceased first wife of Isabella’s brother George. The money was secured on property, and at 5% per annum yielded around £7 6s per month to each sister.
The sisters had an uncle, James Rhodes Bankes, their father’s youngest brother, and he had been ill for some time. James Bankes had been diagnosed with cancer of the bladder in 1856 and by the time that Isabella arrived at Rifle Terrace, he must have been quite ill; he died a month later. James Bankes had been left £10,000 by his father in 1809. He seems not to have been involved in sugar refining, but when he died in 1858, not being married and having no children of his own, he left most of his £60,000 fortune for the benefit of his nephew and nieces. Isabella, Louisa and Elizabeth were each left the interest on £5,000 invested in 3% government stocks and securities. They had no access to the capital, which reverted to the other legatees on their deaths, but during their lifetimes they received the dividends of around £140 a year each. The other sister, Jane, was left nothing in the will, possibly because she was already quite well-off. She had married a widower, Alfred Haffenden, a landed proprietor, in 1851. Ten years later she was living with her husband, two step-daughters and eleven servants in a manor house in Nottinghamshire.
In September 1858, Isabella and Louisa were living with their sister Elizabeth, her husband Friend Tomlin, and their three-year-old daughter Mabel in Paddington. According to Tomlin, Isabella left because he was giving up the house and her medical man had suggested a change of air. She may have done this, deciding to live independently, in anticipation of the legacy from her uncle. However, since Elizabeth sued for divorce in 1861, and Friend Tomlin was bankrupt by 1867, it seems possible that Isabella might also have left to avoid an ‘atmosphere’ at the Tomlins’.
It was the habit of Mrs Smith’s lodgers to eat together at one table and thus Isabella would soon have met and got to know the other occupants of the house including Dr and Mrs Smethurst. What happened next has been described by Mrs Smith, Mary Smethurst, and Thomas Smethurst himself. Isabella took a fancy to Thomas. Perhaps it was the fact that he was a doctor – and an MD addressed as “Doctor” – not just a surgeon-apothecary. Since Isabella’s health was precarious he probably treated her in some way. Possibly he romanced her with stories of his times in France, Germany and Austria or tales of various well-known persons that he had treated at Moor Park. In any event, she took a shine to him, and he, perhaps flattered by the attentions of a younger woman (he was 53 years of age by this time, while his wife was 74) responded to her interest, possibly finding within himself something rekindled that he might have forgotten was there... According to Smethurst later, Isabella had proposed a secret marriage while they were out walking together in Kensington Gardens. She had said that both a cousin and a friend had been secretly married, and she mentioned the latter fact in the presence of Mrs Firth, another boarder at Rifle Terrace. Isabella insisted that Smethurst visit Doctors’ Commons in order to read the will of her uncle James, and thus confirm the value of the income she was to receive under that will. See note below.
Mrs Smith, the landlady, decided that Isabella’s behaviour towards a fellow boarder and married man was incompatible with her sense of decency and gave her notice to leave. Smethurst tried to intercede on her behalf but Mrs Smith was adamant. Isabella had to go, and go she did, leaving on 29th November. She went to lodge with a Mrs Grabouska at Kildare Terrace, Bayswater, barely a mile away, where she stayed until 9th December. On that day, in the parish church of St Mary’s at Battersea, Thomas Smethurst and Isabella Bankes were married by special licence. Witnesses were James Sprice, the parish clerk, and Lucy Ambrose. Whether ‘the Smethursts’ spent the next one or two nights together is not recorded, but Thomas Smethurst finally departed Rifle Terrace either on 11th or 12th December, telling his wife Mary that he was first visiting friends and then making a ‘tour’. By way of a honeymoon Thomas and Isabella spent two weeks in Tunbridge Wells and a week in Dorking, followed by three weeks in Surbiton. In January they were in Withyham in Sussex, from where Isabella wrote to her sister Louisa, telling her that she was ‘quite well’, albeit ‘covered in “plaisters” and...obliged to wear flannel drawers’. She carried her pet bird, Bob, with her who ‘[sang] in the railway carriage’. In February 1859, Dr and Mrs Smethurst went to live at No 6, Old Palace Terrace, Richmond; the landlady was Mrs Robertson. Old Palace Terrace was at the corner of Richmond Green not far from the eighteenth-century stone bridge over the river, and effectively in the centre of the town.
After a month or so, Isabella began to suffer from sickness and diarrhoea. Initially, Smethurst treated her himself, but she did not improve so he decided to call in a second opinion. Mrs Robertson recommended a local doctor, Dr Julius. Dr Frederick Gilder Julius was the senior doctor in the area. He was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and had the degree of MD; following the Medical Act of the previous year, he was also registered with the new General Medical Council. He first visited Isabella on 3rd April 1859. After questioning her as to her state of health, he prescribed a mixture of chalk and catechu which was made up by his assistant Mr Caudle and sent up to the house. He visited Isabella the next day to find her no better. Smethurst had also given her some medicine, castor oil and some laudanum – the latter probably as an enema since it was described subsequently as ‘an injection’. Dr Julius visited again on 5th April to find still no improvement. This time he prescribed pills containing Grey powder and Dover’s powder, again with no effect on Isabella’s state of health. Grey powder, containing metallic mercury, was a laxative and Dover’s powder was either a laxative or emetic depending on the dose. Dr Julius commented later, ‘[his prescribed medicine] seemed to have no effect [on Isabella] whatever...’
Smethurst suggested a mixture of quinine, gentian, ether, dilute sulphuric acid and hydrocyanic acid (hydrogen cyanide) to give Isabella an appetite. Dr Julius thought it was not the correct medicine, but reluctantly agreed to provide it since Smethurst would be present to observe any adverse symptoms and stop the treatment if necessary. In the event, although it had no negative effects, the treatment produced no improvement either. Dr Julius continued to visit Isabella trying other medicines but her condition deteriorated. Mrs Robertson reported hearing her retching in the early mornings. She reported ‘green and yellow vomit’, and evacuations that were ‘just like coloured water’. Isabella had virtually no appetite.
At this point Mrs Robertson decided to increase the rent from eighteen to twenty-five shillings a week; it may have been because of the extra and unpleasant work she was having to do in relation to Isabella’s illness. Smethurst refused to pay any more, and on 15th April, he and Isabella moved. They went to 10 Alma Villas, now Rosemont Road, about a mile away at the eastern end of Richmond. Alma Villas was a row of semidetached houses on Richmond Hill surrounded by fields and orchards, with the Wesleyan College and chapel to the south, and plenty of open ground to the north. The rent there was only fifteen shillings a week, probably because the situation was less convenient than the town centre with further to walk to the shops. Smethurst said later that they moved to Alma Villas because the air was healthier on the hill. The landlady there, Mrs Wheatley, recalled that by the time Isabella arrived in a cab she was so weak that she could hardly walk, and did not leave the house the entire time she was there. Dr Julius continued to attend her most days, but was starting to wonder why his medicines were having no effect on the patient who was becoming weaker. He asked his partner Mr Bird to examine Isabella. Mr Bird had had considerable experience dealing with dysentery in the Crimea. He carried on with the hydrogen cyanide mixture, agreeing with Smethurst that the enemas of laudanum which he had been giving Isabella should also continue. He also recommended enemas of beef tea and the use of ice to cool the liquids Isabella was drinking. None of the medicines seemed to have any effect. After consultation with Smethurst, he prescribed lead acetate with opium. They decided that the opium was having ‘too much effect on the patient’ and used instead pills of silver nitrate which caused ‘violent burning’ and increased the diarrhoea.
On 18th April, Smethurst wrote to Isabella’s sister Louisa, who now lived at Maida Hill near Ladbroke Grove, asking her to visit them in Richmond as Isabella was very ill. He told her to ask for ‘Dr and Mrs Smethurst’, cautioning her to relate the contents of the letter to no-one. She arrived on the 19th and spent some hours with her sister before leaving. While she was there Isabella was sick twice, once after being given some milk to drink. There was some discussion about the possibility of consulting an uncle of theirs, Mr Lane, who was a surgeon at St George’s Hospital. Isabella said she preferred not to involve him. The next day Louisa wrote to her sister commenting on her ‘tender and kind nurse’ (Smethurst) and his ‘commendable patience...and ...amiability of disposition’. On the 21st Smethurst replied, saying that Isabella had passed a very bad night with ‘vomiting and purging...at a fearful rate’. Louisa made her a jelly which she despatched to Richmond via the omnibus. She also wrote saying that she would visit again the following weekend. Smethurst replied on 23rd saying that she should delay her visit as Isabella was very weak and her doctors had ‘...prohibited everything of a nature that might try her very weak powers...’ He wrote again on 27th April saying that Isabella had eaten some of the jelly, managing to keep some of it down. He also mentioned that he ‘insisted’ on having a consultation with Dr Robert Bentley Todd of King’s College Hospital, one of the most celebrated physicians of the day. In fact, it seems that Dr Julius had suggested Dr Todd.
Dr Todd, who was a very busy man, arrived around 10 o’clock at night on Thursday 28th April, accompanied by Dr Julius who had met him at the station and briefed him on Isabella’s symptoms and the treatments used. Dr Todd examined Isabella by candlelight in the presence of Dr Julius and Smethurst, and commented on the rigidity of her abdominal muscles. He prescribed pills of copper sulphate and opium. According to Smethurst later, the pills thus prescribed produced a burning sensation all through Isabella’s body.
On the 29th April, Smethurst wrote to Louisa again. He told her that Dr Todd ‘entertains favourable hopes’ of Isabella’s improvement. The sickness at least had stopped, although she was still retching and having large numbers of bowel movements and she was too ill for a visit from Louisa. On 30th he wrote once more. Isabella was worse, and he had ‘a great dread for the result...’ He now asked Louisa to come as soon as she could. He also went to see a solicitor in Richmond, Frederick Senior, and asked him to come to the house on the following day (Sunday) to make Isabella’s will. A draft will had been prepared for him by an old friend, James Mellor Smethurst. He was a barrister entirely unrelated to Smethurst – someone he had successfully treated at Moor Park. James Mellor Smethurst had written to say that the will ought to be properly drawn up by a solicitor. Mr Senior said he would come on Sunday if it was absolutely necessary. Smethurst called on him again on the Sunday morning asking him to come immediately and Mr Senior reluctantly agreed to attend. The will left everything except a brooch to Isabella’s ‘sincere and beloved friend, Thomas Smethurst...’, and was signed Isabella Bankes, 1st May 1859. (Author’s italics). It was witnessed by Mr Senior and Susannah Wheatley, the landlady’s daughter.
Meanwhile, on 30th April, Dr Julius had obtained a sample of one of Isabella’s evacuations from Smethurst, ostensibly to examine it for evidence of ulceration of the bowels. Mr Bird had obtained another sample. They were sealed in two bottles and sent to Dr Thomas Buzzard in London. Dr Buzzard was a friend of Mr Bird; they had practised medicine together in the Crimea. On Sunday 1st May, Dr Buzzard took the samples to Dr Alfred Taylor, a professor of chemistry at Guy’s Hospital. Dr Taylor made an initial examination and thought he could detect metal, but it being Sunday, he was reluctant to proceed without a magistrate’s order. In the evening, Dr Buzzard brought him an authority from Edward Penrhyn, the chairman of the Surrey Magistrates, to finish the analysis. This he duly completed by the Monday morning, 2nd May, concluding that arsenic was definitely present in one of the samples tested. He immediately wrote to Dr Julius telling him of the result and commented that considering Isabella’s symptoms, he was of the opinion that she was being slowly poisoned with arsenic and recommended immediate use of magnesium hydrate, the antidote for that poison. He advised that her life depended upon her being immediately placed ‘under the care of some trustworthy person...’ who should, henceforth, administer all of her food and medicines. Dr Julius then went to see Edward Penrhyn.
Louisa had arrived at Richmond at around 2 o’clock the previous day. She brought some soup with her that Smethurst diluted with warm water. Smethurst gave it to Isabella but she brought it up immediately. He advised Louisa not to stay in the room as Isabella was so ill. Louisa wanted to stay all night with her sister, but Smethurst said it would be better if she didn’t and she took lodgings nearby. She came back on Monday morning around half past nine. Smethurst and Dr Julius were in conference about another medicine. After Dr Julius had left, Smethurst sent Louisa to London to have a prescription made up. She was away about three hours. When she returned, Smethurst told her that Isabella was too ill to see her.
Around five o’clock in the evening, Inspector Robert McIntyre of the Richmond Police arrived accompanied by constable John Jukes. Inspector McIntyre lived a few doors away from the Smethursts, at No 7 Alma Villas, but this was no social call. He had a warrant for the arrest of Thomas Smethurst. Leaving Constable Jukes at the house, Inspector McIntyre took Smethurst to appear before Mr Penrhyn, the magistrate who had authorized the analysis of Isabella’s stools. Shortly afterwards Dr Julius’ assistant, Mr Caudle, arrived at Alma Villas with a nurse, Jemima Chetwood, who was to look after Isabella from now on.
No doubt Mr Penrhyn called upon Smethurst to account for the arsenic found in the stools of his wife. Exactly what was said has not, unfortunately, been recorded. However Smethurst convinced the magistrate that his wife was dying – at this point, no-one else was aware that they were living bigamously – and that he should be with her. Since there was now a constable at the house, all Smethurst’s medicines had been impounded by Inspector McIntyre and there was a nurse to look after Isabella, Mr Penrhyn concluded that even if he had been poisoning her, Smethurst could not now continue to do so. He was released on his own recognizance. When he arrived back at Alma Villas at around 9 o’clock in the evening, he told Louisa in a very excited state that Dr Julius had charged him with poisoning her sister but that it was he, Dr Julius, who was killing her.
Louisa Bankes and Jemima Chetwood stayed with Isabella all night and through to the next day, Tuesday 3rd May. Isabella took some arrowroot, tea and brandy during the night without retching, but she sank steadily, and at five past eleven in the morning she died. Inspector McIntyre immediately rearrested Smethurst on a charge of murder.
Doctors’ Commons, was a society of ecclesiastical lawyers, already virtually obsolete in Smethurst’s time. It was effectively abolished by the Court of Probate Act of 1857. Charles Dickens described it as ‘the place where they grant marriage-licences to love-sick couples, and divorces to unfaithful ones...[and] register the wills of people who have any property to leave...’
Where to find the book...
Copies of Smethurst's Luck can be found in the Chelmsford Central Library, the British Library at King's Cross, the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, the Cambridge University Library and the National Libraries of Scotland, Wales and Ireland.