Thomas Wyre - for the murder of his son.

 

 Thomas Wyre - for the murder of his son.

30 year old Thomas Wyre, a labourer at Kingsford farm was hanged at Worcester Gaol on the 18th of July 1888 for the murder of his four year old son whom he had thrown down a well on the 3rd of March 1888.

Wyre was married and the couple had two children, the family living at Bird’s Barn Cottages.  The marriage was disintegrating and things came to a head on the 3rd of March, when Mrs. Wyre said she was moving out, taking the older child, an eight year old girl, with her and leaving four year old James with Wyre.  Wyre told her that would take James to live with his parents, but sadly this was not the case.

James’ body, by now seriously decomposed, was discovered in the well at Castle Hill farm near Wolverly , near Kidderminster, on the 2nd of June 1888.  George Lock, who was a tree feller was doing some work on the property and had become thirsty.  He went to the well to draw some water but found that it been covered over with a stable door, some other timber and an old boiler which had been turned upside down.  Lock and his colleague, Bishop uncovered the well but when they looked down into it they could see a small body floating in it.  The reported this to the farm’s owner, Mr. Henry Field and he fetched local constable, PC Edwards.  The men were able to recover the body, which was later examined by a surgeon.  The post-mortem revealed the cause of death as drowning and estimated the time of death as being two months previously.

Some of James’ clothing had remained intact and thus the corpse was able to be identified.  Wyre was duly arrested and stood trial before Mr. Justice Denman at Worcestershire Assizes on the 31st of June.  He was convicted and returned to Worcester Gaol, where he confessed the murder to the chaplain.

Wyre was hanged by James Berry at 8 a.m. on Wednesday the 18th of July 1888.  Berry gave him a drop of 6 feet and death was recorded as “instantaneous”.