Man kills wife and child

Man kills wife and child

Three burials recorded in the 1898 St Martin register reveal a family tragedy

In November 1898 51-year-old Royal Artillery pensioner slit the throats of his wife and year-old baby son before taking his own life, having been thwarted in an attempt to attack his five other children in the house.

A dramatic newspaper report at the time revealed the full horror of the events in Gorey Village:

"A terrible crime took place in the little village of Gorey on the east coast of Jersey, a double murder in fact.

"The perpetrator was a Royal Artillery pensioner aged fifty-one, named Timothy Towner, who was no stranger to the courts in Jersey, as he was a frequent offender as far as wife-beating goes.

"This time he had completely lost the plot and slit her throat and that of their one-year-old baby.

"He then tried to get into the other bedroom, where the other five children slept, but the eldest daughter, hearing the commotion, had smartly bolted the door. Finding it locked he gave up and cut his own throat.

"The fatal error of his Jersey-born wife was to give the old bastard another chance at the relationship, as she had left before, and he then promised to mend his ways.

"They had eight children together and she was a 26-year-old hard-working housewife, while he was a drunken layabout and he suspected his missus of seeing another man.

"It was the eleven-year-old daughter who found the bodies and, instead of rushing out for help, she quietly and calmly dressed the other children, then made the bed and led them to their uncle's house nearby."

Family

Timothy Towner was born at Mill Cottage, in Barcombe, Sussex, on 17 September 1847, the son of James and Charlotte. He joined the Royal Artillery at the age of 18. It is likely that his Army career took him to Jersey where he marrried Eliza Ellen Mitchell (1862- ) at St Helier on 7 November 1883.

After their marriage Timothy and Eliza moved to England. Their son William Henry was born in Dover in September 1884 and either he did not survive or he did not accompany his parents and siblings when they eventually moved back to Jersey. The eldest daughter, Florence, was born in Plymouth, Devon in 1887. Son James was born two years later in Barcombe, Sussex, followed by daughter Nellie Eliza, also in Barcombe, in 1891. Emily was born in 1892, possibly in Jersey, although there is no record of her birth there. Albert Edward was born in Lewes, Sussex in June 1894.

The date of birth of the couple's next son, Alfred Harold, is uncertain. It is given in online trees as 'about December 1894' in Sussex, which is clearly not possible if Albert was born in June. In the 1901 census Alfred is shown living in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, with his grandparents James and Sarah Avery, aged six, which suggests that he was born in 1895. Alfred went on to join the Army and was killed in France in 1918.

Also shown in the Avery household in 1901 was another grandson, Percy Towner, aged four. This may have been a family name for Timothy and Eliza's next son, George Walter William, who was born in 1896. Although it is suggested that he was born in St Helier, there is no record of his birth there.

Around this time Eliza is also believed to have given birth to unnamed twins, a boy and girl, who were either stillborn, or died soon after their birth.

Finally Frank Thomas was born on 1 May 1898 and baptised at Gourey Church on 31 July. Following the murder his siblings did not remain in Jersey, but were sent to various homes in England. Florence went to a Dr Barnardo's home in Romford, Essex;

Descendant

Following the posting of this story on the Jerripedia Facebook group, Tracey Lucas, whose great-great-grandmother was Eliza's sister, provided more information about the lives of the Towner children.

"They were sent first to homes in the UK and then to Canada as British Home Children, and sadly their young lives were not as good as they could have been. They never talked about what had happened to their parents in Jersey. Their children and grandchildren didn’t start looking for their Jersey family until that generation had passed. It was a huge shock to them to find out what had happened. It was amazing that they found us!"

Florence was sent to Toronto at the age of 16, in 1903. James Timothy died in Saskatchewan, Canada, at the age of 96 in 1984. Albert Edward died in Toronto in 1965. Emily was sent to Canada by Waifs and Strays Society at the age of 16 in 1908, and died there in 1979. George Walter was sent to Canada by Barnardo's at the age of eight in 1904 and died there in 1983. Nellie went later to Canada. In 1911 she was working as a housmaid in Eastbourne, Sussex.

Earlier concerns

Tracey Lucas' sister Sharon Gisler sent us further information:

"We had always known there had been a murder in the family, but not any details. I researched this some time ago and spent some time at the library printing copies of the newspaper reports. It was hard reading as I wasn’t prepared for how gruesome it was. There is nothing to suggest that he had tried to harm the other children (there were seven not five ) and the door was, in fact, bolted from the parents' side.

"Also it’s interesting that it could have been a premeditated act as a note was found in his waistcoat. 'T Towner- I am sorry for the sake of my children it has come to this but I cannot stand it any longer. I hope this is a warning to Bill and Frank Amy.'

"Also in my research there was an interesting letter to the Editor of the Evening Post from an Owen T Bulkeley, who I understand was a vicar:

'On two occasions I consulted with the Bailiff, as to the steps necessary to effect a separation of the unhappy couple; but I found that Jersey Law was very averse to such separations, although mere property disunions were common enough.

'On his first commital to prison the Bailiff told me that if he again assaulted his wife and was presented to a higher court, he would receive a long term of confinement. How was it that after a short term in a Jersey prison he was not presented before the higher court, and put away for the safety of himself, his wife and family?

'The man was well known to be of a violent, dangerous, homicidal tendency when under the influence of drink, and it was not a case where the consequences to be dreaded were not equally well known. Does the Law require a double murder and suicide to be actually perpetrated before it’s clumsy machinery can be set in motion? If so, it has now at last an opportunity of moving and intervening in the future in such pitiable examples of conjugal infelicity. But alas for the opportunity that has been lost for ever!'

"It shows that Eliza had reached out and discussed matters and it does raise a lot of question as to whether this tragedy could have been prevented."