The late Murders at Godalming
SOME ACCOUNT OF
CHENNEL & CHALCROFT.
George Chennel the elder (murdered) was originally a person in the most humble condition of life. From being in the habit, when a boy, of cleaning shoes, he afterwards became a shoemaker, and at length got into the leather trade. His honesty and industry were proverbial, and he was scarcely ever known to be later in his shop and at business than five o’clock in the morning. The deceased, between twenty and thirty years ago, married a woman of decent connections, and of good character. By her he had issue only the wretched man who, but a few days since, expiated his life upon the scaffold, for the murder of his father! The mother died in child-bed—the son unhappily survived. Soon after this the unhappy Elizabeth Wilson became the housekeeper of Mr. Chennel, and in this situation she not only for 30 years evinced the utmost fidelity, but the most tender care and solicitude towards the infant, George. She acted in every respect during his growing years the part of a kind mother. As he advanced in life, and was led into the commission of trivial offences and enjoyments, Elizabeth Wilson was his sure friend and screen from the father’s chastisement. She was his apologist or defender, when detected in crime. The wretched young man, however, could not be said to have been guilty of any very gross or serious offence, for, on the contrary, his conduct generally was most praiseworthy, and the theme of general commendation. His attention to business was most remarkable: he obtained the name of “industrious George,” and, up to the period of his marriage, his prudence almost amounted to parsimony. It was by a successful impression made upon him by a few companions, that he was first induced to visit a public-house, where he saw his wife, a young woman, then on a visit from Chiddinford, the residence of her father, a wealthy farmer. To consummate the object he had in view, in paying his addresses to this young woman, may be attributed his first habits of mixing in public life, when his visits to the tavern became frequent. The result was the union of the parties, and , upon their marriage, the sum of 2,000l. was bestowed upon them, the father of Chennel giving one, and the father of his wife the other thousand. Chennel was then about 27 years of age, and, with the money thus bestowed, he purchased a small farm at Farncomb, near Godalming; a view of which the wretched culprit might have taken if he had had the courage to observe it from the scaffold upon which he terminated his guilty career. By his wife he had one child, a son, now about seven years of age, and who, it is understood, will inherit the residue of his father’s, and what would have been his own property, but for the horrid deed which brought the first to an untimely grave, and the other to an ignominious end. Chennel, upon taking possession of his farm, exhibited all the wonted industry and economy which had before distinguished him; but he had to contend with two misfortunes, namely, a fatal difference with his wife, and an unsuccessful produce from his estate. The result of the first terminated in a complete rupture and separation, and the second in failure. He was, in fact, obliged to compromise his debts, and the estate produced to his creditors but 6s. in the pound. It was during this derangement of his affairs, that Chennel first had recourse to that system of vice and dishonesty which afterwards grew into “crime of the deepest dye,’ and eventually produced his ruin and death. In his embarrassment Chennel contrived feloniously to raise 200l. from a Bank in the neighbourhood, upon the assumed name of a near relation, but who then, in consideration of himself and family, declined a prosecution. The deeds of horror, which have since been identified with the career of young Chennel, have justly drawn from the relative, to whom we have alluded, the deepest regret at his then mistaken mercy. Chennel, being dispossessed of his farm, betook himself to his former pursuit in the leather trade, shoemaking, &c. When this failed to produce sufficient advantages, he had recourse to manual labour, and though his habits became more vicious, and his visits to the public-house at night constant, he continued for sometime to work hard, and was known to have earned as much as eight or nine shillings per day, in the employment of a farmer. His industry and good character were at one time so much esteemed as to procure for him the situation of “Purveyor of Oats to the Army.”—Chennel, however, by degrees, became altogether dissolute and idle, embracing the company of loose women and profligate characters, treating his own wife with cruelty, and his father with insolence and disrespect. In this state of things, Chennel, about two years ago, separated from his wife, and took up his abode in lodgings at Godalming; but dieting and being constantly at the house of his father, he at once selected W. Chalcroft, the servant of the latter, to be his bosom friend and companion. This man had been a few years in the service of old Chennel, and though he was a character suspected and disliked by the whole town of Godalming, no particular charge which would subject him to public exposure and punishment could be adduced against him. His moral character, however, was indisputably bad; for, notwithstanding he had been twice married, and was the wretched father of three children by each wife, he was notorious for his attachment to the most abandoned-female characters, and for his neglect and cruelty to his wives. The same disease which terminated in the death of his first wife brought himself to the workhouse, and here it was that he met with the woman, Sarah Hurst, whose name and character have been rendered so odiously conspicuous in the history of the Godalming murders. The unhappy woman who became the second wife of Chalcroft has, with her six children, been long dependent upon the parish; his wages as a carman and labourer, curtailed a good deal by his own profligacy, being wholly insufficient to provide for them. It is a most remarkable coincidence; that on the day of Chalcroft’s execution his youngest child had just attained the age of 12 months; and it is also remarkable, that the same day and time marked the perpetration of the murder at Petersfield, of which he and his companion Chennel, then absent from home, were strongly suspected. So abandoned indeed had Chennel and Chalcroft become, that three other deep and desperate crimes have been attributed to them, namely, the murder of an old man at Farnham, of a Roman Catholic Clergyman at Reading, and the robbery and attempt at murder at the turnpike near Haslemere. When the murders at Godalming were first discovered, it may be remembered that young Chennel was called up from his bed at his lodgings. Being made acquainted with the dreadful circumstances, his inquiry was remarkable:—“Is my father quite dead?” This would imply the idea that he was not himself the hand that dealt out death to the parent, but that he might have been the murderer of Elizabeth Wilson. This is strongly borne out by the fact of his declarations from the moment of his apprehension.—Those it will be seen were general and particular. When generally questioned, he said, “I am innocent;” when particularly interrogated, he emphatically said, “I never murdered my father!” It is a fact not yet made known, that the deluded criminal, upon entering the house on the morning of the murder, tore up the lease and other papers of his father’s house.
Chennel, no doubt, had determined upon suicide, in case of apprehension and conviction. When taken to the Little George public-house, W. Austen (son of the proprietor,) said to him, “George, I desire you will deliver up the large penknife you carry about you.” Chennel at first refused, but the instrument being forced from him, he exclaimed in a spirit of rage and disappointment to the person named, “depend upon it, I’ll mark you for that.” Again, when stripped and searched on the night of his conviction, before entering his cell, he was deprived of his braces and handkerchief. Of this he complained most bitterly, declaring that it was little less than barbarity to take his handkerchief, and that he would sooner have his flannel waistcoat torn from his back than lose his braces. Mention has been frequently made of a third individual being actually engaged in the murders of Mr. Chennel and his housekeeper, and the idea was supported by the declarations at a certain period of Sarah Hurst. Upon this point, it is known, that immediately after the transaction, Chennel and another, whose name appears in the trial, were confronted together, and words became warm between them. They talked of the murder, and the person to whom we have alluded tauntingly said to Chennel, “Hold your tongue, George—I’ll bet you 5l. I could produce you to the party, who did the thing, in five minutes!” In a subsequent conversation, this person was told, that Chennel had thrown out suspicions against him. His retort was, “George, and be —— to him, if he stood before me, and dare say a word, I’d make him tremble in his shoes in five minutes!” These strong insinuations led naturally to further inquiry, but the person who uttered them became dumb, and was only afterwards heard to say, “I see you want to pump me; but it won’t do.” Soon after the murder of old Chennel, two persons, Messrs. Weale and Grenham, of Godalming, were appointed trustees to his estate, and they proceeded to sell it. There were two different sales, and from the produce of these, young Chennel was allowed a comfortable weekly stipend, during the long period of his imprisonment, as well as ample means for his defence when brought to trial. It will excite some surprize, however, to know, that with all this supply of money, Chennel never made the slightest offer of assistance to his wretched companion Chalcroft; never once inquired for him while in prison, nor manifested the least sympathy or feeling towards him. The character of the man throughout was, in fact, a continued exhibition of insensibility and obduracy.