The Murder of the Farr Boys

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
In February, 1844, a 12-year-old girl named Mary Johnson was arrested in Lincoln Castle accused of the murder of her two brothers. 

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Church near Butterwick and Boston

The coroner at Benington held an inquest in which Mary Anne Johnson, age 12, was questioned about events that transpired in the last days of January, 1844. Mary's mother had died the year before, and it's not clear if Christopher Farr was her father, since she came to live in the household after her mother's death. The mother of all three children had the surname of Johnson, and again it's not clear if she was legally married to Christopher Farr.

The girl described where she had gone to the post office, but there was no mail to be received. She left and returned 10 minutes later, and asked for a pennyworth of arsenic. Later that night her two, younger brothers took ill, and died early the next morning within 2 hours of each other. Mary Anne said the night in question after the meal, Mr. Farr their father and his housekeeper, went to Ranting Chapel and when they returned they found both boys vomiting.

Mr. Cummack a surgeon was summoned, but by the time he arrived William the youngest had died. The following day, the father found out that Mary had obtained the poison at Mr. Overton's shop. He took the girl there and asked Overton, "Did this girl get any poison here?" Overton said yes, and then Mr. Farr asked her what she did with it. She replied, "I gave it to a woman on the road, who sent me for it." When asked if she could describe the woman she said she was tall, wearing a brown cloak, a white straw bonnet with colored ribbons and carrying a reticule basket. She accompanied the woman on the highroad as far as the guide post leading to Batterwick, close to Overton's shop. From there the woman set out on the path towards Boston, and the girl returned home.

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Boston, Lincolnshire c.1813

The police could not find a woman as the girl described her. A witness was found who swore that on the day in question, she was going on the high road to Boston and saw a woman leaving the Overton shop. She saw the girl but she never came close to the woman, and they never talked. Mr. Overton confirmed he had given the girl a quarter of a pound of arsenic, and he asked her how they were going to use it. She said, "To kill mice." He warned the girl to be very cautious and then took the precaution of labeling it with the word "poison."

​The housekeeper underwent a "very severe and trying cross examination by the coroner" but nothing she or the father said could incriminate either one. And the girl was left as the only one culpable.

The girl then made a confession to Rev. Richter the chaplain, which implicated other parties. She was released and sent to live with relatives.

A week later, Elizabeth Johnson, 30, Mr. Farr's housekeeper was questioned about the death of the boys. Even though her last name was Johnson she was no relation to the dead mother of the children. For an unknown reason she was not charged with the murders of Daniel 8, and William, 4, until July, 1844.

Mary Anne said the housekeeper, or "Betsey" as she called her, had given her a penny and told her to fetch a pennyworth of mercury to poison mice. Arsenic was known as white mercury in those years.

​Mary Anne Johnson related the following:

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​I took the poison from Mr. Overton and brought it home and gave it to Betsey. In the afternoon she took a mug and mixed it with some water. She stirred it up with a spoon. She emptied the paper into it. She told me when father went to chapel with her she was to give it to her brothers. I asked if it would hurt them? She said no, it would only poison mice. She and father went to chapel in the evening. Daniel asked me for some drink, and then William. I told them there was stuff which Betsey said they were to have, and they drank it. They were sick. Father and Betsey came into the house between eight and nine. They took them to bed. She said when I was upstairs, I was to be sure not to say I had given them anything to drink. No body was by. She wanted father to send for the doctor. He said they would be better after a bit. He did not go for the doctor till William was dying. It was about one o'clock in the night. 

Story about the death of the Farr boys c.1844 (Source - The Standard)

Mary Anne told the coroner that Elizabeth Johnson (the housekeeper), "asked me if I had told them what she had told me to say. I said yes, and she then said I was a real good girl, gave me a kiss, and I was to be sure and stick to what I had said."

The girl said Eliza Chevin, a neighbor was called in to attend the children before the return of Mr. Farr and Elizabeth Johnson from chapel. Eliza said the housekeeper had told her the boys had only eaten broth and sweet tea for dinner. Eliza Chevin described that Elizabeth Johnson had a blue and white half-pint mug, and she asked for her some water earlier in the day.

On the Saturday after the boys had died it could not be found, and the housekeeper said she had never seen it, even though she had brought it to the Chevin's home a few days before.

​During the inquest, the surgeon said:

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​When I entered the house one of the children was dead, the other dying. I questioned Elizabeth Johnson. I observed her conduct. I asked her whether they could get at any poison and she said no, they had none in the house. She trembled very much at the time. I asked her to hold the candle that I might see the child, and I thought she would drop the candle; her lips were bloodless. 

Benington Church c.1792

Sarah Johnson, aunt to the deceased children remembered that Elizabeth Johnson had moved in three weeks after her sister's death to act as a housekeeper. The woman had told her, "she wanted a home, and a home she would have. She would have the first man, let him be who he would, or come from where he would."

The housekeeper had a daughter living with relatives in Boston, which she asked to be sent to her once the boys had died. Sarah Johnson said, "When I came to the funeral she (the housekeeper) said 'that people would say anything; they could not have been poisoned.'

She had given Mary Anne a kiss and said, 'We are all innocent, stick to what you have said Mary Anne, ain't we?' She said this more than once to the girl."

Richard Cammack the surgeon, told of arriving at the home at 1 a.m. and found one of the boys was dead. The other child was being held by the neighbor Mrs. Chevins, and the boy was "sick, livid and clammy and apparently dying." There was nothing he could do to save the child, but he gave him an emetic. He took the boy's vomit home with him. Examination of the stomach found that it was inflamed such as arsenic would produce. The mucous was streaked with white and opaque. In the stomach of the younger child he found infused blood, and white powder upon the surface of the stomach of both children. He tested it and it was arsenic.

Elizabeth Flowers was a neighbor of Mrs. Allit, the mother of Elizabeth Johnson, and she overheard a conversation between mother and daughter a few days after the death of the boys, where Elizabeth claimed her innocence. Her brother Mark Johnson said, "Well, my wench, if thou art innocent, God knows."

Mr. Macaulay who defended Elizabeth Johnson, made a "very able speech". The judge summed up and after some consideration, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Why Elizabeth Johnson was not convicted after testimony indicating she most probably had a hand in the death of the boys is unknown. Was the boys' father also part of the plan to get rid of them? He took Elizabeth Johnson into his bed, within a day of his children's death. It's unknown where the boys were buried, but probably in the All Saints Churchyard, which has one of the oldest cemeteries in the area established in 1200.

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