Sorrow, Grief, and Woe: The Poetic Lament of Granville Medhurst, who murdered his wife.
It was on the eleventh day of May
With tears I now lament and say
My bosom friend and loving wife
I cut her tender thread of life
Granville William Wheeler Medhurst was everyone’s idea of the country gentleman. Well educated, prosperous, happily married, surrounded by children he loved, socially well-connected. There was little that this well-respected Georgian country house owner could wish for. He loved his wife dearly and when he travelled in his coach with her and their children he delighted in their excitable prattling. At his home — the impressive Kippax Hall near Leeds, the servants made sure that tiresome details of domestic life did not impact the family.
It appeared — until Granville brutally murdered his wife, that there was little to trouble the happiness of the family.
Who was he?
Medhurst had been born into an established, well-to-do family in 1757. Education, social connections, and social skills no doubt aided his pursuit of the beautiful and wealthy Sarah Jennings, whom he married in 1778. She was a model and devoted wife and mother, albeit that — not unusually, three of the eight children she bore died young.
