Elizabeth Richardson

Elizabeth Richardson was convicted of the murder of William Pimlot and sentenced to death.

She stabbed him in Chancery Lane on 14 November 1768.

William Pimlot had been an attorney-at-law with chambers in Symond's Inn Coffee House and had previously taken Elizabeth Richardson into keeping.

However, it was heard that she had become jealous and thought that he had been seeing other women and often went to his chambers in the expectation of finding him engaged with some other woman.

On Sunday 13 November 1768, William Pimlot had spent the evening at a gentleman's house in Fleet Street with friends, after which he went to his chambers at about midnight. He was described as having been perfectly cool and sober at the time. However, soon after he went to bed, Elizabeth Richardson called at his home and insisted upon being admitted, stating that she would not leave until she saw him. However, he didn't come out and she broke a pane in one of the windows and then went back out into Chancery Lane.

However, William Pimlot came out and as she turned back to Symond's Inn she met him. William Pimlot had been partially dressed and upon leaving his chambers he found no watchman at the inn or at the gate, nor any lighted lamp and so he had run out into Chancery Lane and called for the watch. However, Elizabeth Richardson then instantly stabbed him in the breast.

When the watchman came over, William Pimlot pulled the knife from his breast and gave it to the watchman, telling him that Elizabeth Richardson had murdered him and that she had done it with the knife. he said:

William Pimlot was then taken to the watchman's hut about 100 yards away where he died about two minutes later without saying any more.

When Elizabeth Richardson saw the blood she clasped her hands and said:

Elizabeth Richardson was then arrested and taken to Newgate Prison and charged with murder.

She was tried at the Old Bailey on Saturday 7 December 1768 and sentenced to death and executed at Tyburn on Wednesday 28 December 1768.

Elizabeth Richardson was noted for having gone by a number of different names, including Martha Wallis and Miss Forrester.

She was described as being very plain with a brown complexion and much pockfretten.

She was said to have been seduced from the precepts of virtue and honour at an early period of life after which she had subsisted on the wages of casual prostitution, but had later been taken into keeping by William Pimlot. However, she later became jealous of him and would visit him to see if he had another woman with him, although it was not clear whether she had cause for her jealousy.

Prior to her execution it was noted that there had been a delay after it was expected that she would also confess to the murder of a man in Bath who was found in the River Avon five years earlier. She had been ordered to be executed on the Monday following her conviction.

Symond's Inn was later demolished in 1873 but had been where 22 Chancery Lane is today.