Artifact:

Newspaper article. Creator unknown. Written in London, England, 1860. Found in The Times (London) Digital Archive (1785-1985).

Source:
"The Late Mysterious Child Murder At Road." Times [London, England] 28 July 1860: 12. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.

Context:

            My artifact is an excerpt from one of the many newspaper accounts of the Constance Kent/Road-house Murder Case of 1860. The excerpt that I am focusing on headlined as: “The Late Mysterious Child Murder at Road”, in the London Times on July 28, 1860.  There were many excerpts that the London Times newspaper covered from the year 1860 to the year 1865 regarding the Constance Kent/Road-house Murder Case.¹ This excerpt in particular, which I am using as my artifact of empire, is merely announcing where the investigation currently stood during the investigation of the murder of a young Francis Saville Kent. In other words, my artifact is one excerpt out of the many excerpts from the newspaper coverage of the crime, the investigation, the confession, the trial, and the trial’s aftermath.²

Description of My Artifact:

My artifact of empire was the tenth newspaper account regarding the Constance Kent Murder case, that was printed on July 28, 1860, and titled: The Late Mysterious Child Murder At Road. This is the article that is devoted to the publics review of the case. In this excerpt from The London Times, the reporter talks about a scene where Constance Kent’s solicitor asks for the charges against her to be dropped because of Inspector Whicher’s (the inspector on the case at that particular time) lack of professionalism. In this way, and due to this article, Constance Kent’s solicitor played a very big part in Inspector Whicher’s career ending; the public turned against Whicher and even the press taunted him for bullying Miss Kent. Three years after this article was published, Whicher retired.  At the end of this article, the reporter states that the prisoner was discharged due to her father paying for her bail.³

How Does it Relate to What We’ve Read in Class?:

            My artifact of empire relates to the novel The Moonstone, written by Wilkie Collins, because the Constance Kent/Road-house Murder Case of 1860 fascinated Collins, and much of the case is woven into the material of The Moonstone.¹

            The first of the Constance Kent case is seen in chapter 12, when Gabriel Betteredge introduces Sergeant Cuff, who happens to have a fondness for roses. It seems that Collins was inspired by Sergeant Frederick Adolphus Williamson, a man who helped detective Whicher’s investigation of the Road-house murder case, and who had a serious passion for gardening (page 156).²

            Later on in this chapter, we see again, some details that link the novel to the Constance Kent murder case. This is seen through the use of the night-dress as “key” evidence in the case of the Diamond. This relates back to the Road-house murder case, except instead of blood stains Collins uses smeared paint on the night-dress (page 164).²

            Another connection between the murder case and the novel is the resemblance of Superintendent Seegrave to Mr. Foley. In the Kent murder case, Mr. Foley withheld evidence and his criminal negligence was publicly acknowledged in The Times.² This occurred before Whicher had taken over the case. In this way, you can see how Superintendent Seegrave is based off of Mr. Foley, because Superintendent Seegrave’s work stopped and than Sergeant Cuff picked up where he had left off, although Sergeant Cuff comically points out that Seegrave want about his investigation the wrong way. Similar? I think so.

References:

¹ Robert Ashley, Wilkie Collins and a Vermont Murder Trial: 1948, The New England Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 368-373. doi: 10.2307/361097.

² Wilkie Collins, edited by Steve Farmer, The Moonstone: 1999 (Canada: Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), pages: 156, 164; Appendix B: 560-576.

³ "The Late Mysterious Child Murder At Road." Times [London, England] 28 July 1860: 12. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.

To Find More Information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Kent

http://www.historybytheyard.co.uk/road_hill_house.htm

http://murderpedia.org/female.K/k/kent-constance.htm