The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-05-02 00:00:00

THE ROAD MI7RDER.

CONFESSION OF MISS CONSTANCE

KENT.

EXAMINATION IN LONDON.

Towards the close of the sitting at the Bow-street
police-court on Tuesday afternoon, an intimation was
received by the chief magistrate, Sir Thomas Henry,
that Miss Constance Kent, accompanied by the Rev.
Mr. , of St. Paul's, Brighton, was on her way to
London for he purpose of surrendering herself on this
charge.
Shortly afterwards they attended at the court, and
were shown into the chief magistrate's room.
Mr. Durkin, the superintendent of the F division of
police, and inspector Williamson, of the detective
force, were in attendance. The latter proceeded to
enter the charge on the police-sheet.
Sir Thomas Henry at this point addressed Min Kent
as follows :—Now, am I to understand that you give
yourself up of your own free act and will?
Miss Kent: Yea, sir.
Sir Thomas Henry: Anything you say will be written
lawn, and may be used in evidence against you.
Miss Kent: 'Yes, sir.
Sir Thomas Henry: Is this paper DOW prOdlloed in
your own handwriting, and written of your own accord
and will?

down,

Miss Kent: It is, air.
Sir Thomas Henry: Then let the charge be entered
in hr own words.

Inspector Avery entered the charge &I follows Constance Emilie Kent, 2, Queen-square, Brighton,
charged upon her own confession with having, alone and
unaided, on the night of the 29th June, 188), murdered,
at Road•hill House, Wiltshire, one Francis Saville
Kent.

Mr. Wagner was about to sign the sheet, when Sir
Thomas Henry observed that there was no necessity for
him to do that, m the prisoner was charged upon her
own oonfession.
Mr. Burnaby (the chief clerk) inquired whether the
prisoner spelt her name Emilie or Lay?
Miss Kent : It is indifferent. I sometimes spell it
one way and soroetimes the other.
Mr. Burnaby: I see it is spelt Emilie on this paper,
which you say is in your handwriting.
Miss Kent: Yes, sir.
Sir Thomas Henry: Hare you any objection to sign
that. I must remind you that this is the most serious
offence that nen be committed. Let me again remind
you ti et anything you say or writ* may be used spina
you at Your trial. I have had copied on that charge-

sheet what you have written. I do not wish you to
sign it unless you like.
Miss Kent : I will do so if necessary.
Sir Thomas Henry : No, it is not absolutely noose-
airy. There Is no occasion unless you wish. I will
have that paper attached to the depositions. Then I
may take it down that you come entirely of your proper
act and without any inducement to give yourself up?
Miss Kent: Yes.
The Rev. Arthur Douglas Wagner was then called
and sworn : I am a clerk in holy orders, and perpetual
curate of St. Paul's Church, Brighton, which is a chapel
of ease to the parish church. I have known Constance
Rtnt nearly two years. It was in the summer of 1863.
Vies Kent: In August.
Sir Thomas Henry: About 21 months?
Mr. Wagner: Yes, as far as I recollect. An English
family wrote to me asking for her admission to St.
Mary's Home, as she had no home, or there was some
difficulty. St. Mary's Home, or Hospital as it is now
called, is attached to SL Mary's Church, and is a house
for religious ladies. She came to me there about that
time, and has re.ided there ever sinoe.
Sir Thomas Henry: Now, Mr. Wagner. it is my duty
to ask you whether you have in any way induced her to
make the oonfession she has now made?

_
Mr. Wagner: No, I have not in any way induced her;
it is entirely her own voluntary act, to the best of my
belief. It was, as far as I can recollect, about a fort-
night ago that it first came to my knowledge. It was
entirely her own proposition that she should be taken
before • magistrate. She herself proposed to come to
London for the purpose. It was her own proposition to
leave the house and come to London for the purpose of
giving herself up. I could not remember the words, but
the substance was the same as appears in that paper,
that she wished to give herself up for that crime. I
cannot remember the words, but that was the substance.
Sir Thomas Henry (reading the paper) : "That I,
Constance Emilie Kent, alone and unaided, on the night
of the 29th of June, 1860, murdered, at Road-bill
House, Wiltshire, one Francis Saville Kent ;" was that
the anbstanoe?
Mr. Wagner: It was.
Sir Thomas Henry: Did she make that known to
you?
Mr. Wagner: Yes, she did.
Sir Thomas Henry here asked Inspector Williamson
if the house was in Wilts or Somersetshire.
Inspector Williamson said the house wan in Wilts.
Sir Thomas' Henry : It is marked in Somerset.
"" .

Inspector Williamson: The village is in Somerset, on
the border, but the house where the murder was nom•
mated is in Wilts.

Sir Thomas Henry: Then it would go to Salisbury,
which would be the more convenient for you, Mr.
Wagner?
Mr. Wagner: When I speak of eonfession I should
wish to be understood as referring to public confession.
Sir Thomas Henry: I will not go into that point
here. It may be gone into at the trial, perhaps very
fully. (To the prisoner)-1 hope you understand that
whatever you say most be entirely your own free and
voluntary statement, and that no inducement that may
have been held out to you is to have any effect on your
mind.

_
Miss Kent: No induoement ever has.
Sir Thomas Henry: I was anxious that you should
most seriously oonsider that. .

Mr. Wagner : I wish to mention that many are in the
habit of coining to confess to me as a religious exercise,
but I never hold out any inducement.
Sir Thomas Henry: Yes; I think you ought to men-
tion that. Did you in the first instance induce her to
make the confession '.'

Mr. Wagner: No: I did not seek her out, or in any
way ask her to come to eonfession. She herself wished
to do it.

Sir Thomas Henry: If you think that in this con-
fession which she is now making she has been induced
in consequence of anything she has said to you—
Mr. Wagner: I never even recommended it. I have
been simply passive. I felt that she was doing right,
and, therefore, I did not dissuade her.
Sir Thomas Henry That must be added.

Mr. Wagner : She thaught of it herself, without my
suggesting it to her.
Mr. Burnaby (the chief clerk) added this statement
to the rev, gentleman's deposition.
Sir Thomas Henry, then, addressing Miss Kent, said:
This is the paper you wish to hand in as your state-
ment ; is it? (holding up the paper already referred
to.)
Miss Kent • Yes sir. . . . . .

Sir Thomas Henry : Now, understand it is not too
late, even now. I wish to tell you again that this is a
very serious charge, and that anything you write or say
may be used against you. You are not obliged to make
any statement unless you wish.
Mr. Burnaby (the chief elerk).—ls this your hand-
writing? (holding up the paper.)
Miss Kent: It is.
Sir Thomas Henry (to Mr. Wagner): Do you know
her handwriting?

Mr. Wagner I never nw her write, so I cannot
tell; though, of course, I have no doubt it is.
Mr. Burnaby then read the confession, which WSJ AS
f 0110 we :

"I, Constance Emilie Kent, alone and unaided, on
the night of the 29th of June, 1860, murdered, at
Road-hill House, Wiltshire, one Francis Saville Kent.
Before the deed DO one knew of my intention, nor after
it of my guilt. No one assisted me in the crime or in
the evasion of discovery."
Sir Thomas Henry: Do you wish to add anything to
that statement

Miss Kent: No, sir.
Sir Thomaa Henry : The offence being committed in
Wiltshire, the trial must be in that county. It will,
therefore, be necessary to send her to be examined be.
fore the magistrates there. Inspector Williamson, you
were there at the time of the former inquiry; you
know what took place, and who were the magistrates.
Inspector Williamson: Yes, Sir Thomas, I do.
Sir Thomas Henry: Then I will send the warrant
and the deposition of Mr. Wagner, with the voluntary
statement of the prisoner, and the magistrates will
exercise their discretion as to what further evidence
they will go into. Where do the magistrates reside?
Inspector Williamson: One gentleman reaides at
Trowbridge. I shall take the prisoner there, for
though there is • petty sessions at Road, it only sits
once a week.

Sir Thomas Henry: One magistrate can hear the
ease in the first instance.

The warrant was then made out, and Miss Kent was
removed in custody of Inspector Williamson.
On hearing the magistrate's decision the prisoner
heaved • sigh and fell back in her chair, as if greatly
relieved
at the termination of this part of the proceed-
ings. She was then led into an adjoining room and
having solicited a glass of water, with whioh she was
supplied, a cab was drawn up to the door of the private
entrance of the Court, into which she stepped, followed
by Miss Green.
Mimi Green, the superior of the SL Mary's Home,
who had accompanied Miss Kent from Brighton to
London, was in attendance throughout the examination. •
. . . . . . . .

When Superintendent Durkin"handed the two ladi—es.'
into the cab, and the Rev. Mr. Wagner and Inspector
Williamson also entered the vehicle, a knot of four or
five idle boys atopped to stare at the peculiar dress of
the lady superior. So quiet had the whole proceedings
been conducted that it was not even suspected that
the gentle and rather delicate-looking young lady, so
carefully tended, warn Constance Kent, late of Road-
hill House.

All who remember the events following the murder
of Francis Saville Kent will be prepared to imagine
that to the police, at all events, this disclosure is no
matter of surprise. It was, we believe, pretty well
understood that the officers who were so strongly cen-
sured for charging Miss Kent before the magistrates
were by no means willing to admit that they had failed
in sagacity, although they were unable to adduce in
evidence the circumstances on which their suspicions
were founded. In the course of the following year
some hint transpired of an alleged confession by Miss
Kent to a relation, but for some retvon the suggestion
of a fresh investigation at that period was not one which
it was thought advisable to osrry out Soon after-
wards it was rumoured that Mice Kept bad been sent to
• convent in France.

The circumitan—oes of the mysterious murder have
never been forgotten--how, nearly five years ago, the
body of a male child, which had been missed from its
cot, was found in an outhouse adjoining the house, and
how, suspicion having been directed towards Miss Kent,
the eldest daughter of Mr. Kent by a former wife, she
was examined before the local magistrates, and acquitted
of the charge. It is hardly • secret that nearly • year
afterwards, in oonsequence of an alleged confession of
the crime by Miss Kent to one of her relatives, another
attempt to investigate the matter was made by the
detective officers, who had incurred the censure of •
large proportion of the press and the public for their
proceedings in the case. They found it unadvisable,
however, to act upon the fresh information which had
reached them, and it subsequently transpired that
Miss Kent had been sent to a convent in France.
Nothing more of a reliable character was heard of the
case until Tuesday.
It is alleged that before making her confession Miss
Kent 11,,c1 written a letter to her father, announcing the
decision which she had arrived at, with a view, it ii
supposed, of saving him the sudden shock of learning
it first from the newspaper reports. The father, with
the other members of his family, is residing, we believe,
in Wales.