A Victorian Murder: the Death of Amelia Blunt

Alan Warren provided us with this account of Amelia Blunt, aged 43, who was the victim of a fatal knife attack by her former boyfriend Francis Wane in Sept 1864, He was found guilty and was executed in public in December 1864. Less than a month later, in January 1865, the final public hanging in the County of Essex was also carried out at Springfield Gaol, Chelmsford.

“Amelia had been making plans to marry John Warren and if that had taken place there might have been an obvious link to our Essex Warrens. But this sad story does have an unexpected link as follows :- Amelia’s maiden name was Wallis and after her birth in 1820 her parents had another 6 children, the youngest of whom was called Ellen (b.1831). As you can see from the family warren tree, old Thomas Warren married his first wife in October 1853 and her name was Ellen Maria Wallis(22). Just to confirm this link, the marriage certificate names her father as John Wallis, Butcher and both details are confirmed by his Census 1841 Return.”

For those of you with an eye for ghoul, Alan has provided the full account of the murder in an extract from “Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Barking, Dagenham and Chadwell Heath”, written by the Local History Curator in Dagenham, and death certificates for both Amelia Blunt and Francis Wane.