What was charlotte dymond wearing

Pat had been the librarian at Bodmin Library. Deciding to look for the grave, I was unable to find it as it was then unmarked. I consulted with the book and a particular photograph in it. The spooky part comes next! On locating the spot where the grave lay, I immediately realised that it was situated at the very spot where I had encountered the girl with the dark clothing and bonnet!

The bottom of the church wall on the pavement side would have been approximately six feet from the top of the grave and at the very place near the church gate. In recent times, two new roads have been built in nearby Camelford, one named 'Dymond Close' and the other 'Weeks Rise' in memory of them both. Brian has taken part in a film made to accompany the re-enacted trial of Matthew Weeks which may be seen in the former Bodmin Crown Court.

For more information on what cookies are and how you can manage and remove them click here. Latest View all. Brian's Story "In February, and having retired from the Dorset Police, I moved to live in a bungalow opposite the parish church at Davidstow, near Camelford in Cornwall.

The book remained unread on the book shelf at my home until the following April. Charlotte Dymond's grave has since been marked with a slab. The elderly witness is unreliable too. He mentioned that the moors were foggy, and he could only recognise Matthew Weeks from his limp. Was she an ashamed schoolmistress? Could she have killed Charlotte? This is all just theory and talk, but maybe Charlotte bumped into her Mother after Matthew left to head back to the farm.

They could have argued and that could have turned violent. This could have happened. Maybe it was an unknown person. Maybe Charlotte encountered someone who wanted to hurt her and it turned deadly. An old lover perhaps? Or even a total stranger? In the case was reopened by an amateur historian named Pat Munn.

She concluded that Matthew was innocent. This seems probable! Matthew could barely walk himself, let alone drag a body through the mud on the moors. To me, there are too many factors and possibilities saying that Matthew could have been innocent. I also believe that all of the records from the time of the case are pretty biased.

Unfortunately, I have not found one article or newspaper extract that shares the possibility of another suspect or possible murderer. Personally, I think that the town all just agreed that Matthew was guilty to stop the fear of the possibility of a murderer walking around with them. Phillipa may have been protecting her family and saw Matthew as an easy target. There are too many theories to write about in this post. A monument was placed on Bodmin Moor where Charlotte Dymond was found and the murder supposedly took place.

The town rallied together and had the monument made. Her shawl of diamond redcloth, She wore a yellow gown, She carried a green gauze handkerchief She bought in Bodmin town. About her throat her necklace And in her purse her pride As she walked out one evening Her lover at her side. Out beyond the marshes Where the cattle stand, With her crippled lover Limping at her hand. Charlotte she was gentle But they found her in the flood Her Sunday beads among the reeds Beaming with her blood.

Matthew, where is Charlotte and wherefore has she flown? For you walked out together And now are come alone. Why do you not answer, Stand silent as a tree, Your Sunday woollen stockings All muddied to the knee?

Why do you sit so sadly Your face the colour of clay And with a green gauze handkerchief Wipe the sour sweat away? A red rock rests upon my breasts, And my naked neck is split! Her cheeks were made of honey, Her throat was made of flame Where all around the razor Had written its red name. Come quiet now, you pretty poor boy. He was generally considered to be well behaved, and was better dressed than was usual for a farm labourer. Unknown to the public at the time of the trial, Matthew had come into a small inheritance in March That Lady Day, Charlotte Dymond, who had lived and worked at Penhale for eighteen months had been paid off, but come mid-April she remained there, having no other position to go to.

She was about eighteen, and was illegitimate. Although her parentage has not definitely been identified it has been suggested that she was the daughter of the village schoolmistress. The reasons for this are not clear — possibly her mother wished to protect her reputation, although in communities such as these, everyone at least knew everyone else, and was most likely related to them, too.

Another possibility was that Charlotte, who was attractive and smartly dressed, was reputed to be a flirt. It had been well known for some time that Charlotte and Matthew had been seeing each other, even before she came to work at Penhale. Thomas Prout, aged about 26 was a nephew by marriage of Mrs Peter, and lived some four miles away.

Matthew had worked with Prout before, and they had not got on well together. Prout had said that he was thinking of moving to Penhale, and if he did, he would soon deprive Matthew of his girlfriend. On Sundays the inhabitants of Penhale changed the clothes they had worn all week for clean ones, and the dirty clothes were put ready for the laundry on Monday. On Sunday 14th April , a somewhat damp and muddy day, the clothes were changed as usual, and Matthew got clean blue stockings and a clean shirt.

The shirt was not new — it had been mended by letting a piece into the shoulder, and the collar button stitching had been strengthened. Later that day, Prout visited again, and spent some time outside talking to Charlotte. The subject of their conversation was not revealed until later. Charlotte indicated that she would not be back in time to milk the cows, though Matthew would. The two set off together. Later in the evening Isaac Cory, a 63 year old farmer who was related to Stevens, Prout and Mrs Peter, arrived at Penhale, having been to the afternoon service at the local church in Davidstow.

He mentioned that on the way he had seen Matthew, who he knew at once by his limping gait, in company with a young woman. He had not been able to identify the woman, but he described the clothing Charlotte had been wearing for her walk — a green striped dress and red shawl.

Although it had been foggy earlier, he reckoned he could still see a fair distance. Isaac Cory had left some time ago. Matthew returned home, but on being questioned said he did not know where Charlotte was. Monday was washday and Charlotte was still missing. Matthew was again questioned but repeated that he knew nothing of where Charlotte was. It had rained on the Sunday but not, she felt, enough to get the stockings into that mess. The mud, she observed, was like that found in the turf-pits on the moor.

Later she again asked Matthew where Charlotte was and this time he said he had accompanied her as far as the gate in Higher Down Field, just before the edge of the moorlands. Matthew insisted on mending it himself. Suspicions were growing, and that day Matthew mentioned to a visitor that if Charlotte were to be found dead, her mother would be tried for her life. Mrs Peter tackled him again, insisting on knowing the truth.

Mrs Peter denied this. It was too far to get there that night so she intended to stay the night at the house of one Hezekiah Spear. She had heard of a position by letter from Rebecca Lanxton, a niece of Mrs Peter. By Wednesday Mrs Peter was openly accusing Matthew of making away with Charlotte out of jealousy, but Matthew stuck to his story.

The work of the farm continued as normal. That Friday a pig was to be killed, and the local butcher was to do it. Matthew was still wearing the shirt he had worn the previous Sunday, as there would be no clean one till next Sunday, and asked the butcher if he could kill the pig, which he did. The whole household and the neighbours were openly voicing their suspicions about Matthew. The following Sunday Mrs Peter noticed the trousers which Matthew had worn when he walked out with Charlotte, and which were muddied up to the knees in front.

By now, it had been decided that some action must be taken. Apart from two handkerchiefs which they thought might have belonged to Charlotte and a newspaper cutting which Matthew had brought back from his mother three weeks before they found nothing suspicious. As to the handkerchiefs, it could not be proved that Charlotte had had either of them when she went out, and the cutting which was about a murder case, related to a man in prison being supported by his daughter. Why Matthew should have had this is not clear, especially as he could not read, but it is of doubtful relevance to the case.

When the two Johns arrived back at Penhale the results of their enquiries gave rise to even deeper suspicion. It was clear that someone was lying. But where was Matthew? The following Monday was washday again, and Mrs Peter found the shirt Matthew had worn on the day of his walk with Charlotte, and had continued to wear during the week. Inspecting it she saw that the stitching of the pleats on the front was unripped, and the collar was partly torn off.

There were also some blood spots on the shirt. By now, the case against Matthew seemed complete, especially as he seemed to have fled, so it was decided that the Moor should be searched. As they proceeded through Higher Down field they noticed the print of pattens, undershoes worn by women to protect their shoes against the wet. Three quarters of a mile from Penhale farmhouse was Higher Down gate where Matthew said he had left Charlotte. The marks continued onto the moorland where they ended, as the ground was too grassy to take a print.

Joined by another neighbour, the party walked toward Lanlary Rock, a local landmark towards which Cory said he had seen Weeks and his companion walking, and in the boggy ground beneath the rock found prints of the same pattens they had seen earlier. The party had swollen to twelve by Roughtor Ford, and split into two groups either side of the River Alan.

They followed the stream to a place where the land was washed in water when the level rose in bad weather. Beside the stream was the body of a woman. She lay face upwards, about a foot from the where the water was flowing but looking as though she had been washed with the water. Her throat had been cut. Her shoes were missing as were her pattens, bonnet, bonnet cap, handkerchief, bag, shawl and gloves.

There was no blood to be seen and no sign of a weapon, but just behind the head was a broken coral necklace. These latter had metal toe and heel plates, which meant they were his best boots.

Working boots had no toe plates but were nailed all over the sole. This picture shows the sloping bank on the site of the murder and the steep bank on the other side:. The clothes on the corpse were wet underneath but dry on top suggesting they had dried as the water level receded, and there were pale stains on the gown — blood washed pale by river water.

A doctor, Thomas Good, was called to examine the body on the spot, then it was taken back to Penhale by cart and placed in the barn. On the following day Good examined the body in detail.

It was eight and a half inches in length, starting on the left side of her neck and extending all the way around to the right. It passed two and a half inches below her ear and was two and a half inches deep.

It was deeper on the left side, where the whole of the soft tissues were divided right down to the bone. The windpipe was completely divided, the oesophagus partly. The instrument had even gone between two vertebrae partially separating them. Although from external appearance there was one long cut, the fact that an artery had been severed and then nicked in another place suggested that there had been two cuts made.

It was clear that great force had been used. The roughness of the sides of the wound meant that the instrument was unlikely to have been very sharp. He did not think it possible that she could have inflicted the wound herself. She was a healthy woman, not pregnant, although the hymen had been ruptured some time before. There was no evidence of rape. Isaac Cory told of having seen Matthew on the moor with a woman, and two other witnesses came forward to say they had seen a man and a woman walking towards Roughtor Ford.

One of them observed that the man was lame. The inquest jury found a verdict of murder against Matthew Weeks. There was a warrant for his arrest, but where was Matthew? Matthew was one of ten children of John and Jane Weeks and had been brought up in Larrick, and this seemed like the best place for Constable Bennett to begin his search. It seemed that he had been intending to travel on to the Channel Islands.

His best boots were taken to the moor to compare them with the prints found there, and although the prints were no longer very distinct, it was felt that there was a match. Thomas Prout was also able to solve the mystery of the conversation he had had with Charlotte.

They had made an arrangement to meet at Tremail chapel later in the day. An informal hearing was held before three justices, and the evidence was laid before them. By now, Matthew had made a further statement in which he admitted walking with Charlotte further than he had at first said — he now said he had crossed over the road and walked a little way, nearly up to the spot where Isaac Cory had seen him. In the wet turfy marsh were indistinct footprints. Whoever had passed through the marsh would have been muddied up to his knees.

The constable also took another look at the site where the body was found, and noticed that a clod of earth had been removed from the bank and replaced. Lifting it, he found a great deal of blood. Asked if the wound that killed Charlotte was the kind a person might have inflicted upon themselves, Surgeon Good initially agreed, but later made a point of explaining his testimony. He made it clear that he thought it impossible that she could have inflicted such a wound as that.

The direction, from left to right was consistent with suicide, but it was also consistent with a right handed assailant from behind. The judge in his summing up agreed that it was next to impossible for the wound to be self inflicted, and that Charlotte had been murdered.

Twelve hours after the jurors had been empanelled they filed out to make their decision. At twenty four minutes past ten they returned after only 35minutes of deliberation to bring in a verdict of guilty, and Matthew was sentenced to be hanged.