Anne Beddoes (1844-1884)


On 27 October 1884 Daniel Beddoes, a shoemaker of Helen Street, Cardiff was sitting read next to the fire with his wife, Anne and two "unfortunates", female lodgers, Alice Edmunds and Sarah Beddoes. Both Anne and Daniel were drunk. Daniel suffered from a severe speech impediment. Daniel complained he could not read further, so Anne snatched his glasses off his nose and threw them under the grate. Pretending to retrieve them Daniel stooped and picked up a poker, throwing it at his wife. He threw it with such force that it penetrated a major blood vessel at the left side of her throat. He had thrown the poker more to frighten her than to strike her. She bleed till her clothes were saturated. Daniel tried to stop the bleeding and bound the wound with a handkerchief. Anne unfortunately bled to death. The Coroner Mr E B Reece stated that Daniel's actions had caused Anne's death and the verdict had to be murder or manslaughter, depending on the intent to kill. Both lodgers said that Daniel had thrown the poker with aiming it in a moment of passion, and that the poker had accidentally slipped from his hand. On the recommendation for mercy from the jury, Daniel was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.