In the sparse, hushed courtroom, the judge prepared to pronounce sentence of death. Looking straight at the prisoner, he said; ‘We both belong to the same Brotherhood,’ (he faltered here) ‘and though that can have no influence with me, this is painful beyond words for me to have to say what I am saying, but our Brotherhood does not encourage crime, it condemns it.’
    This was the culmination of a sensational trial, sensational not only because of the nature of the crime committed, but because it was clear that the accused man had made an appeal for leniency in the name of the fraternity to the Judge, a fellow Freemason. In the course of the trial he had signalled to the Judge that he was in distress, and thus was born a legend of masonic collusion between crime and justice.
    Frederick Henry Seddon was an insurance agent and a mortgage salesman, who had been initiated in the Stanley Lodge No. 1325 in 1901, later becoming a founder of Stephens Lodge, No. 3089 but resigned from both in 1906. In 1909 he purchased a fourteen-room house at 63 Tollington Park, by the Finsbury Park area close to Seven Sisters Road in London, for the then princely sum of £220.
    The following year he made the acquaintance of a forty-nine year old spinster, Miss Eliza Barrow, who had been left a legacy enabling her to have investments in property and stocks. She and Seddon had at least one thing in common – they were both very mean and difficult to get on with. She lived in lodgings with her cousin, Mr Frank Vonderahe, but in a conversation with Seddon let him know that she was having difficulties with living expenses. Miss Barrow, who suffered from miserliness bordering on eccentricity, did not trust banks, and kept as much as three hundred pounds in her rooms.

The Lodger

Seddon was not slow to see the possibilities, and had already sized up the advantages of having a well-heeled spinster for a lodger, whose rent payments could be relied on and settled in cash. He was persuasive and personable, and convinced her that it would be to her advantage to come and live with him. Accordingly, Miss Barrow came to live at number 63 on 26 July 1910, bringing with her an adopted boy, Ernest Grant, together with his uncle and aunt, Mr and Mrs Hook from Edmonton. She immediately proved to be an ideal tenant, who kept to her rooms, only sitting in the kitchen occasionally chatting to the charwoman.
    A few weeks went by and she seemed to have settled in well when one morning, out of the blue, Miss Barrow handed a letter to the Hooks. This letter, which was probably from Seddon, told them to pack their things and leave the apartment. This resulted in a furious row, which culminated in the Hooks accusing Seddon of trying to grab Miss Barrow’s estate. But relations had now broken down completely, and the Hooks left in a most acrimonious atmosphere.
    With the Hooks out of the way, the devious Seddon seems to have manoeuvred Miss Barrow quite cleverly. When she expressed concerns at the value of the investments in her properties, Seddon was most solicitous, and for an annuity and a remission in the rent, offered to oversee these investments. Early in 1911 he persuaded Miss Barrow to sink her £3,000 capital into an annuity which, he told her, would provide an income of three pounds a week for life. He made all the arrangements himself, paying her out each quarter in gold, but in fact the £3,000 had gone into Seddon’s own pocket and not to the insurance company.

The Death

In September 1911, following the outbreak of an epidemic in the area, possibly cholera, Miss Barrow became very ill. The doctor was called, who prescribed bismuth and morphine for the complaint. On Saturday the ninth he visited her again, and by the following Monday she was weaker. Nevertheless, she refused to go to hospital. She improved slightly for a few days, but was confined to her bed where on 13 September she made a Will dictated to and administered by the ever-helpful Frederick, witnessed by his relatives. At 6.15 on the morning of 14 September, whilst being attended to by Mrs Seddon, Miss Barrow died. Seddon went to the doctor, who issued a death certificate without seeing the body, claiming overwork brought on by the prevailing epidemic.
    The very next day Seddon visited the undertakers and arranged a cheap funeral for £4.10s of which he pocketed 12/6d commission. The burial took place in a common burial plot, despite there being a family vault in Islington, and she was hardly cold in her grave when the Seddon family left for Southend for a fortnights’ holiday. Shortly after Seddon’s return Mr Frank Vonderahe, on arriving to visit his cousin, was dumbstruck to hear of her sudden death, and to learn that everything had been made over to Seddon. The Vonderahes demanded fuller explanations, but none were forthcoming, whereupon they voiced their suspicions to the authorities. On 15 November 1911 Miss Barrow was exhumed and examined by Sir William Willcox, who discovered two grains of arsenic in the body which, by his calculations, pointed to there being at least five grains present at the time of death. The inquest was adjourned on 29 November, Seddon was arrested on 4 December, and his wife six weeks later. They were both committed for trial at the Old Bailey in March, under Mr Justice Bucknill.

The Trial

The trial commenced, the prosecution lead by the Solicitor General, Sir Rufus Issacs, who started his case by noting that although the case lacked hard evidence, who else in the world had anything to gain by the death of Miss Barrow? He tried to demonstrate that Seddon was a devious, callous and ruthless person, who would be perfectly capable of murder, and who had appropriated money and valuables belonging to Miss Barrow. The renowned Barrister Marshall Hall opened for the defence, trying to cast doubt on the evidence referring to the arsenic found in the body, which Sir William Willcox had given. He proposed that the amount could have been smaller and ingested over a period of time in the normal course of nursing, rather than in one dose designed to kill. Seddon was advised not to give evidence, but he ignored this advice, and his conceited and condescending demeanour lost him sympathy with nearly everyone in the courtroom.
    When Mrs Seddon went into the witness box, the image she presented was of a woman whose passage through life had made of her a drudge. She looked much older than her 34 years of age, and one commentator wrote; ‘The impression that she gave was that she didn’t know why she was there, and that she neither attempted to seek her way out nor evade dangerous questions. I think this is what really saved her. As Mr Justice Bucknill summed up he left the jury a loophole for her by saying “I should be astonished if you do not acquit her.”’
    Seddon himself had proved to be his own worst enemy, and by giving evidence had provided the prosecution with their best witness. It took the jury one hour to find Frederick Seddon guilty and acquit his wife. On hearing the word ‘guilty’, Seddon turned pale but was unmoved. On hearing that his wife was free he kissed her, and with that he finally earned the sympathy of those present in the courtroom, but of course by then it was too late.

The Sentence

Before sentence was passed, Seddon was asked if he had anything to say, and according to the records gave ‘a carefully and well prepared speech, during which he appealed to the judge, as a brother Mason, for a reversal of the jury’s finding’. Bucknill suddenly looked utterly bewildered, and staring straight at Seddon, broke down completely. Seddon concluded his speech with the words; ‘I declare before the great Architect of the Universe I am not guilty’ and at this point he raised his arm and gave a Masonic sign.
    The report continues ‘The silence which followed these most unusual events was total and seemed to last forever when ... Mr Justice Bucknill, in a stilted and emotional manner, pronounced sentence of death’. When, some half an hour after the Court had been cleared, the Clerk to the Court went to meet the Judge in his chambers, he found that Justice Bucknill, fully robed, was sitting at his table and ‘his eyes were red with weeping’.
    No reprieve came and Seddon was hanged by John Ellis and Thomas Pierrepoint at Pentonville Prison, just a short walk from his home, on 18 April 1912 with over 7,000 people assembled outside.
    The crowd would undoubtedly have been larger, were it not for the fact that news of the sinking of the Titanic three days earlier was uppermost on everybody’s mind.

Bernard Williamson is a freelance journalist, and an initiate of Strong Man Lodge, No. 45. He is a founder member of the Goose and Gridiron Society, an organisation researching masonic inns and taverns, has written several papers on masonic subjects and had papers published in the transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge. He lives in a quiet village in Essex, where he devotes his time to masonic research.