noteIn 1807 Sarah Pugh and her 12-year-old daughter were amongst the poorest people in Hereford. They lodged in a bad part of the city, near Gaol Lane, sharing a room with their landlady, and eked out a living from a small allowance from the parish of Clifford, 20 miles from the city. The whereabouts of Sarah’s husband Thomas at this time are not known but a man of that name was buried in 1809 in Dinedor, eight miles on the other side of Hereford. Perhaps the marriage had broken down, or perhaps Thomas was debilitated by illness and unable to provide for his wife and children.
Whatever the circumstances of her separation and extreme poverty, Sarah Pugh’s miserable life was set to get worse. Unable to pay the rent and given notice to quit, she was facing the loss of her daughter (also called Sarah). The Hereford Journal1 reported this was “at her own request”, from which we can speculate that the child was to enter the poorhouse or be farmed out as a parish apprentice. Perhaps this anticipated departure tipped Sarah over the edge. As she went to bed in the evening of 11 June, she told her landlady that she did not expect to live long.
View of Bye Street Gate in the wall around the city of Hereford. Bye Street gate was one of five gates in the city walls and was the site of a battle during the English Civil War. Part of the gate was demolished in 1798 as part of a road widening programme to ease traffic congestion in the city. The left side of the gate remained as the City Gaol. Courtesy of the British Library.
After what must have been a perfunctory trial at the Hereford Assizes, Sarah was found guilty and sentenced to death. She was executed on 28 March 1808.
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