Heroes and Rebels in the Family Tree—The Sad Tale of Sarah Ann Snowling

Sarah Ann Snowling was one of 12 children (3 did not survive infancy) born to William Snowling (1815-1874) and Mary Ann Day (1815-1893).  Sarah Ann was born on May 1, 1849 in Broome, Norfolk, England as the seventh child.  Her father was an agricultural labourer in 1851, but by 1861, the family had moved to Ellingham, Norfolk to be closer to William’s mother, Amelia, who was 79 years of age.  William was now working as a coal seller and his 16 year-old son, James worked as a coal carter.

                The children of William and Mary Snowling are as follows:

1.       William Snowling 1837-1912

2.       Robert Snowling 1839-1916

3.       John Snowling 1841-1841

4.       Marianne Snowling 1843-1895

5.       James Snowling 1845-1913

6.       Harriet Smowling 1847-1917

7.       Sarah Ann Snowling 1849-1936

8.       Maria Matilda Snowling 1851-1926

9.       George Snowling 1853-1875

10.   Susannah Snowling 1855-1885

11.   Amelia Snowling 1857-1858

12.   Amelia Snowling 1861-1862

 

When Sarah Ann Snowling was 19 years old, she gave birth to a baby girl.  The father of the child is not known.  Her daughter, Lucy Ann Snowling was born on June 17, 1868 in Heckingham, Norfolk.  Lucy lived with her grandparents, William Snowling and Mary Ann Day, along with their children George and Susannah Snowling who were still living at home. 

In 1871, Sarah Ann Snowling was working as a 21-year old dairy servant at the Shelton Hall Estate, which was a large 300 acre farm in Shelton, Norfolk.  But early in 1872, Sarah Ann met a young man named George Barber who was about 23 years of age and soon, she became pregnant.  Because she was not married, she was asked to leave her position at the Shelton Hall Estate.  On December 11, 1872, she gave birth to a son, George Barber Snowling.  Soon after the birth of her illegitimate child, Sarah Ann Snowling began working as a servant in the home of John and Mary Ann Rush of Fressingland, Norfolk. 

Although George Barber did not marry Sarah Ann, he did not abandon his child.  But Sarah Ann failed to raise her own son, so he was informally fostered by neighbours of George Barber.  The child was not thriving in that environment and was described as being ‘but skin and bone’ and in 1873, the child was boarded out with Mrs. Harriet Howlett, a shoemaker’s wife in Harleston who appears to have cared well for the little lad.  To cover this service, a weekly charge of 3 shillings was paid equally by the child’s mother, Sarah Ann Snowling and the boy’s father, George Barber.  This arrangement had been brokered by George Barber’s mother (Eliza, wife of Lewis Barber) some 8 months earlier when little George Barber Snowling was only 6 months old.  By 1874, the child was a strong and healthy boy.

Sarah Ann Snowling resolved to rid herself of this child as her ‘young man told me he would never have me’.  With no thought of discretion or the consequences, Sarah Ann sent a 14-year-old James Rush, son of John and Mary Ann Rush, from the farm to get ‘meece’ poison from the local vet, which she then baked into two currant cakes to be sent, along with an orange, via the local carrier to Howlett’s house. When the carrier delivered the poisoned goodies, on the 3rd February 1874, baby George Barber Snowling and two of Howlett’s youngest five children, daughters aged three and five, were sitting by the fire. Into this cosy domestic scene were delivered the toxic cakes to be divided between the children; fortunately, the Howlett children did not like the cakes and would not eat them. In contrast young George Barber Snowling devoured his; this greed actually saved him as he ate so fast, he made himself sick, vomiting the cake, his breakfast ‘and a great deal of phlegm’ - recovering rapidly after. 

The opportunist dog who ate up the crumbs from the floor was less fortunate and promptly died; Mrs. Howlett tried the cake herself and, finding it bitter and unpleasant, wrapped the cake and gave it to her husband to take to the police. On analysis, the cake was discovered to be heavily laced with a fatal amount of strychnine.  Snowling was tried.

 

The jury almost at once found the prisoner guilty of trying to murder the child.

The learned Judge…addressed the prisoner as an unhappy girl and said she little

knew how much it pained him to pass sentence upon her. Prisoner must know

she was a wicked woman. Having this burden of a child upon her, she was

tempted to take away its life. So cruel was she that she sent poisoned cakes to

the person who had kindly taken charge of her child, knowing she had innocent

children who, through her recklessness might have been poisoned also. It was

terrible to think of what might have been the consequences. Prisoner must expect

to be grievously punished. This murdering of children - for it was nothing less -

had become a disgrace to the country.

Only the other day the judge had to sentence an unhappy woman to 10 years penal servitude for the manslaughter of her child at the moment of its birth. Prisoner, who was younger than that woman, and seemed not to have been so immoral, had no doubt been tempted by some man from the path of propriety and in the hour of her pain, when she felt the burden of the child, she made up her mind to poison it. Prisoner had done all she could to kill the child, and it was through no flinching on her part that the child was not poisoned. It was through the kindness of Providence the child was saved, under the circumstances he could not think of sentencing the prisoner to a lighter punishment . . . the terrible sentence that she be kept in penal servitude for ten years.

Sarah Ann Snowling served her full 10 years, but she would not have been able to re-unite with the son she so callously tried to kill - he died aged only 9 years old in 1882, by which time he was boarded with an elderly couple, William and Anna Nunn, out on the Bungay Road. Although he was commonly known as George Barber, the Rector made very plain the true identity of this unfortunate lad in the parish registry.

Back in 1871, William Nunn was living next door to George Barber Snr, described as a pensioner, William Nunn’s discharge papers of 1853 list how the Starston man, having joined up at the age of 18 had spent 8 ½ years of his 21 years’ service in the Mediterranean and 5 1/3 in Mauritius. On his discharge from the 5th Fusiliers he was described as being unfit for further service. 1871 would have been shortly before the arrival of George’s illegitimate son who was to cause his mother such inconvenience. All the families involved in the care of George Barber Snowling lived close as, only a few doors away, was the then 32-year-old George Barber Snr, labourer, who in turn was lodging with the Jackson family, and all were close to both the Howletts and the grandmother who had brokered the original care deal. Perhaps grandma Eliza Barber was making sure her son, George Barber maintained an interest in his son.

Genealogy:  Sarah Ann Snowling 1849-1936 was the daughter of William Snowling 1815-1874 and his father was Robert Snowling 1788-1865 and his father was William Snowling 1761-1830 and his father was Robert Snowling 1726-1809 and his son was Oliver Snowling 1771-1861 and his daughter was Judith (Julie) Snowling 1795-1883 and her daughter was Eliza Dye 1835-1873 and her daughter was Caroline Forster 1864-1906 and her husband was George "Pikey" William Welch-Adams 1867-1940.