Denbighshire Records Office hosts murder mystery exhibition.

June 29, 2010 marks the 150th anniversary of one of the most notorious crimes in Victorian England, as described in the 2008 best seller The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale.

The book details the investigation into the murder of the youngest child of Samuel Saville Kent, factory inspector, and his wife Mary, at Road Hill House, Road, on the Somerset/Wiltshire border.

 
Denbighshire Record Office has mounted a small exhibition to commemorate the anniversary and to highlight Denbighshire’s connection with the Kent family in the aftermath of the crime.

The murder of  Francis Saville Kent, aged four, who was abducted from his cot in the middle of the night, shocked and scandalised Victorian society, and caused a major sensation.  Many celebrities, including Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, were intrigued by the crime and its aftermath, which helped to inspire the birth of the murder mystery genre.

The fact that the victim was a member of a respectable middle class family and that he had been taken from inside his securely locked, affluent home, meant that the murderer most likely was a member of the household.

 
Constance, one of the teenage daughters, eventually confessed to the crime and was sentenced to twenty years in prison, but the scandal meant that the family was forced to move and Samuel Saville Kent was offered the post of factory inspector at Llangollen.  The family originally lived at Tower, just outside the town, and then after Mrs Kent died in 1866, Samuel moved with his children to Rhydycilgwyn Isa, Rhewl, between Ruthin and Denbigh, where he lived until his death in 1872.  Both Samuel and Mary Kent are buried in the churchyard at Llangollen.

For further information please contact the Records Office on 01824 708250

The Denbighshire Archives Service offers free access to a wealth of documents and records for north east Wales at the Record Office in Ruthin. Archives, which are the heart of our recorded heritage, are collected, preserved and made available by helpful and knowledgeable staff.

Join the thousands who visit the record office at Ruthin Gaol each year to use the archives to research their family tree or the history of their house; to find out about their town, village or street in the past; to make use of the many thousands of records for official or legal reasons.

At the Record Office we:

• Help you get information directly from the documents in our care, dating from the 12th century to the present day.
• Do paid research into the records on your behalf should you wish.
• Collect records relating to Denbighshire from local authorities, parishes, chapels, families, individuals, businesses and institutions of all kinds, for the use and benefit of future generations of researchers, as per our collecting policy (see 'Policies' link on the left).
• Collect and copy photographic records.
• Preserve this heritage by conserving the archives and storing them in secure and specially equipped strongrooms, as per our preservation policy (see 'Policies' link on the left).
• Assist our users to search records (such as newspapers, census returns and parish registers) via microfilms or computers.
• Prepare exhibitions on archives.
• Give talks to societies and institutions.

The Denbighshire Record Office aims to preserve as complete a documentary record as possible of the county's history. Members of the public can help by letting the County Archivist know of any material which may be of historical interest, particularly any which may be at risk.