The story I'm going to tell and the
mysterious circumstances surrounding it occurred in the county I grew up in, and
have now, after a few years, returned to. I've wanted to share it with you for
some time... The town of Somerton in the English
county of Somerset is a beautiful place with a rich history by all accounts. Full
of the charms of a time long past by. But in August of 1896, to quote the
long-running regional newspaper The Western Gazette, a "ghastly discovery" was made in one of the houses here. A house once known as The Green was owned by a man named Thomas Welsh. Mr. Welsh, who had lived at the house all of his life, died
in 1895 at the age of 80. His younger brother James inherited a
small portion of the large property with the rest of the house being put to
auction the following year. When a man named Edmund Valentine purchased it in
August of 1896, he began a thorough renovation of the place. On Monday August 31st, Albert Charles Dyer, the work man hired for the job, began to remove
floorboards in the attic to lay down a gas pipe, when he found a small doorway
which opened into a recess in the attic wall. In order to extend the gas pipe, he
needed to open the doorway and remove the floorboards which lay behind it. When
he did, he noticed that one of the boards immediately behind the door was loose. As he brought up the two and a half foot board, he noticed what looked like a
small parcel wrapped in old cloth. When he opened it, he was shocked to find the skeleton of a small baby. Taken aback by his discovery he quickly called for the
owner Edmund Valentine who rushed to the house. They continued to rummage beneath
the floor and found three more skeletons, two of which were also wrapped in cloth.
Police were called to the house, along with two local doctors: Dr. Wade and Dr.
Hilyard. It was their initial opinion that the infants' bodies had been there
for between ten and twenty years, but at that time it was impossible to be more
specific than that. At first the doctors described them all
as well-developed, but the sex and age of the infants
was impossible to define - and to quote the local press - "not a particle of flesh
remained". After the news was made public four days later on September 4th 1896,
rumors began to circulate in the town and many fingers pointed towards the
previous owner, old man Thomas Welsh. He had been a bachelor, but for the last
thirty years of his life he had hired a housekeeper. A woman who went by the name of Eliza Edwards, whose real family name was found to be Martin. In 1896, at the
time that the bodies were found, she was said to be fifty years old, living in the
town with her married son. It was discovered that the cottage they lived
in was left to them by Thomas Welsh who also requested in his will that she
receive the sum of £100 a year for living expenses.
The relationship between Thomas Welsh and Eliza Edwards, coupled with this
financial agreement, fueled the theory that she had given birth to the children
and that Welsh was the father. As mentioned previously, a small section
of the house where the bodies were found was left to James Welsh,
a solicitor and the younger brother of Thomas, who utilized his part of the
property for his offices. One other person who was approached by the police was an unnamed woman who had done menial jobs around James Welsh's portion of the
house for the last fifteen years. She denied knowing anything about the
infants' remains, but admitted that on one occasion she visited the attic out
of curiosity, but saw nothing out of the ordinary and detected no odor. An inquiry
was held a week after the discovery on Monday September 7th at the local
court house. The small skeletons were placed in a room beneath the court house
where they were viewed by the jury and members of the press. The scene was
described as a "gruesome spectacle" by the Western Gazette.
Among those present at the inquiry was coroner for the district, Mr E.Q. Louch.
At first he stated that, as the remains were skeletal, and there was no way for him to
detect how they died, an inquiry was unusual. But went on to say that the
reason he'd agree to it, besides to inform the public of the findings, was
because the late owner of the house was a personal friend of his, and he didn't
want the public to suspect that he was protecting the reputation of the late
Mr. Welsh by not carrying one out. He concluded, along with Dr. Wade, that the babies had been placed there for the purpose of concealment, but he could not
be sure if they had all been still births. He added that it was likely that two
of them had been born alive as they were fully developed, whereas the other two
appeared premature. Dr. Wade, one of the doctors called to The Green on the day
of the discovery, said that the remains were entirely skeletal except for one of
the bones on one child and two of the feet on the others. He stated that the
skin and tendons were clearly visible but completely dried out. Dr. Wade
admitted that the length of time that the babies had been there was a matter
of pure conjecture. He said that it could be five, ten, or even twenty years, and
there was no way for him to narrow it down any further for two reasons: one
being that the body of an infant will naturally become skeletal faster than
that of an adult, admitting that he didn't know how long that would
typically be. The other being that the decomposition process depended heavily
on the temperature of the environment the body was in. As they were placed in a
dry, cool place, he said that it would likely take much longer than usual.
A police constable by the name of Mr. Coomer also spoke at the inquiry, saying that he had taken the remains to the police station and examined the material
that three of them were wrapped in. He said that there was no markings or clues as to who they belong to. He also said that he'd made a further search of the
house and then investigated the garden, digging at various points on the chance
that he may find more remains. He said that he found a number of small bones in the attic that had fallen loose from the skeletons
when they were removed, but the garden yielded nothing. It was agreed by all at
the inquiry that the bones and wrapping sheets should be preserved for future
investigations. When coroner E.Q. Louch suggested putting the skeletal remains
in a museum, he was met with laughter, but he later said: At the closing of the inquiry, coroner Mr. Louch and Dr. Wade gave an open verdict, but
advised that the police should continue their investigations and punish anyone
found to be involved, if it transpired that the babies had died violent deaths. According to local reports, the now 50-year-old Eliza Edwards, the woman thought most likely to have given birth to the
children, was no longer a sound mind. She was even described by the local
newspaper as "somewhat deranged". Because of her alleged state of mind she was never told about the skeletons found at her former home. But maybe the very
reasons behind her poor mental state were rooted in the attic of that house.
After speaking to several long-term residents of the town, I was unable to
find out what happened to the infants' remains or the material they were
wrapped in. The house known in 1896 as The Green has since been renamed. I do know that it is a large two-storey building, situated to the north of the parish
church, with six attics in total that run the length of the building. An article
entitled The Somerton Mystery from the Western Chronicle dated September 11th 1896 was more specific, stating that the house was in Cow Square, which is indeed
directly north of the church. After narrowing down the location of the
house to this small area, I noticed that there are a number of buildings in
the square that match the description. I then found out that over time this large
house may have been separated into smaller properties. The 1891 census of
the area has a 76-year-old Thomas Welsh recorded as living in Cow Square, but the
exact house is not specified. The previous census from 1881 states that his sister, Harriet, also lived at the property at the time. My first thought
was that maybe she had given birth to the children, but as her age was recorded
as 70 in 1881, she would have been in her 60s at the earliest date given by the
coroner for the babies' deaths. Unless the coroner's estimates were inaccurate by
twenty to forty years, this is highly unlikely. As my lines of inquiry were
coming to an end I was contacted by a local historian who wished to remain
anonymous. They pointed out the exact house in Cow
Square that Thomas Welsh had lived in all of his life. However, as a 16th
century property is still a private residence, and out of respect for the
people who live there now, it was strongly recommended to me that I don't
give its name. The mystery of the four babies in the attic remains unsolved to
this day.
