Why a Booktrail?
1825 – 1865: Doctor, son of a distinguished naval officer and a deadly poisoner
Dr Pritchard the Poisoning Adulterer
What you need to know before your trail
Dr Edward William Pritchard was born in 1825, in Southsea, Hampshire, he was the son of a navy captain and came from a family that was filled with distinguished naval connections.
On the surface, the doctor was well mannered and respectable. He was a kind and loving husband who adored his wife and family. Beneath that pleasant exterior, however, lurked a darkness that few would have guessed existed. He was a loathsome, arrogant man, a serial adulterer, and a sociopathic liar who would go down in history as one of Britain’s most evil killers.
But, was the doctor innocent of such sinister crimes? What was his motive for murder? In a case that gripped the nation, reports suggest the possibility of even more victims.
Locations
Reset- England - Yorkshire - Filey - Hunmanby -
- A: Cross Hill
- B: All Saints Churchyard
- C: Royal Crescent Court
- D: Rutland Street
- Scotland - Glasgow
- E: 11 Berkley Terrace
- F: 249 Sauchiehall St
Travel Guide
The inspiration to write this book, came to me when I discovered that the doctor was at the opening of the Royal Crescent Hotel in Filey in 1854 (then called Taylor’s Crescent Hotel) My husband and I own the bar in the hotel. I started to research the story and became hooked. The more I considered the background of the story the more I found and the more I wanted to bring the doctor and his family back to life.
Southsea-Portsmouth-Edward
William Pritchard born December 1825. It was at the Assembly rooms in Southsea at a ball at the Esplanade Assembly Rooms arranged by the ladies of the town where Edward William Pritchard met Mary Jane Taylor, who not long afterwards would become his wife.
Cross Hill Hummanby
Dr Pritchard’s first practice was on Cross Hill Hunmanby. The couple moved to Warbuton House in the centre of Hunmanby, purchased with the help of a loan from Mary Jane’s parents. Five of the couples six children were born here, Jane Frances (Fanny) Charles, Horatio (Horace) William (Kenneth) and Zillah Catherine who lived only three months and buried in All Saints Churchyard Hunmanby.
Betty Dawson (Temperance Betty) lived in Hunmanby the wife of a market gardener and the parents of Constance who together with her husband Edwin ran Taylors Crescent Hotel, Filey. Betty was a patient of Dr Pritchard and possibly, one of his victims?
Filey-Taylors Crescent Hotel (Now Royal Crescent Court)
Dr Pritchard was at the opening ceremony at Taylors Crescent Hotel, The Crescent Filey. A beautiful hotel visited by royalty and gentry from all over the country. The doctor and his family opened a second practice on Rutland Terrace Filey. The doctor also wrote travellers guides on the town. The doctor left Filey in a hurry and under a cloud leaving behind debts and a lot of disgruntled men, as he had allegedly had affairs with their women.
Berkley Terrace Glasgow
This was where the maid Lizzie McGirn lost her life.
Dr Pritchard’s house on Sauchiehall St Glasgow
The crime scene where the murders took place. It was in the Edinburgh High Court of Justiciary where Edward William Pritchard’s fate was sealed in 1865
Streetview Maps
B) Filey - Hunmanby- Dr Pritchard's Surgery
E) Glasgow - Sauchiihall Street - murder scene
Trail Gallery
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Dr Pritchard the Poisoning Adulterer
Destination: Filey, Hamanby, Glasgow Author/Guide: Wendy Rhodes Wendy Rhodes Departure Time: 1825 – 1865
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