Murders at Stanfield Hall

The Murders at Stanfield Hall, November 28th 1848, was a notorious Victorian double murder that was commemorated in print; pottery; wax; a novel by Joseph Shearing; plus becoming the inspiration for the 1948 Hollywood drama, Blanche Fury. The victims, Isaac Jermy and his son Isaac Jermy Jermy were shot and killed on the porch and in the hallway of their mansion, Stanfield Hall, Norwich. The perpetrator James Blomfield Rush, their delinquent tenant farmer who had conducted a complex and devious scheme to defraud them of their property and their lives, was hanged at Norwich Castle on 21 April 1849. The unwitting accomplice to the attempted fraud was Miss Emily Sandford who Rush had employed as a governess.

Scenario

In 1848, Isaac Jermy and his son Isaac Jermy Jermy were shot and killed on the porch and in the hallway of their mansion, Stanfield Hall, Wymondham near Norwich, by James Blomfield Rush, a troublemaking tenant farmer of theirs. Rush had been their tenant for nearly a decade, and he had mortgaged and remortgaged his farm to raise money for improvements (so he said), but without improving the farm's output. The deadline to pay off the mortgages was approaching; otherwise foreclosure and eviction would follow (adversely affecting both his children and his pregnant mistress, their governess Emily Sandford). The Jermys had problems with the title to their estate, with relatives who claimed it was theirs. However, Isaac Jermy was the Recorder of Norwich, so he was a prominent local man with legal connections, thus it was unlikely that he would lose the property. Rush planned was to kill both Jermys, their servant, and the younger Jermy's pregnant wife while disguised, and blame the massacre on the rival claimants to the estate.^[1][2][3]

Rush planned that Emily Sandford would provide an alibi by stating that he was at the farm during the hour or so that the crime was committed. Rush wore a false wig and whiskers, but failed to hide his body sufficiently so that the wounded Mrs Jermy and the servant Elizabeth Chestney survived to identify him. Emily Sandford also refused to support his alibi. Tried in 1849, Rush defended himself (badly) and was convicted. He was hanged and buried in the grounds of Norwich castle.^[1][2][3]

Pottery

Staffordshire Potteries produced collectable figures of the main characters, James Rush and Emily Sandford, plus the main locations Potash Farm, Stanfield Hall and Norwich Castle.^[4]

Madame Tussauds

A life-size waxwork representation of James Rush was displayed in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds in London, from 1849 until 1971.^[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Murders at Stanfield hall by John Millman
2. ^ ^{a b} The Stanfield Hall Murders by Orfield Sutherland
3. ^ ^{a b} The Stanfield hall Assassinations. An authentic report of the Trial, Conviction and Extraordinary defence of James Bloomfield Rush. (Contemporary account)
4. ^ Staffordshire pottery figures
5. ^ Waxwork of James Rush at Madame Tussauds

External links

• Porcelain figures of Emily Sandford and James Rush
• Porcelain figures of Emily Sandford and James Rush and Sanfield Hall

Coordinates: 52°33′53″N 1°09′41″E / 52.56475°N 1.16138°E / 52.56475; 1.16138