The Bourtons - The Bell in History
Village Pubs > The Bell > The Bell in HistoryWith thanks to the Four Shires Magazine for their permission to use this article, which appeared in their March 2005 edition.
Southam Road Murder at Great Bourton.
The first sign George Frost had that something was wrong was a pistol shot. It was nearly 6pm on May 7th 1849 and he was just approaching the Great Bourton turn on the Banbury to Southam road. Moments later he met a couple approaching. The man was holding tightly onto a woman's arm and shoving her along. As he got nearer Frost saw he woman's discoloured and bleeding face. The man was wiping her forehead with a handkerchief. As Frost passed them he heard her say "I could go better if you'd let me be." Frost thought the woman had fallen badly but felt something was wrong so he continued slowly, watching the man "to see how he acted further." They passed out of sight around a corner. Suddenly he heard screams. For a few seconds he listened before hurrying towards the noise. The woman was coming back alone. Her hands were up and blood was running from her throat.
Working in his field nearby was a farmer, John Adkins. Startled by a shot he hurried into the road. As he walked along, he saw a man under the hedge in a corner of the road, busy rubbing a dark object in front of him with a handkerchief. At one stage the man dropped to his knees. Reaching the gate leading to his house Adkins stopped and watched before concluding it was a man and woman fooling around. The woman jumped up and the pair began walking towards Banbury. When he saw the screaming woman return, he hurried to meet her with Frost.
A horrific sight met their eyes. Blood was running from her forehead and she was holding a blood soaked handkerchief against her throat. At first they could not understand what she was trying to say. "He's cut my throat and shot me here" she said, pointing to her head. Taking the handkerchief from her hand Adkins pressed it against the gash in her throat hoping it would stop the bleeding. With difficulty she explained that her husband, James Layton, had attacked her. Frost set off in pursuit of Layton leaving Adkins to look after the woman. There was not much he could do; she clearly needed a doctor urgently. He tried to get a woman passer-by to stop and look after her while he fetched a pony, but the woman refused, saying she suffered from fits and dared not stop. Adkins sent her to his house for help. Mrs Layton began to turn cold and faint, and was unable to stand, saying repeatedly that she was "going".
Fortunately a railway contractor, Richard Bush, who lived in Farnborough drove up in his carriage at that moment. Together the men helped her in, and Bush drove to The Bell at Great Bourton.
Meanwhile Frost and some other labourers had caught up with Layton who had gone across the fields. Wiping his hands on some grass he asked what they were going to do with him. On the way to Great Bourton he admitted attempting to kill his wife. Together prisoner and captors made their way to The Bell.
The extent of Mrs Layton's injuries were discovered when the Banbury surgeon Robert Wise arrived. A four inch long slash across her throat had cut completely through the windpipe, there were cuts on her hands sustained when she tried to defend herself, and her face was blackened and scorched by gunpowder. When Wise examined the head wound he saw a hole nearly an inch deep, at the bottom of which he could just see the bullet. Not having all his instruments with him Wise was forced to borrow a pair of pliers from the village blacksmith to remove it.
Surprisingly, she survived the night and was able to make this statement to the Rev. Lloyd the next morning.
"I.... declare that my name is Martha Layton, and that my husband, James Layton, did fire a pistol at me yesterday afternoon about 6 o'clock, and that afterwards, he did cut my throat with a knife;.. he was not in the habit of carrying a pistol with him, but that he had carried one on one or two occasions to Banbury. I do not know why he had fired at me; we had not been quarrelling, but he had been going on with me, swearing dreadfully. He has many times threatened to murder me, and did so on Sunday; he several times sharpened a knife on Sunday, and many times before, for the purpose of cutting my throat. I did not see the knife; he has threatened to shoot me many times with a pistol. I never said anything to him to offend him, but begged of him not to swear so, and to be quiet. He had three pints of ale at the Harp, Southam, at 2 o'clock; I did not wish him to have but one pint, but he would have more; I had a little of it, and he had the rest. He struck me when near the Victoria, and made my mouth bleed. He had some brandy-and-water at Fenny Compton Wharf,... I saw a girl and a woman going home from work on the road, and I wanted to keep up with them, for I was frightened, but my husband pulled me back. I was coming to Banbury to get some advice from my friends about getting separated from my husband, but he did not know that. He said he was coming to Banbury to get work..."
When captured Layton had neither weapon on him. The knife was found the next morning in a ditch about thirty yards from the road but the pistol was not found until some days later.
After a preliminary hearing at The Bell, Layton was sent to Banbury. Before he left he asked to see his wife. She agreed. During their brief meeting Layton held her hand and kissed her; when she said she forgave him but would never see him again, he became upset.
Martha Layton died at her brother's house in Neithrop on 28th May. Layton who had been sent for trial on a charge of attempted murder now faced the capital charge of murder. At the hearings Layton's conduct had been bizarre. He sacked both his solicitors and had not bothered to appoint a third. He seems to have been completely oblivious of the danger he was in. In the end it was his family who organised his defence.
On the 12th July the trial began in Oxford. The defence was going to be insanity. Layton helped by saying, when asked how he pleaded, that his wife was not dead and that he had heard her so he did not know how he should plead. There was more. The court heard how as a result of losing a court case at Warwick, Layton had gone into hiding for over 5 years. Eventually he was tracked down and jailed. To obtain his release from prison he had to mortgage part of his extensive property holdings in Leamington, signing several documents in the process. He grew to suspect his wife's family were using these to deprive him of his property. By March his suspicion had become full blown paranoia.
The defence called several witnesses to Layton's behaviour from March, including a policeman who was accused by Layton of being in the plot to steal his property, and then asked if he would like to be shot. Further testimony came from his sister's lodger, Walton, who told how Layton claimed all his property had been stolen and he must flee abroad to escape prosecution. Layton went on to say that he had travelled up to London in the same carriage as he Queen and her two daughters; asked how long Walton had been a police inspector, (he was in fact a builder and surveyor as Layton knew); asked Walton to come to France with him; accused him of being in the plot to steal his property, and finally offered to pay Walton for non-existent work. Lawyers were one of Layton's major objects of hatred and suspicion and two Banbury solicitors testified for the defence.
Unfortunately for Layton these strange ideas were considered to be delusions, which did not count as insanity. The legal test was whether he could tell right from wrong. In his summing up the judge stressed the way Layton had killed his wife was more significant. He had attacked her on an open road with people about and practically gave himself up to Frost. The jury took fifteen minutes to reach the verdict "Not Guilty on the ground of Insanity."
In Banbury the verdict was greeted with disbelief. Many suspected that if the crime had not carried the death penalty, Layton would have been convicted.
Article written by Bob Mason.