Peter Williamson
Peter Williamson (b. 7 November 1814, Burradale, Northmavine, d. 25 March 1858, Lerwick) was a shop owner in Lerwick who murdered his wife and three of his six children and killed himself in their house at the foot of Fox Lane in 1858. Another of his children was injured but survived, whilst another child was not home at the time of the attack.
Prior to the tragedy, he was a Lerwick Town Councillor between 1850 until his death in 1858.
Contents
Tragedy at Lerwick
Background
Peter Williamson was born in Northmavine in 1814, and at some point moved to Lerwick. He worked as a general merchant, draper and a grocer throughout his career. I haven't been able to pin down exactly where his shop was based, but we know that the crime took place in a house above a shop at the foot of Fox Lane.
Peter was a well-liked and well-respected man in Lerwick. He wasn't the richest man in town, but his business was showing no signs of financial problems. Everything was going good. In his home normally lived 9 people: Peter, his wife Agnes, his six children William (16 in 1858), John (14), Agnes (12), Gilbert, (10), Peter (4) and Barbara (0) and a maid-servant whose identity is unknown. In March, Gilbert was up in Northmavine at his grandparents house for a visit.
Peter managed a farm remotely, presumably in his native Northmavine, and he also acted as an agent for the Peterhead whaling boats that visited Shetland annually to collect crew members. It was pretty common for men in this period of Shetland's history to have more than one job, Peter was no exception.
Politically, he was first elected to the Lerwick Town Council in 1850, and was again elected in 1853 and 1856. Only 11 men were elected every 3 years in Lerwick (until 1876), and these positions were not usually open to the common man. That tells you a lot about his standing in the community. I presume he may have stood again in 1859.
But on 25 March 1858, it all came to an end.
The Night Before
On Wednesday 24th, Peter went about his business as usual, according to those who came into contact with him. The last time Peter was seen alive by a member of the public was between 10 and 11 of that day.
After completing his business for the day, he returned home about 11 and instructed the maid-servant to close up the house and head to bed, which she did. It is thought that it was some time later before he went to bed. Peter was known to lie late in the morning and work late. It is thought that he either went to bed or prepared to go for bed, because he was partly wearing his "night attire" - let's just call them pyjamas.
In his bedroom slept his wife Agnes and his daughter, who had been allowed to sleep in the parents' bed because she had been sick. The three boys - though it was not their usual arrangement - slept 3-to-a-bed in the attic. At some point after midnight, Peter got out of bed and decided to slaughter his entire family.
The Morning After
In the morning, the eldest boy of the family, William, was found still alive. He was wounded and bleeding from a gash in his throat, and his head and face had been fearfully disfigured. In another room, Peter's wife was discovered breathing her last breath with injuries similar to William, but of a more serious nature. Little Agnes was found dead in a pool of blood on the bed.
Another room contained a dead boy, and Peter, the infant, was found close to his father, with his head nearly severed from his neck. The father, our Peter, had also
The report of the event concluded that Peter had murdered his entire family before turning to himself.
The Crime
Upon deciding to commit the heinous crime, Peter headed downstairs and check if the servant girl was sleeping. We know this because when she woke up her door was open where she had closed it.
With everyone asleep, Peter armed himself with a heavy iron hammer or cleaver used for kitchen purposes, and also with a knife and razor.
His first victim was his wife. Her skull was battered in on both sides and she had a gash on her throat. Agnes had gone through the same process.
Awakened by the noise, the boys quickly learned what was happening and attempted to escape their father. William was lacerated about the head and throat like his mother and sister, but succeeded in escaping with his life. The head of Peter, the infant, was smashed and almost severed from his body. John (14) had made an attempt as escaping but was caught by Peter and shared the same fate as the other murdered Williamsons.
For anyone keeping count, there are four victims: wife Agnes, John, Agnes, Peter. William, Gilbert, Barbara and the maid for various reasons had evaded murder from what I understand.
Peter's own suicide raised considerable questions to me in terms of method, because the way it was described in the reports of the event don't clear it up. I'll write it out here as they did and if anyone can help me understand what it means I'd be interested to hear it.
"Throwing himself upon his back on the middle of the floor of the same room in which he stood, Peter placed his neck against the leg of the table, thus preventing any chance of the wound being partial and, drawing towards him a chair which stood in the apartment, he passed his arm round one of its lower supporters thereby ensuring equal steadiness of the hand as of the neck."
"By this finesse of arrangement he was enabled to carry out his horrible design with fatal precision. With such strength did he, thus assisted, inflect a wound upon his throat that the neck was laid open ear to ear, and the blade of the razor penetrated the very bone."
The maid had only been made aware of the state of matters when William, who had escaped Peter, had run into find his mother, only to find her murdered, ran into the maid's bed and sprung into the bed next to her, screaming, wounded and bloody.
Some up-late nearby builders heard the screams, and the timeline isn't clear at this point but I can only assume that the maid upon learning the fate that had befallen the Williamsons ran out into the street.
Motive
The Inverness Courier disappointingly concluded "no motive can be assigned". The Nairnshire Telegraph and General Advertiser for the Northern Counties speculated that "it would appear Peter latterly took to the drink". Peter had, according to friends and acquaintances, shown nothing but love to his family. His business was doing well and to the public he appeared of sound mind.
However, in the wake of the event, those who had dealt with him closely had come to recognise that he had had an increasingly troubled mind and thought that the murderous rampage may have been due to insanity.
There is one thing we do know that can give us a clue to the mental state of Peter. On the evening before the murders took place, Peter was engaged in conversation with two representatives of Glasgow and Aberdeen businesses.
In that conversation, Peter turned the discussion towards famous hangman William Calcraft, murder, Burke and Hare, the most effective method of taking life away, and Peter suggested that death could most easily be accomplished by a sound stroke from a hammer on the skull of the victim.
The two south men didn't think any of this discussion, although they sought to change it. Peter declined an invitation to join them after closing the shop, but was apparently in good spirits when he left them.
Political Career
- Lerwick Town Council Election September 1850
- Lerwick Town Council Election September 1853
- Lerwick Town Council Election September 1856
