This week we take a look at a man by the name of Samuel Thorley. It’s not 1777, and this Samuel Thorley is not the famous Congleton Cannibal who killed a woman ballad singer called Ann Smith, decapitated her and allowed his landlady to serve ‘pork’ that made one of her tenants very ill.

It was not pork but the thigh of the murdered lady. He was duly hung and gibbeted for a most notorious murder. As fate would have it, he was the paternal great uncle with the same name, Samuel Thorley, as the man I report upon today.

The great-nephew of the Congleton Cannibal, Samuel Thorley, may not have been a cannibal but he was not a very nice person. He was born in Witton cum Twambrooks on the April 8, 1804.

The year was 1833, and Thorley, who was aged 30, was courting 21-year-old Mary Pemberton. Mary lived on a farm in Leftwich with her recently widowed mother having been born in Davenham.

Thorley had asked her to marry him, and preparations for the wedding commenced.

It would appear that Thorley turned to drink, spending his days in the Angel Hotel in High Street

After a while, Mary’s family noticed that nothing had been done. The house he promised to buy was not bought, and the wedding arrangements had not commenced.

Then the worst discovery for the family. Although Thorley was an upstanding citizen with good prospects on the surface, it was discovered that he was nothing of the sort.

He had several illegitimate children around the town with different mothers.

Mary, on her mother’s instructions, ended the relationship with Thorley.

It would appear that Thorley turned to drink, spending his days in the Angel Hotel in High Street/Bullring, Northwich and a short while later when drunk he met Mary at Northwich on the evening of Market Day. He insisted on coming home with her and took hold of her basket.

Halfway to her house, which was about half a mile away, they were met by her married sister, who took her arm, and the two sisters left him.

Later on that evening, Thorley went to her house and knocked on the door. Mary let him in thinking it was one of her brothers. The brother had not returned, and she was waiting up for him.

When her brother did return, Mary was sitting talking with Thorley, and her brother hearing the talk in the front room not wishing to disturb them went straight to bed.

Two or three times, Mrs Pemberton shouted down to Mary, asking if she was coming up to bed. Mary shouted back that she would be up shortly.

A few minutes later, Mrs Pemberton heard the front door slam, again she called to Mary and received no reply so went downstairs. She found Mary lying in the lobby covered in blood, as was the room, her head was almost severed, and she was quite dead.

It was only eight months since Mrs Pemberton’s husband died, and she was in a terrible state.

Thorley went home and told his servant what he had done; he was covered in blood and changed his clothes, telling the boy to go and tell his father.

He then set off to walk to Chester in order to give himself up.

On arrival, his story was not believed, and he had to swear to it in front of a magistrate.

The inquest was held at the Bowling Green pub in Leftwich, and the jury declared that it was wilful murder by Samuel Thorley.

Mary’s funeral took place at Davenham church, and a great number of people attended.

More people attended on April 7, 1834, after Thorley had been sentenced to death at the Chester Assize Court. They had come to witness Samuel Thorley’s hanging at the Northgate Gaol.

The hangman was Sammy Burrows whose final duty it was before retiring.

The crowd had travelled from Northwich and elsewhere to observe the death sentence. Thorley was reported to have been buried at Witton cum Twambrookes.

His great uncle Samuel Thorley was hung in Chester on April 10, 1777 and gibbeted in chains on the heath at Congleton.