15 Facts About Frederick Seddon

Frederick Henry Seddon was a British murderer hanged in 1912 for the arsenic poisoning murder of his lodger Eliza Mary Barrow.

Frederick Seddon was born in Liverpool to William Seddon and Mary Ann on 21 January 1872.

The names of William and Frederick Seddon appear in the visitors' book for the Metropolitan Police's 'Black Museum' on 1 December 1905; the museum was not open to the general public and the reason for their visit is unknown.

At one time Seddon had been a Freemason, being initiated into Liverpool's Stanley Lodge No 1325 in 1901.

In 1909, Frederick Seddon bought a fourteen-room house at 63 Tollington Park, near London's Finsbury Park area and worked as a Superintendent of Collectors for a national insurance company.

Frederick Seddon ran a second-hand clothes business in his wife's name and speculated in real estate.

Previously, she had shared lodgings with her cousin, Frank Vonderahe, but she apparently hoped the new arrangement with Frederick Seddon would be cheaper.

Frederick Seddon went to the doctor, who issued a death certificate without seeing the body, claiming that he was unable to attend due to overwork brought on by an epidemic current in the area at that time.

Immediately after the funeral the Frederick Seddon family left for Southend for a fortnight's holiday.

However, Frederick Seddon informed him that nothing was left as he had paid the substantial funeral expenses and the cost of Ernest Grant's upkeep himself.

Frederick Seddon strongly resisted all claims that Barrow had been poisoned, claiming instead that she had died by taking a medical preparation containing arsenic.

Margaret Frederick Seddon was acquitted of any involvement in the murder.

Marshall Hall always maintained that Frederick Seddon would have been acquitted had he not insisted on giving evidence, and on at least one occasion used it as an example in warning a client of the risks of giving evidence in one's own defence.

Frederick Seddon replied that he had already made his peace with his Maker.

Frederick Seddon was hanged by John Ellis and Thomas Pierrepoint at Pentonville Prison on 18 April 1912.