On a winter’s Saturday morning in 1901, the body of a young woman was found in the Stourbridge canal.
The search for Lily Kent had been going on for three days. When her body was finally discovered on 23 November, it was removed by a police constable, PC Tetlow, and taken to her grandmother’s (Martha Kent) house on Brettell Lane. A scrap of paper with a note stating “Dear mother, I am going to do away with myself”, a lead pencil, an empty purse, a buckle and two pocket handkerchiefs were found in her pocket.
Lily was the 18 year old daughter of John Kent, a bricklayer and builder, and Mary Ann (Freeman) Kent. Her mother, Mary Ann, died in 1888 at the age of 25 when Lily was 5 years old. By the time of the 1891 census, Lily was 7 years old and living as a boarder in the household of a potter, Joseph Stevens, two houses away from her grandparents, James Kent and Martha (Edge), on Brettell Lane.
At the age of 15, she went into domestic service, firstly in the household of Mrs Heckford in Stourbridge and subsequently in that of William Simpkins close to her father’s home in Wollaston.
Then, in April 1901, she took a domestic servant post at the Vicarage on Maughan Street in Quarry Bank, the residence of Reverend Thomas McNulty, his wife, Frederica, and two daughters.
Lilly felt Mr and Mrs McNulty were good employers and claimed their daughter, Henrietta, was a friend. However, she did not get along with another servant girl, 15 year old Mary (Polly) Brooks, who also worked at the Vicarage. Lily sensed that Polly was trying to take her work and reportedly told tales about Polly in an effort to get rid of her.
Lily visited her father and stepmother, Harriet (Bagley), at their home in Wollaston on Monday 18 November. Her father later testified that her behaviour did not seem unusual on that day.
The following day, she returned to her work at the Vicarage in Quarry Bank. She and Polly were working in the kitchen when Frederica McNulty came in claiming that her daughter Henrietta – Hetty – was missing a diamond ring. Mrs McNulty asked both Lily and Polly to empty their pockets. The ring was found in Polly’s pocket. Polly then accused Lily of putting the ring in her pocket when she had passed by Lily dusting the stairs earlier that day. Lily went red and ran upstairs.
Shortly afterwards, Frederica McNulty called Lily back downstairs into the dining room. Confronted again by Polly, Frederica and Hetty McNulty, Lily became agitated and confused and then got up saying, “My dear child, I have done for myself. I am off. Goodbye all”.
Hetty begged Lily to say that she was sorry but Lily replied that it was too late for her to repent. She ran out of the house without any of her possessions.
Hetty caught up with her at the churchyard gate and got hold of her dress. She and her mother implored Lily to go back to the house. Lily relented, went to her bedroom and changed to her best hat. She talked to the McNultys again for about half an hour in the kitchen, resisting pleas that she stay and promises the McNultys would not tell her parents about the incident. Reverend McNulty told her that if she wanted to leave that she should go home and inform her father that she had left. Lily finally left the Vicarage confirming that she was going home.
Reverend McNulty reported the matter to the police in Quarry Bank that evening. Police constable Lawson searched for Lily at Quarry Bank. The police in Stourbridge were contacted by phone and the police searched for Lily at both her parents’ home in Wollaston and her grandparents’ home on Brettell Lane.
A witness later testified that he saw Lily at Parker’s eating house on Mill Street in Brierley Hill.
She wrote this letter while at the eating house:
My dear mother, father. sisters, and brother,
l am sorry that I am going to do away with myself, for I find I am guilty of what has been done. I am sick and tired of my life. I am going away to drown myself; sorry, but I have a very good master, and mistress McNulty, and a very good friend, Miss Hetty McNulty. They have been good to me. But never mind, don’t trouble about me. Bury me anyhow; no trouble. Tell my sisters and brother to take care of themselves. I am doing away with myself before I would disgrace them. I am very much troubled this last few months about one thing and another. I hope the Lord will forgive me for what I am going to do. Have my things; do what you like. Sorry to part, but I am going, for my character is gone. I have disgraced myself it is too late. Do forgive me; my temper is the worst of me. I have gone as far as I can. Hope we will meet again. Dear mother – don’t trouble about me; sorry to leave; God bless. I have spoilt myself now. Sorry to part with all my friends and relations. Forgive me and ask Mr. McNulty to forgive me. I am writing this in a coffee house in Mill street. I must say goodbye. God forgive me.
Your daughter
LILY.
I cannot say what I done it for; I am troubled. Don’t trouble about me; no, let me be forgotten forever. Amen. I know it is wrong for me to do this, but I am better dead than alive. Now, Lord, forgive me for all I have done. Amen.
After putting the letter in an envelope addressed to her father and stepmother at 13 Bridgnorth Road in Wollaston, Lily posted it from Brierley Hill without a stamp.
She was last seen alive at the Nine Locks.
John Kent received her letter the next morning on Wednesday 20 November. He went to the police in Stourbridge and was advised to go to the police in Brierley Hill. At Brierley Hill, he was then told to go to Quarry Bank.
The police posted bills describing Lily as five foot tall, slender with dark brown hair and a fair complexion. She walked erect and rather quickly and was last seen wearing a white sailor‘s hat with a blue and white band, black skirt, brown jacket and a white woollen wrap around her neck.
The canal was dredged at both Level Street and the Nine Locks where Lily had last been seen but was found three days later at Bowen’s Wharf below the Nine Locks close to Brettell Lane.
An inquest into Lily’s death was conducted at the Foley Arms (now New Wellington) on Brettell Lane on Monday 25 November, the jury returning a verdict of suicide whilst of unsound mind.
The funeral was held at Wollaston Church on the afternoon of Thursday 26 November. In her letter to her father, Lilly mentioned her relations and friends. It seems as if many indeed cared for her. Several hundred people attended the funeral and many of her friends sent wreaths.
Lily Kent was the great, great, great granddaughter of my 6x great grandfather, Ralph Edge.