The First Private Execution: The Poisoning of Richard Biggadike (1868)

In 1868, a cramped labourer’s cottage in the village of Stickney, Lincolnshire became the centre of one of Victorian Britain’s most dramatic murder cases. When farm labourer Richard Biggadike suddenly fell violently ill after tea and shortcake prepared by his wife Priscilla, suspicion spread through the community with astonishing speed. What followed was a tangle of marital resentment, rumours of impropriety, forensic certainty — and a legal outcome that made national history.

This episode explores the poisoned marriage of Richard and Priscilla Biggadike, the presence of arsenic in overwhelming quantities, and the inquest that relied heavily on the findings of leading forensic toxicologist Dr Alfred Swaine Taylor. His analysis, combined with Priscilla’s own contradictory statements, led to one of the most significant executions of the century: the first private execution carried out in the city of Lincoln, following Britain’s newly passed legislation ending public hangings.

Along the way, we examine Victorian forensic science, rural domestic life, legal practice, and the intense social pressures inside a one-room household shared by a husband, wife, three children, and two lodgers. Was the verdict secure? Was justice served? And how did this case shape the early years of private execution in Britain?

Further Particulars:
We also travel to County Mayo for a remarkable 1867 discovery — a forgotten subterranean chamber, bricked up for nearly a century, containing two mysterious skeletons dressed in the fashions of George II. A true Victorian gothic moment that captured the imagination of readers across the UK.

If you enjoy educational, archival true crime from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, this is an episode rich in atmosphere, forensic detail, and historical insight.

News of the Times
Victorian and Edwardian true crime, brought to life through original archival research and historical storytelling.