Mary Ashford was a twenty year old woman who attended a dance at the Three Tuns public house (nowadays known as the Tyburn House) on the 26th of May 1817. She met Abraham Thornton from Castle Bromwich at the dance, later she was seen leaving the pub with him and seen in his company walking along a local lane. However this was the last time she was seen alive, the next time she was seen she was found dead in a water filled pit. Thornton was arrested, a search revealed he had blood on his underclothes.
Despite evidence and public opinion against him Thornton was acquitted in the resulting trial on the direction of the Judge. This caused local and national outrage, Mary's brother William Ashford received funding and encouragement to challenge the acquittal under an ancient law which allowed the relatives of the murder victim to appeal a case. The case returned to court and that is when Thornton claimed the right to trial by battle. Thornton said he would fight William Ashford to decide the case, if he defeated Ashford then he would be acquitted. The last time trial by battle had taken place was in the late 16th century however it remained on the statute books. Ashford declined to fight Thornton, the case was closed and he was allowed to go free.
Trial by battle (and private appeals) was finally abolished in 1819. Thornton's unpopularity with the public forced him to emigrate to the US. It is said he died in Baltimore in 1860.
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| Scene of the crime [1] |
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| Tyburn House |
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| Ashford Drive, not too far from where Mary Ashford was found |
[1] Thornton's second trial ... : the whole proceedings of the extraordinary trial of Abraham Thornton, for the murder of Mary Ashford (1818)
