In the William Salt Library is an extraordinary collection of letters
known as 'The Jane Letters' written by
Palmer to a lady called Jane. These letters were not discovered at the time
of Palmer's trial.
Who
was Jane? - Bergen, Burgess or Bergin?
George Fletcher, in his book The Life & Career of Dr. William Palmer
of Rugeley published in 1925, says this of the 'Jane Letters':-
........thirty
four letters written by Palmer to Jane Bergen, in the early months of
1855 up to the time of Cook's death. I have had the original letters
submitted to a great expert in handwriting, and he says that they are
undoubtedly all in Palmer's writing. ...........
They consist of thirty-four letters written
to a Miss Jane Bergen, in a most lascivious, degrading style. They are
not mentioned in any account of Palmer's life, except in the introduction
to the trial in 'Notable Trials'. They show unmistakably the nature of
the illicit intercourse existing between them both, and Palmer gives
the name and address of a doctor in Stafford, who, he says, would be
"silent as death," and who performed an illegal operation successfully
on her.
She kept all the letters - much to his
surprise - and when he was unable to help her with much (or any) money
she threatened to show these letters all round, unless he sent her £50
(after asking for £100). He sent £40 the very day he and
Cook returned from Shrewsbury races.
I need scarcely say the letters are not
fit for publication. But they are well written and clear, showing a man
of education, though of a most disgusting nature. |
We
cannot be certain of the true identity of Jane. None of the accounts of
Palmer's life mentioned his love affair with a Stafford girl called Jane
until 1912. In that year G. M. Knott who was editing the Notable English
Trials books, was the first to publish any mention of the letters,
which were, then in the possession of George Fletcher. Knott stated that
a young woman called Jane Burgess left them at her Stafford lodgings. Fletcher
calls her Jane Bergen. Research by Anne Kettle found a Jane Bergin listed
as being a milliner living in Market Street, Stafford in the Census of
1851. My own guess would favour the surname of Bergin.
The words of the Jane Letters are found on the 'Jane
Letters' web page.
There are over thirty letters and, although the wording is carefully 'coded',
a story comes from them which discloses a sinister story. It would appear
that Jane was encouraged by Palmer to have an abortion and that when Palmer
wouldn't marry Jane she blackmailed him. Historian John Godwin suggests
that she threatened to tell her father Daniel Scully Bergin who was the
Chief-Constable of the Stafford Rural Constabulary. Anne Kettle suggests
that there is no evidence that she was the daughter of Daniel Scully Bergin.
She suggest that the most likely Jane appears in the 1851 Census as a Jane
Bergin, aged 22, a milliner living with her father Francis Burgin, a clerk
of the land commissioners. The Bergin Family lived at 13 Martin Street
next to the Independent Chapel. In the 1851 White's Directory of Staffordshire
Francis Bergin was listed as a dealer in hides and his daughter Jane as
a milliner and dress-maker. There is no trace of the family in local directories
after 1854 when Francis Burgin's wife, Sarah, advertises her services as
a milliner.
Below is the most unpleasant and shocking of the letters where Palmer is
trying to persuade Jane to visit 'the best dentist in Stafford'. The 'dentist'
is named in Letter 26 as Cooke. It is thought that this was James Cook
of Forebridge Street, Stafford who was advertising his services as a chemist
and druggist in the 1850's. A photograph taken by D. Lewis of the most
unpleasant of the letters, Number 25. is reproduced on this web site by
kind permission of the owners of the letters the William Salt Library.
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Introduction
