Martin Easdown - Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Folkestone & Dover

Aspin, John and Alan Greenhalgh. Frances Kidder: The Last Woman to be Hanged in Public (authors n/d)

Bishop, Bill. Kent Crimes and Disasters (Geerings 1993)

Easdown, Martin and Linda Sage. Rain, Wreck & Ruin: Disaster and Misfortune in Folkestone, Sandgate, Seabrook and Cheriton (Marlin Publications 1997)

Easdown, Martin and Linda Sage. The Path to Journeys End (Marlin Publications 2001)

Easdown, Martin and Linda Sage. Jack the Ripper in a Seaside Town (Marlinova 2002)

Easdown, Martin and Linda Sage. Hythe: A History (Phillimore 2004)

George, Michael & Martin. Coast of Conflict (SB Publications 2004)

Ingleton, Roy. The Gentlemen at War: Policing Britain 1939 45 (Cranborne Publications 1994)

Ingleton, Roy. Policing Kent 1800 2000 (Phillimore 2002)

Lane, Brian. The Murder Club Guide to South-East England (Harrap 1988)

Laurence, John. Seaside Crimes (Sampson, Low & Marston n/d)

MacDougall, Philip. Murder & Mystery in Kent (Robert Hale 1995)

Ogley, Bob. Kent 1800 1899: A Chronicle of the Nineteenth Century (Froglets Publications 2003)

Rayner, Denise. Fire, Flood & Sudden Death in Old Hythe (Hythe Civic Society 1996)

Roy, John and Tony Thompson. Picture Palaces Remembered (Glenton 1987)

Bygone Kent (various issues)

Hythe and Burmarsh, 1768

A classic mnage trois crime in which all three participants meet a grisly end. A young servant girl marries her infatuated elderly employer on the urgings of her lover so she will inherit her husbands considerable wealth. To hasten his end they poison the old man, but the couples actions easily arouse suspicion and the crime is soon discovered. They pay the ultimate price, but were they both equally responsible for carrying out the horrible deed?

J ohn Lott was a wealthy butcher and grazier who lived just off the High Street in Hythe. As well as holding grazing land in the area, he held considerable influence in the town and is known to have acted as a guarantor for the White Hart , Sun and Dukes Head public houses. In 1766 (the year he was fined 1s for throwing out dung and filth in the Back Lane, now Chapel Street/Prospect Road) Lott hired as a live-in maidservant an attractive young girl named Susannah. He soon became enamoured of her and offered the hand of marriage, but Susannah found him unattractive and kept refusing his proposals. The old man persisted, however, and in 1768 Susannah decided it would be best if she moved on.

The young maid went to live with her married sister at Rolvenden and there met Benjamin Buss, the brother of her sisters husband, Thomas Buss. She was instantly smitten with the handsome young man and they soon became close. On one occasion they stayed in London together for five days. Unfortunately, as Susannah was soon to discover, Benjamin Buss had a rather unsavoury side to his character and was involved in several dubious practices, including smuggling.

Lott, meanwhile, was not to be so easily deterred and called upon Susannah several times at Rolvenden urging her to marry him. Buss watched in amusement the old mans pleadings and hatched a plan. Why not marry him, he asked Susannah, for upon his death you will inherit at least part of his substantial wealth? Although the idea of marrying Lott still repulsed her, Susannah eventually succumbed to Busss urgings. Whether she knew of Busss real intentions to do away with Lott once the marriage had taken place we do not know.

The High Street, Hythe, in the area where John Lott lived. The old Smugglers Retreat, with its look-out tower, was demolished in 1907. Marlinova Collection

The marriage ceremony took place at Rolvenden on Monday, 15 August 1768 with Thomas Buss and his wife and Benjamin Buss in attendance. The wedding party then made their way to Lotts house in Hythe, where they stayed the night. Claiming he was unwell, Benjamin failed to return to Rolvenden with his brother and sister-in-law the following morning. However, the illness was almost certainly feigned and used as an excuse for Buss to stay on in Hythe and hatch the murder plan. He wasted no time in urging Susannah to poison her new husband and two days after the wedding showed her a packet he had obtained from Mr Gippss apothecary that contained poison. He left it with her, although Susannah later claimed she threw it away.

After dinner on the following Wednesday, Lott took his wife and Buss on horseback to view some of his holdings. At Burmarsh they stopped for a pint of milk bumbo, which was a mixture of milk, rum, nutmeg and sugar. While Lott dismounted his horse to adjust the bridle, Buss was served the milk and passed it to Susannah to drink first. He then drank some before passing it onto Lott to finish off. Lott, however, complained that the drink had a very hot taste and mentioned it to the woman innkeeper. She sampled the milk with her daughter and they found it had an unpleasant bitter taste. Upon throwing the rest of it away they noticed a sediment resembling paint on the bottom of the pot.