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Robert Kenyon

Age: 26

Sex: male

Date: 10 Sep 1903

Place: Buckstones Moor, Marsden

William Henry Uttley and Robert Kenyon were shot on Marsden Moor where they were gamekeepers.

They were found a mile apart on the moor with their bodies riddled with gunshot on 10 September 1903.

A farmer from Sholver Farm, Moorside near Oldham was charged with their murders but the case was thrown out by the magistrates at Huddersfield on Friday 23 October 1903 after it was heard that there was not enough evidence to commit him.

The farmer had also been a temperance leader.

Robert Kenyon's father said that he and his son had gone out at 2.30am on 9 September 1903 and that he had later heard shots on the free part of the moor. He said that he later in the day saw a man at a spot on the moor known as Beun Cut which was about three-quarters of a mile away and recognised him as the farmer that was tried and that soon after Robert Kenyon went off on his own and that he then went to a cabin where there were four men and to one of them pointed out the farmer who was by that time coming towards the deep clough, about 600 yards nearer than the first time that he had seen him.

He said that a thunderstorm then came on and that he fired his gun as a signal to Robert Kenyon to come to him and that they then sheltered beneath a wall, noting that by that time that the farmer had disappeared in the deep clough.

He said that ten minutes later they saw the farmer on Marsden Moor, land which he was gamekeeper over and that he and Robert Kenyon had a conversation and that Robert Kenyon then left his gun with him and went off after the farmer and that he never saw him alive again. He said that he later took a route by which he expected to see the farmer but never saw him and came back.

He said that after Robert Kenyon was missed that he spent all night looking for him and crosse the gully where his body was later found three times. Robert Kenyon had been buried beneath a heap of stones.

William Uttley's body was found later about a mile away. He had lived at the other side of the moor and had also been out during the night to catch poachers. His body was found after searchers heard his dog barking and when they went to see they found the dog standing over his dead body.

When the farmer was arrested he admitted to having been on the moor on 9 September 1903 saying that he had left his home at 12 noon to go to Buckstones Moor and left there at 2.30pm and at 3.20pm seen two men who he didn't know on the moors and that at about 3.45pm he shot and killed a grouse but couldn't find it and that he had left the moors at 5.30pm. When he was charged he said that he was innocent and that he never saw the gamekeepers.

A man from Sholver Fold said that he saw the farmer in a spring cart on 9 September 1903 at about 6.30pm at the farmers back door.

It was thought that the shot used to kill the men used smokeless powder and mixed shot.

The surgeon found that below the wound in William Uttley's neck and on the left shoulder the skin was tattooed by blueish-black marks which were in his opinion due to the presence of grains of black powder. He took out a large number of pellets from his body as well a small portion of a substance like wadding from the base of the skull which he said resembled examples of wadding found at the farmer's house. He said that the wound on the left side of the neck must have been caused by a shot fired at close quarters of about a yard or less away. He said that another shot on the back or side was probably caused by a shot fired at an angle of 45 degrees upwards from a distance of about nine yards.

The shot taken from Robert Kenyon's body and William Uttley's brain was mixed three and fours whilst the shot taken from William Uttley's back was all of one size, No. 5.

However, it was heard that it was not unusual for farmers and persons frequenting the moors to mix their shot.

Evidence was heard that the farmer was taken home by his son on the day of the murders in the back of a cart covered by a coat and that he had easy access to the moor. The farmer admitted to having been out on the moor that day but denied the murders.

A coat that the farmer had worn was taken away and examined and found to have some blood on the back which proved to be mammalian blood and not that of a bird or a fish. However, it was heard that it could not be stated whether the blood stain was six days old or six weeks old.

The police found a watch and handkerchief that had belonged to Robert Kenyon in a hole under a bush five days after the murders. The court heard that in relation to the cleanliness of the handkerchief that the items had probably been put there after the murders, and possibly after the time that the farmer was arrested, based on the fact that there had been torrential downpour on the moors since and yet the handkerchief was still clean.

When Robert Kenyon's father gave evidence he said that he had seen the farmer on the moors on 9 September 1903, stating that he had known him for 20 years and knew him even at a great distance by his walk and the peculiar way that he carried his gun. He added that a week or two before that the farmer had threatened him and said that he wanted to see his fancy son. He said that he had caught the farmer trespassing scores of times.

However, another man that said he had been with Robert Kenyon's father on 9 September 1903 said that he had seen a man against the skyline at the top end of the moor after Robert Kenyon's father pointed him out to him and said that it had not been the farmer. He said that after seeing the man that Robert Kenyon's father had left to go in the direction of the man and that after a few minutes he heard two shots fired and that fifteen minutes later Robert Kenyon's father returned and took his son's gun into a woodman's cabin. He said that half-an-hour after he had heard the shots that Robert Kenyon's father had told him that he had fired them to keep birds away.

Newspaper articles stated that it was common knowledge that the farmer had no part in the murder, that the murders were not the work of poachers and that someone knew more than they were saying.

Robert Kenyon had been an only child and normally a carter but had assisted his father as a gamekeeper during the shooting season which he had been doing for the three weeks before the murders.

Police later offered a £300 reward for information but no further developments were made.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see find.galegroup.com

see Marsden Community Association

see Wessyman 137

see "The Marsden Moor Murders.-Yesterday." Times [London, England] 16 Oct. 1903: 5. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 3 Mar. 2013.

see Western Daily Press - Thursday 17 September 1903

see Lancashire Evening Post - Friday 16 October 1903

see Buckingham Express - Saturday 24 October 1903

see Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 02 October 1903

see Sheffield Daily Telegraph - Friday 09 October 1903

see St James's Gazette - Wednesday 07 October 1903

see Sheffield Daily Telegraph - Thursday 08 October 1903

see Henley & South Oxford Standard - Friday 02 October 1903

see Worcestershire Chronicle - Saturday 10 October 1903

see Leeds Mercury - Tuesday 20 October 1903

see Sheffield Daily Telegraph - Friday 16 October 1903

see Leeds Mercury - Saturday 31 October 1903