Edward William Pritchard

Edward William Pritchard (6 December 1825 – 28 July 1865) was an English doctor who was convicted of murdering his wife and mother-in-law by poisoning them. He was also suspected of murdering a servant girl, but was never tried for this crime.

He was the last person to be publicly executed in Glasgow.

Pritchard was born in Southsea,Hampshire, into a naval family. His father was John White Pritchard, a captain.

He claimed to have studied at King's College Hospital in London and to have graduated from there in 1846. He then served in the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon on HMS Victory. For another four years, he served on various other ships sailing around the world.

He returned to Portsmouth, England, on HMS Hecate. While in Portsmouth, he met his future wife, Mary Jane Taylor, the daughter of a prosperous retired silk merchant from Edinburgh. The couple married in 1851. He had five children with her.

He resigned from the Navy and first took a job as a general practitioner in Yorkshire, living for a time in Hunmanby.

He was the author of several books on his travels and on the water cure at Hunmanby, as well as articles in The Lancet.

In 1859, he left under a cloud and in debt, and moved to Glasgow.

On 5 May 1863, there was a fire in the Pritchards' house at 11 Berkeley Street, Glasgow, which killed a servant girl. Her name was Elizabeth McGrain, aged 25. The fire started in her room but she made no attempt to escape, suggesting that she may have been unconscious, drugged, or already dead.

The procurator fiscal looked into the case, but no charges were brought.

In 1865, Pritchard poisoned his mother-in-law, Jane Taylor, 70, who died on 28 February. His wife, whom he was treating for an illness (with the help of a Dr. Paterson), died a month later on 18 March at the age of 38. Both had been living in the family's new home in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.

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