The body-snatchers of Sunderland, and why Wearside was a popular target for the likes of Burke and Hare

Demand for corpses from medical researchers north of the border in Scotland was high (more on this later), and Sunderland Churchyard, the burial ground beside the former Holy Trinity Church in Sunderland's East End – said to be the largest in the country at the time – was renowned as being a popular target for the so-called ‘resurrection men’.

One of the most notorious grave-robbing incidents in Sunderland featured in Sunderland Echo in 2014, when history writer Sarah Stoner interviewed the late Norman Kirtlan, a historian and ex-police officer, on his book ‘Fetch the Black Mariah’, which delved into Sunderland’s dark past.

The grim tale involves Scottish medical students John Weatherly, 24, and Thomas Thompson, 25.

The pair ended up in the dock after stealing the body of a 10-year-old girl named Elizabeth Hedley from Sunderland Churchyard.

Elizabeth’s father, one Captain Hedley of Burleigh Street, had not been able to complete the purchase of her grave at the time of her death, and so the young girl had been laid to rest in a temporary plot.

When the grave was opened to move Elizabeth to her new resting place, which happened to be on Christmas Day 1823, it was found to be empty.

The body of a two-year-old girl buried nearby was also missing.

Weatherly and Thompson came under suspicion, and they were arrested in the churchyard.

When their lodgings were searched, the body of Elizabeth was found packed in straw, ready to be sent to Edinburgh.

A number of human teeth were also found at the address, these being another very lucrative commodity, as were receipts for boxes similar to the one Elizabeth was packed in.

Thompson pleaded guilty and Weatherly maintained his innocence, but both were ultimately sentenced to three months hard labour and fined sixpence.

Burke and Hare

William Burke and William Hare, probably the two most infamous body-snatchers, are said to have operated in Sunderland, though there is no evidence their crimes turned murderous during the period they ‘worked’ in Wearside.

The pair, from Ireland, were behind sixteen killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, where avarice led them from simply stealing bodies to murdering victims for sale.

When caught, Hare was given immunity in exchange for his evidence against Burke, who was found guilty at a trial ending on Christmas Day, and executed.

In perhaps a fitting end, his body subsequently used for dissection.

His skeleton remains preserved, and is on display at the Anatomical Museum at the University of Edinburgh.

An even more grisly exhibit, a calling card wallet made from Burke’s skin, is also on display in the city.

Why Sunderland was probably a target

Burke and Hare sold corpses to the renowned Robert Knox in Edinburgh for dissection at his anatomy lectures.

As we saw above, the city was also where Weatherly and Thompson were set to export their morbid cargo.

The Scottish capital was a leading European centre of anatomical study in the early 19th century, with a high demand for cadavers at a time when Scottish law dictated only corpses from those who had died in prison, suicide victims, or from foundlings and orphans, could be used for medical research.

It is easy to see why Sunderland, not far from the Scottish border, with the largest churchyard in the country, was a target for body-snatchers.