Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn
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Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn has passed into legend. The story has all the popular 
elements of melodrama: the wicked squire; the poor, innocent village maiden, sadly wronged; a gypsy 
curse; her gypsy lover; her child's death (perhaps by poison?); her upright, respectable father, her 
mother's mysterious dream by which the murder was discovered.....

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The Red Barn Murder was a notorious murder committed in Polstead, Suffolk, England, in 1827. A young 
woman, Maria Marten, was shot dead by her lover, William Corder. The two had arranged to meet at the 
Red Barn, a local landmark, before eloping to Ipswich. Maria was never heard from again. Corder fled 
the scene and although he sent Marten's family letters claiming she was in good health, her body was 
later discovered buried in the barn after her stepmother spoke of having dreamt about the murder.

Corder was tracked down in London, where he had married and started a new life. He was brought back 
to Suffolk, and, after a well-publicised trial, found guilty of murder. Corder was hanged in Bury 
St. Edmunds in 1828; a huge crowd witnessed Corder's execution. The story provoked numerous articles 
in the newspapers, and songs and plays. The village where the crime had taken place became a tourist 
attraction and the barn was stripped by souvenir hunters. The plays and ballads remained popular 
throughout the next century and continue to be performed today.

People flocked to the village to hear about the reported "seduction" of young Marten in at least two 
outdoor religious sermons, delivered revival-style by Rev. Charles Hyatt and Rev. Young, within sight 
of the infamous barn.

When he testified, William Corder pleaded:

	"Dismiss from your minds the horrid and disgusting details which 
	have been circulated by means of the public Press,"

but the jury returned a guilty verdict. The town gleefully prepared for his hanging on 11 August 1828. 

One pamphlet described it this way: 

	"Persons were assembled around the scaffold, in the paddock, [and] on the 
	south side of the gaol... Seated on a wall, which gave a commanding view 
	of the whole scene, were several ladies, dressed in the first style of
	fashion... Every building in the neighbourhood was covered with occupants, 
	and in one of the adjacent fields were several gentlemen on horseback, 
	expecting the appearance of the prisoner." 

The viewers who flocked to the trial stayed for the execution. It is true that, leading up to the 
nineteenth century, hangings were frequently viewed by the public as a kind of entertainment, but 
the sheer number of out of town visitors to Bury astonished contemporary writers.

The Known Facts:
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On May 18th 1827 Maria Marten, 26 year old daughter of mole catcher Thomas Marten, left her father's 
cottage at Polstead for the last time. She said a tearful farewell to her young son, her sister and 
her stepmother, then set out to meet William Corder, her 24 year old lover, in the Red Barn. At his 
request she went dressed as a man. 

Her family never saw or heard from her again.

The Red Barn occupied an isolated position on Barnfield Hill, about a mile from Polstead church and 
half a mile from the Martens' cottage. It was used for storing and threshing the grain after harvest. 
The Corder family rented it, together with the nearby fields, from Mrs Cooke of Polstead Hall.

The barn was a large wooden construction with outbuildings attached and stood in an enclosed yard. 
Part of the roof was thatched. The rest was covered in red tiles from which the barn seems to have 
derived its name. Drawings, plans, even pottery models survive to show what the barn was like.

Corder and Maria often walked to the Red Barn, so it was natural that he arranged to meet her there 
on her last day. He said that had not intended to kill Maria in the barn, but before they left an 
argument arose and he shot her dead. 

Several months went by and the Marten family had no word from Maria. They could not understand how 
she could leave her son for so long. Corder's explanations were vague, unsatisfactory or improbable. 
He told them she was well; that she was staying with a Miss Rowland in Yarmouth. On October 18th 1827 
he wrote in a letter to Thomas Marten from London (reproduced in Curtis, p.154) that they were man 
and wife. He told the family that Maria was staying in Newport, Isle of Wight, and expressed surprise 
that they had not answered Maria's letter describing the marriage. Trying to cover his tracks, he 
suggests in a post-script that Mr Marten take down the address for a reply and then burn the letters. 
In letters to Peter Matthews (the father of Maria's son) he wrote that she had hurt her hand and could 
not write. Her family felt increasingly alarmed.

In April the following year Maria's stepmother at last asked her husband to search the Red Barn. She 
said that she had often dreamed about Maria. Twice, (once before and once after Christmas) she had 
dreamed that Maria was murdered and buried in the Red Barn. She had not wanted to tell her husband 
because he would have thought her superstitious. For some time he did nothing, but at last gave in 
to her nagging. 

With a friend he went to the barn. 

Prodding the floor with his mole-spud, he found a soft spot. He dug out some eighteen inches (50cm) 
of loose earth and discovered a body stuffed into a sack. A green silk handkerchief showed through. 
Mr Marten recognised it as one belonging to Corder which Maria had been wearing when she left the 
house. They left the body where it lay and called in the constabulary. 

Shortly afterwards, William Corder was arrested in London. He was taken to Polstead for the inquest 
and sent to Bury St Edmunds to stand trial.

Shortly before the sentence was carried out, Corder confessed. He was executed on the Monday August 
11th, at the county gaol in Bury St Edmunds. Despite heavy rain thousands of spectators attended. The 
body was taken to the Shire Hall, where it was cut open and laid out on show. 

As befits such a magnetic public spectacle, Corder's body was slated for a long afterlife as a macabre 
totem of the principles by which justice is vindicated.

His corpse was publicly displayed - some 5,000 people are reported to have filed past it - and the 
hanging rope sold off in increments. Gruesome relics from the case - Corder's scalp, his death mask, 
a book bound in his skin - were harvested for exhibition by the surgeon, George Creed. Tourists also 
poured into Corder's village of Polstead, stripping souvenirs from the red barn and chipping Maria 
Marten's gravestone down to the nub.

The murderer's skull was one of these trophies, but its owner became convinced it was cursed and had 
it buried. The rest of Corder was anatomized, as was the style at the time, and its skeleton remained 
on public display until just a few years ago with that of 18th century crime lord Jonathan Wild.