Rhosrobin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rhosrobin is a small village situated in Wrexham county borough in northeast Wales, about 2 miles (3.2km) north west of Wrexham town centre, close to the A483 road.

It is the location of a new housing development called St. Peter's Close, built on the site of the old Rhosrobin School which had more latterly seen service as a commercial laundry.

A murder was committed in Rhosrobin on Monday, 10 November 1902 when William Hughes shot his wife Jane Hannah Hughes. William Hughes was a native of Denbigh and served for many years in the Cheshire Regiment in India. On his return to Britain he worked as a collier in the Wrexham area. He married Jane Hannah Williams, his first cousin, in 1892. They separated in 1901 and Hughes was subsequently sentenced to three months in Shrewsbury prison for "family desertion". He was released on 6 November 1902 and on the 10th of the month he called upon his wife who by then was housekeeper to a Mr Tom Maddocks, a collier who was widowed with three children. When she came to the door Hughes discharged both barrels of a shotgun into her body from close range.

Hughes was tried at Denbigh Assizes in January 1903 and despite pleas of insanity the jury took just ten minutes to find him guilty of murder. At 8 a.m. on Tuesday 17 February 1903 William Hughes, 42, was executed on the gallows at Ruthin Gaol.