Crime Immemorial

Janet Rogers, née Henderson, was born around 1811 in Airntully, a small village in Perth, Scotland known for its cottage weaving industry. She married James Rogers, a laborer, in the 1830s, and together they raised five daughters in a modest home. By 1866, Janet was a grandmother, with her eldest daughter married and starting her own family. Janet’s life was typical of working-class Scottish women of the era—centered on family, weaving, and occasional domestic work.

Her younger brother, William Henderson, about two years her junior, had taken a different path. Unmarried and childless, William inherited Mount Stewart Farm near Forgandenny, roughly fifteen miles south of Airntully, after their father’s death in 1851 from influenza. The farm, a modest holding, employed laborers and a domestic servant, but William faced challenges. A devastating cattle plague epidemic sweeping Britain since 1865 had strained farmers, forcing layoffs. More personally, William struggled to retain servants; his latest, Christina Miller, abruptly left on March 22nd, 1866, leaving him in need of help.

On March 28th, William traveled to Airntully to ask for assistance. Though he initially sought one of Janet’s daughters, Janet, then fifty-five years old, insisted on helping herself. She arranged to meet him at Perth railway station and arrived at Mount Stewart Farm that day. For the next two days, she settled in, handling chores while William managed the farm with his sole remaining employee, ploughman James Crichton, hired in October 1865.

Tensions simmered beneath the surface. In January 1866, the farmhouse had been burglarized while William and Crichton were away delivering grain. Items stolen included £3 (a significant sum, equivalent to about £400 today), a watch, and corduroy trousers. William suspected Crichton, especially after the ploughman’s son later “found” the trousers in nearby woods despite William’s thorough search. Though unproven, the incident strained their relationship.

March 30th was a market day in Perth, about seven miles north of the farm. William shared breakfast with Janet before departing around ten-thirty a.m. on horseback, assigning Crichton tasks like removing fence posts and ploughing a field. Janet remained at the farmhouse, possibly planning to visit a relative in Perth but ultimately staying behind.

Crichton later reported seeing Janet around eleven a.m., speaking to an unidentified man near the farm, accompanied by a dog. This was the last time she was seen alive.

A hawker named Betsy Riley, selling pottery in the area, also spotted a suspicious stranger matching that description—around forty years old, five feet eight inches tall, unshaven, in a dark coat and cap. However, these leads would prove fruitless.

William returned to the farm between six and seven p.m., stopping briefly in Bridge of Earn for supplies. Finding both doors locked and no response to his knocks, he climbed through an unlocked upstairs window. The house was silent and dark. In the kitchen, he tripped over upturned chairs and discovered the gruesome scene. In shock, he alerted neighbor James Barlas, who confirmed the horror. William then summoned Dr. Laing and Constable Alexander Cumming from Bridge of Earn, while Crichton was sent to notify local police.

Medical examiners later estimated Janet’s time of death between two and three p.m. She was struck multiple times in the head with a kitchen axe, causing fatal skull fractures and internal bleeding. The scene suggested a violent struggle: blood spattered the walls, furniture was overturned, and Janet’s boots were bloodied. Curiously, her body was covered with blankets and bedding, her hand protruding, and the doors were locked from the inside with shutters closed—an act implying some level of remorse or familiarity.

The crime scene yielded clues: a bloodied axe nearby with hair attached, footprints in the blood, three paper bags (two blood-soaked, one containing snuff), and a broken clay pipe with a tin top under a pillow—odd, as neither Janet nor William smoked. William claimed the house was “ransacked” and items missing, including a pocket-book, £1 note, cap, eggs, and trousers, but police noted minimal disturbance outside the kitchen.

Authorities offered a £100 reward (about £12,000 today), attracting hundreds of tips, many false or reward-driven. Police searched for strangers, detaining suspects like John Henderson from Aberdeen based on Riley’s description, but alibis cleared them.

William and Crichton were questioned; their clothes showed no blood, though William’s were dirty from the day. Constables noted William’s agitation and redness when pressed about the killer. The investigation lacked modern tools like forensics or profiling, relying on witnesses and circumstantial evidence.

Nearly eight months later, Christina Miller, William’s former servant, came forward. Living with Crichton briefly after her dismissal, she claimed he confessed to the murder. Motives for her statement included jealousy over Crichton’s marriage or a bid to regain her job, casting doubt on her credibility.

James Crichton emerged as the prime suspect, however, linked by the prior burglary and Miller’s accusation. William vehemently believed in his guilt, suggesting Crichton returned for another theft, encountered Janet unexpectedly, and killed her.

Crichton was arrested and tried in Perth in September 1866. The trial lasted two days, but the jury deliberated for only twelve minutes before returning a “not proven” verdict—a Scottish legal outcome meaning insufficient evidence for conviction but not full acquittal. Crichton completed his farm contract and moved to Dunfermline.

Suspicion also fell on William due to inconsistencies: he was the last to see Janet alive, had opportunity, and his “ransacked” claims contradicted police observations. The locked doors, covered body, and pipe suggested an insider.

The murder devastated the family. Janet’s husband and daughters were left grieving, while William became obsessed with justice, convinced of Crichton’s guilt. His mental health deteriorated; in 1890, he was committed to Murray Royal Asylum in acute mania, ranting about the murder and his own “apprehension and acquittal.” He died in 1894 from gangrene.

Crichton died the same year, also from gangrene. The case faded into obscurity, remembered as Scotland’s oldest cold case.

In the 2010s, Chris Paton, Janet’s great-great-great-grandson and a genealogist, rediscovered the case while researching family history. Noting the absent cause of death on her certificate, he delved into archives at Perth’s AK Bell Library and the National Archives of Scotland. His 2012 book, The Mount Stewart Murder, painted a “sorry picture” of the investigation, highlighting its flaws and William as a “second victim.”

More recently, criminologist Dr. William Graham from Abertay University reviewed the evidence. He noted the killer’s thoughtful actions—covering the body and locking up—suggesting shame and familiarity, atypical of a burglar. Graham leaned toward William as the culprit, citing the rarity of stranger killings and inconsistencies in his story.

Podcasts and articles continue to explore the case, but without new evidence, it remains unsolved.