In the previous article we told the story of the murder of Phoebe Hogg and her infant daughter, Phoebe Hanslope Hogg, which took place on the 24th October 1890, and which became known as “The Hampstead Murder.”
You can read the full article here.
With the inquest over, the two victims could be buried, and their joint funerals took place on Sunday 1st of November 1890.
THE FUNERAL OF THE VICTIMS
The revelation that Frank Hogg had been having an affair with the murderess of his wife and daughter led to a huge outpouring of public indignation towards him.
This was demonstrated at the funeral of the victims, which took place on Sunday the 2nd of November 1890 and which was duly reported on by the London Daily News in its next morning’s edition:-
DISGRACEFUL BEHAVIOUR BY THE CROWD
“Yesterday morning the remains of Mrs. Hogg and her child were buried in Finchley Cemetery.
The weather, though mild, was wet and miserable, and the demeanour of the large crowd which gathered, in spite of drenching rain and swamps of mud, combined with all the other circumstances of this wretched case to make the scene one of the most depressing and unpleasant imaginable.
PEOPLE ARRIVED EARLY
The police affirm that all Saturday night there were people hanging about in the neighbourhood of the undertaker’s shop, to make quite sure that they should not miss the funeral.
One woman, when the police attempted to move her on, told them she had walked all the way from Chiswick that night so as to be in time there in the morning, and she wasn’t going to lose the sight now that she had got there.
RAIN WAS FALLING IN TORRENTS
As soon as day broke it was seen that the crowd had begun to gather, and though rain was falling in torrents they were packed up in doorways and passages and wherever else they could find shelter, awaiting the funeral, which was timed at Finchley Cemetery at a quarter to ten.
What the crowd would have been if the morning had been fine can only be surmised, but by eight o’clock not less than 3,000 people had gathered at various points along the route, most of them, of course, being assembled in the neighbourhood of the undertaker’s shop, where it was known that the bodies lay and from which the doleful procession was to start.
The superintendents of the S and the Y divisions had made careful provision for coping with any numbers that might be brought together, and it was well they did. Altogether there were 150 men engaged, eight of them being mounted, and the services of the whole of them were taxed.
FRANK HOGG ARRIVES
At about twenty minutes to nine Mr. Frank Hogg and his brother drove up in a Hansom, but seemed to be recognised by only a small number of the crowd, though there were unpleasant manifestations of feeling on the part of many of those who knew him.
When all had assembled, the coffin, which had been brought into the front shop, was quickly brought out.
THE COFFIN PLACED IN HEARSE
It was a polished elm coffin, with black mountings, and it bore a brass plate on which was inscribed:-
“Phoebe Hogg, died Oct. 24. 1890, aged 32 years. Also Phoebe Hanslope Hogg, died 24th Oct, aged 18 months, daughter of the above.”
The coffin was quickly deposited in the closed hearse, and as the crowd showed very unpleasant symptoms of excitement, it was at once driven off, a mounted officer on either side of it.
FURIOUS OUTBURSTS
A mourning coach now drew up to the door, and Mr. Hogg came out to take his seat in it, looking very pale and haggard.
Instantly there was a furious outburst of yells and shouts that might have made the stoutest heart quail and manifestly quickened the movements of the object of it.
He hastily took his seat in the coach, in which were also his brother and sister and two other relatives.
A MOUNTED POLICE ESCORT
The mounted police had drawn round the coach on the off side, and the men on foot with great difficulty kept the crowd back on the pavement; and the instant the mourners were seated they were driven off, a constable holding on to the handles on either side and mounted officers riding alongside.
So threatening and excited were the crowd that it is more than probable if the police had not been prepared with a strong escort the coach would have been overturned.
HOOTING AND FIST SHAKING
As it was, however, the demonstrations were confined to hooting and yelling, and shaking of fists, as the coach following the hearse, moved up the High-street, followed by two others, occupied by friends and relatives, who naturally desired that their names should not be published.
All this time rain had been falling heavily, and the streets looked wretched in the extreme.
The procession moved up at a walking pace as far as the Britannia, and here it is understood that the mounted escort should have left it, but a large mass of the angry mob floundered along through mud and rain, right and left of the mourning coaches, and the mounted police rode on right the way to Finchley, some five miles away, where other mounted police guarded the gates, having, it was said, been telegraphed for from Barnet.
From the Britannia the cortege moved off at a fast pace, and all but the more determined of the crowd were left behind.
THE MOB ARRIVES AT THE CEMETERY
There were some, however, who followed the whole way, and large numbers made for the cemetery in traps and covered vans and other vehicles.
All along the journey groups of people were assembled at various points, and in the cemetery the crowd was so great that it was with great difficulty they could be controlled.
The scramble to get into the chapel was furious, and the turbulence and uproar scandalous.
The edifice was crowded, and withal was orderly, and the first portion of the usual burial service was made by the Rev. C. Starlow.
MORE ANGRY SCENES
On the sorrowful procession emerging, and the obnoxious member of it being again recognised, there was more hooting and ribald outcrying, of course to the infinite distress of those who, without this brutal outburst, were quite sufficiently bowed down by sorrow.
The mounted police were on duty right up to the point at which the mourners left the vehicles. and from the carriage way to the grave a double line of constables kept the crowd back and preserved a pathway for the funeral party.
The rain had ceased by this time, and at the open grave the mob had the decency to be silent while the officiating clergyman performed the remainder of the service, some of those standing around joining audibly in the Lord’s Prayer and a good many removing their hats.
PURSUED TO HIS BROTHERS HOUSE
On reentering the carriage the widower of the deceased woman was again assailed by angry cries, and the vehicle was followed for some distance by a considerable number of people, and it was only by rapid driving and a devious course that the demonstrators could be shaken off.
At the house of the brother, to which Mr. Hogg was conveyed, a small number of people assembled when the coach arrived there, and this small number rapidly increased when the arrival became known.”
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