Large photographs of the areas mentioned in the story follow the text, or
you can click here and view them now.
 

The murder was extensively  covered in the Newcastle Daily Chronicle

Transcriptions from the local newspapers will be added shortly

Mary's memorial and grave can be found on the left of the path through the South gate

together with her friend Johanna Scott.  Then Mary's grandmother asked her if she would take a message to her Uncle Fred, who lived in Gosforth Terrace on the other side of waste land known as Hilly Fields.  With her doll in one arm, Mary set out, accompanied by Johanna.
First they crossed the road from Joel Terrace to Cromwell Road.  There they called at Christina Storey's house.  Mary told Mrs. Storey that she was going to her uncle's on a message and asked her if there was anything she wanted fetched.  Mrs. Storey thought for a moment, but had all she needed to last her over the weekend.  Mary smiled, said goodbye, and Mrs. Storey watched as the little girl and her friend skipped up the street towards Hilly Fields.
The message was duly delivered and two stayed a while with Mary's uncle.  Then at 7.30 Johanna said it was time they went home and Mary agreed.  Johanna had to go in the opposite direction to Mary, but the two walked a little way together, accompanied by Fred Stewart.  Then Mary set off across Hilly Fields on her walk home, which would take about ten minutes.  Johanna and Fred Stewart watched her until on reaching a hollow she turned, waved and disappeared from view. At about that time 11-year-old Thomas Douglas was standing at the bottom of Jonadab Place, looking towards Hilly Fields, when he saw a man dressed in dark clothes pacing to and fro.
It was 10.30 when Mary's father returned home.  His mother told him that Mary had gone on an errand to his brother Fred and she hadn't come home yet.  James Stewart was a little perturbed as he always insisted on Mary being home before dark, but he decided to wait a little longer as Fred wouldn't let Mary return alone at that time of night. After a little while, however, he became anxious and set out to collect his daughter.  On arriving at Fred's he was told that Mary had left for home at 7.30, Fred saying that he had watched her part of the way as she crossed Hilly Fields.  The two now hurried to Joel Terrace, where there was still no sign of the child.  Her father began knocking on neighbours' doors, asking them to help him look for her.  All turned out and soon a large search party was scouring Hilly Fields, nearby quarries and a disused brickworks.
Mary is Found
By daybreak on Sunday all that had been found was a shilling piece and three halfpennies, discovered in long grass in the yard at thebrickworks.  The search continued throughout the day, and on the Monday an exhausted James Stewart was resting at home before resuming the hunt when word came that Mary had been found.  Her body lay with her doll in long grass near a fence in the brickworks yard, little more than 100 yards from her uncle's home.  A medical examination established that she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.  Oddly, a piece of uneaten bread was found in her mouth. Superintendent Rutherford arrived from Gateshead police station and called Inspector Thompson from Felling to assist him.  The inspector promptly began making house-to-house inquiries. At the Swinburn Terrace home of James Dinning, a colliery joiner, Dinning's wife Christina said that her husband and a neighbour had gone for a drink at the Mason's Arms - 150 yards from the brickworks - in the late afternoon of the day Mary Stewart had disappeared.  They had returned in the early evening.  The neighbour was 23-year-old Thomas Nicholson who lived opposite the Dinning's, on the other side of Back Ann Street.  He worked as a cartman for a local farmer, and Mrs. Dinning said she had later seen him on three separate occasions that night.

At about 7.30 she had notice him come out of his house.  He had been holding a piece of bread as he walked up the street.  Two hours later she had been standing at her back door talking to a neighbour when Nicholson had come up Back Ann Street.  He was wearing a dark suit and a white scarf, but no cap - which struck her a s strange because he usually wore one.  He went into his house and came out again about 10 minutes later wearing brown corduroy trousers, with no coat or waistcoat.  On seeing her he asked if her husband was in, and as she shook her head she saw Nicholson's parents come out of the house and approach him.  He then accompanied them back inside.
At about 2.45 on the Sunday morning, Mrs. Dinning continued, she was woken by her baby crying and got up to make it a feed.  As she was waiting for her kettle to heat up she glanced out of her window and again saw Nicholson.  He was coming down steps that led into the back lane, and she saw no more of him because she had to attend to her baby. Mrs. Morton, the neighbour to whom Mrs. Dinning had earlier been talking at her back door, confirmed that Nicholson had been wearing a dark suit and white scarf that evening but had later changed into brown corduroy trousers. Another housewife told Inspector Thompson that she had been sitting on her doorstep at about 7.30 on the Saturday evening when she saw Nicholson coming from Hilly Fields.  He was wearing a dark suit and was staggering as though he had been drinking.  She had seen him go into his home and emerge a few later when he went back towards Hilly Fields. Mrs. Nichol, another neighbour, said that at around 8 p.m. on the Saturday she had seen a man coming from the direction of the Mason's Arms.   Asked if she could identify the man, she shook her head but described him as being of slender build and medium height.  At the same time she saw Mary Stewart.  The man spoke to the child before taking her hand and walking away.
By now Nicholson was the prime suspect.  James Dinning had confirmed that he had accompanied Thomas Nicholson to the Mason's Arms, which they had left at 6.15 - he was sure of that because they had asked the landlord the time.  Although Nicholson had drunk little more than a pint, he seemed unsteady on his feet.  They had then gone to another pub where Dinning ordered a whisky but Nicholson had nothing.Dinning said that while he was talking to a friend he noticed that Nicholson had disappeared.  He stepped outside, saw Nicholson some 100 yards ahead and ran to catch up with him.  They walked home in silence.  Nicholson stepped into Dinning's house but stayed for only a few minutes before suddenly leaving.  Dinning thought something was bothering his friend but didn't know what it was, and he later went across the road to ask him.  As he entered Nicholson's home he saw him pass through the kitchen and into another room without speaking.  After a short chat with Nicholson's parents, said Dinning, he had returned to his own home.
Three witnesses told the police that they had seen Nicholson and Dinning near the Mason's Arms that evening.  Neil Mackay, who had known Nicholson all his life, said that on the Saturday night he had been standing at the end of Haywood Terrace when he saw Nicholson approaching.  Asked where he was going, Nicholson said he might go to Felling or he might go to Gateshead to buy himself a suit.  Seeing that he seemed drunk, Mackay advised him to go home.  Nicholson's response was to strike a wall with his fist, saying he was all right.  Mackay then saw him start to cross Hilly Fields.  He noticed no one else about at the time.

On Tuesday, August 19th, Inspector Thompson went to Nicholson's home to arrest him.  Asked to account for his movements after 6 p.m. on the Saturday night, Nicholson said: "I went over to Ed Shell's house (the Mason's Arms) and remained there until closing time."

The inspector had already questioned Shell, who told him that Nicholson had arrived with Dinning at about 5 p.m. and left at 6.15, when he asked him the time.  Nicholson had not returned again that night.

Nicholson was now asked: "Where is the suit of clothes you were wearing on Saturday night?"

He turned to his mother, who had remained silent throughout the interview.  "Where are they, Mother?" he asked.

"In Lightfoot's pawn shop," she replied.

"Were you anywhere near Hilly Fields on Saturday night?" the inspector asked Nicholson.

"I only crossed them to get to the Mason's," he answered.

Charged with the wilful murder of Mary Ina Stewart, he made no reply but hung his head.

On August 21st the funeral was held.  Crowds that had gathered from early morning lined the pavement and hymn, "Shall we gather at the river?" was sung openly by the people.  James Stewart, Mary's father, stood at his front door, head bowed, with tears running down his face.  The route from Bill Quay to the cemetery at Heworth was crowded, but the blinds and curtains in all the houses were drawn shut.  Many of Mary's school friends and her teachers attended the burial.

The original inquest hearing held at the Wardley Hotel had been adjourned on August 18th.  When it was reconvened at the Methodist Church in Bill Quay on September 9th, the court heard from the Durham county analyst that bloodstains had been found on a jacket, shirt and trousers belonging to Nicholson, but there were no traces of semen.  Blood had also been found on Mary Stewart's underwear and on her two petticoats.

James Dinning told the court that on the day following Mary's disappearance he had gone to Nicholson's home and asked him where he had been the previous evening when not in his company. Nicholson had hardly spoken to him.

Dr. J. Mackay said that on completing a post-mortem examination he had concluded that Mary Stewart had died from suffocation, loss of blood and shock consistent with injuries received in her genital area.  She had puncture wounds to her head, arm and shin, inflicted by a blunt instrument after her death, or after she had lost a lot of blood.

As there was little blood where her body lay, he believed she had been killed elsewhere and carried to the spot where she was found.  She had been discovered lying on her back in a position facilitating the insertion of a male organ, an act consistent with injuries found in her genital region.

After retiring for 20 minutes the coroner's jury returned a unanimous verdict that Mary Ina Stewart had been wilfully murdered by Thomas Nicholson.

When his trial at Durham Assizes began on November 26th, 1902, he looked cheerful, pleaded "not guilty" in a firm voice and smiled throughout the proceedings.

Mr. Joel, prosecuting, told the jury that one point which they would have to weight carefully was that Nicholson had been seen at 3 a.m. on the night of the murder, coming out from his back door fully dressed.

"Had he any purpose in going outside at that time of the morning?" asked the prosecutor.  "Was there any purpose which in connection with the other circumstances of the tragedy might lead him to leave his house at three o'clock in the morning?"

Mr Joel went on to say that the clothes Nicholson had worn on the Saturday night of the murder had been pawned between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on the following Monday. "Were the bloodstains found on them the result of his phantom nosebleeds that he has alleged he had, but no one has ever seen, or something else?"

For the defence, Mr. Mitchell Innes pointed out that Hilly Fields had may hollows where a man could conceal himself without difficulty.

Cross-examining Mrs. Nichols - who said she had seen Mary Stewart with a man of similar build to Nicholson - Mr. Mitchell Innes asked: "Is it not a fact that you were taken to the exercise yard at Durham Prison where a few men were walking, and you were asked to point out the person whom you saw that night?"

Mrs. Nichol nodded.

"Is it not a fact that you picked out someone clearly different in build and appearance to Nicholson?"

"I picked him out because of his dress," said Mrs. Nichol.

The prison governor confirmed that she had picked out a man six inches shorter than Nicholson.

Summing up, Mr. Justice Channell told the jury that he believed the strongest evidence against Nicholson was that he had changed his trousers on the night of the murder and could not explain why.

After deliberating for just over half an hour the jury found Thomas Nicholson guilty.  As he was sentenced to death he wasn't merely smiling: he was beaming!  He seemed to regard it all as a joke, and continued to appear carefree when his parents visited him in prison.  His manner changed only when his execution was imminent and he realised at lat that there was to be no reprieve.  A last minute appeal for clemency was rejected and on the 16th December 1902, Thomas Nicholson (24) was hanged, for murder of Mary Ina Stewart, aged seven, at Bill Quay, on the 16th. August. Justice Channell, judge; William and John Billington, executioners. He was not alone as this was a double execution . He was hanged alongside Samuel Walton (31), a miner, executed for a triple murder, at Middlestone Moor, on the 11th. September 1902.

Epilogue: If you are in the vicinity of St Mary's Church at Heworth, please show your respects to this little girl by visiting, what is now a lonely and forgotten memorial. Perhaps you could leave a flower or two.

 Mary's memorial can be found on the left of the path through the South gate

"With her doll in one arm, Mary set out, accompanied by Johanna. First they crossed the road from Joel Terrace to Cromwell Road". Cromwell Rd. on the left The path leading down to the Cricketers PH covers the site of Joel St.  Photo: Bill Hartmann © 2007

 "The original inquest hearing held at the Wardley Hotel had been adjourned on August 18th. Photo: Bill Hartmann © 2007