Celia Holloway

Notes for Celia Bashford: Celia was born disabled, dwarfish in stature with a malform, it is unknown what she did as a living, but it is known that in1925 she met John Holloway (who was18 at the time). She and Holloway had a relationship of convenience,it is said that Holloway was ashamed to be seen with her until after dark'. Celia fell pregnant in mid 1826 and she was at this time living in a Poor House in Brighton.The Town Overseers locked Holloway in Lewes jail for 5 weeks, until he agreed to support Celia and the child. This is evidenced by a removal order from Ardingly to Brighton dated 2 October 1826. The couple were married on 20 November 1826. The baby arrived still-born,though,and Holloway felt himself trapped in a futile marriage.Holloway spent four years away on Blockade Service, tracking smugglers. At this time he met and bigamously married Ann Kendell. They returned to Brighton and lived at 7 Margaret Street, while his other wife Celia lived with her sister in nearby Cavendish Street.On the 24th July Holloway enticed Celia, with her belongings, from her sister's house on the pretence of beginning a new life in London. Despite his poor financial state, Holloway had rented a second house at 11 Donkey Row, and it was to that address that he took Celia. In his own words,'I asked her to sit down on the stairs and then in the pretence of kissing her I passed a line around her throat and strangled her'. His other wife Ann emerged from the shadows and helped him to hack off Celia's head and limbs. They dropped them in the outside toilet of their home at 7 Margaret Street, and placed the torso in a trunk which they buried in the woods near Lovers Walk. It emerged that Celia was eight months pregnant, and at the autopsy the unborn baby was discovered inside the torso. This case came to be called the 'Brighton Trunk Murder'.