Born in 1811 in Croscombe, Josiah Parker was the son of Elizabeth Lucas and Thomas Parker.

In 1839 Josiah Ann Barrtlett, and settled into a home in Long Street, before moving to 157 High Street in Wells where they settled and opened a butcher's shop.

They had four children, but Josiah displayed frightening behaviour throughout their marriage. In 1846, he slashed his own throat, arms and legs and told Ann he wanted to bleed to death. His behaviour was so alarming that he was sent to an asylum but allowed home once he had 'recovered'.

In 1857, he began to act strangely once again.

He started talking to himself, and was convinced the local grocer had been looking down his nose at him, and thought he was angry with him.

A doctor who had attended the family over the years told a court Parker had been acting strangely, speaking nonsense, and becoming convinced his wife was unfaithful. He told the doctor he would go to bed, and wake up in the morning 'a new man'.

On February 10 that year, he accused Ann of being unfaithful and threatened to attack her. She was so alarmed that a doctor was called for, but he told Ann her husband was perfectly sane and there was little to worry about.

Before he left, the doctor begged Josiah to be kind to his wife and Parker responded by promising he would never hurt a hair on her head.

But at 5 o'clock that afternoon, Ann went into the shop to ask her husband if the veal cutlets they would have for tea were ready for her to cook.

Without warning, he shouted: "I'll give thee veal cutlets!', grabbed a cleaver and hit her on the head several times, until she fell to the floor. He then jumped on her, stamped on her chest and her head.

Alerted by her screams, a neighbour - Robert Keen 0rushed to the shop, to find Parker still hacking away at his wife. As Keen approached, Parker waved cleaver around, warning him to stay away. Ann lay in pool of blood, her face cut down to bone, one eye gone and her ace bruised and broken beyond all recognition.

A paper at the time reported: "Not the slightest hope of Mrs Parker's recovery is entertained. Her head is literally covered in gashes and one of her hands nearly severed in two, presenting a picture beyond human imagination."

A neighbour managed to disarm Parker, who was arrested, telling police he wanted to die 'the death of a murderer'.

Ann survived for another six days, before succumbing to her injuries. Her cause of death was listed as haemorrhage and shock to the nervous system.

An inquest heard that Josiah had been 'addicted to drink' and believed his wife had been trying to have him returned to an asylum. He told the jury he was guilty and did not deserve to live, and they returned a verdict of wilful murder against him.

But at his trial in Wells, Parker pleaded not-guilty, with his lawyer saying he was not of 'sound mind' when he attacked his wife.

Parker told the court he would 'give all the universe if he could recall the last hour' after the murder, before saying he should also have killed his children.

He was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity - a proclamation that saw him burying his head in his hands in the court room - before he was detained 'At her Majesty's Pleasure' in the Royal Bethlehem Hospital, with a diagnosis of 'melancholia'.

He is listed at the age of 61 as being resident in the newly opened Broadmoor criminal lunatic asylum, Sandhurst, Berkshire, in the 1871 census, having been transported to the newly opened asylum from Bethlehem Hospital in July 1874. Those caring for him described him as being 'at times violent' and 'often suicidal'.

He died of pleurisy in April 1878, aged 88.