It is rare for a woman condemned to death for murder to leave behind any permanent mark in the form of a work of art. However, for about 130 years St Peter’s Church on the Isle of Portland has been the home of just such a labour of devotion to the Christian faith – or to atonement for a cardinal sin.
Set into the floor of the chancel in St Peters there is a mosaic pavement. Like all other parts of the building it is the work of a felon, a convict from the island’s prison, but one who’s criminal circumstances are more unusual than most others. For there has been a long-held tradition that the mosaic was laid by Constance Kent, who when just sixteen years of age stabbed her step-brother to death in a toilet at the family’s home at Rode, Wiltshire.
Constance Kent was born in 1846. Her father was Samuel Kent, said to have been an illegitimate son of the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, while her mother was the Duke’s first wife. On her mother’s death in 1854 Kent married Miss Pratt, governess to both Constance and her younger brother William. By 1860 another five children had arrived, and a sixth was expected.
When she was sixteen Constance told school-friends she was constantly unhappy at home. On the night of 29th to 30th of June 1860 Constance’s four-and-a-half year old brother was taken from his bed in the nursery to an outside privy, where he was stabbed in the back and had his throat cut. A blooded nightdress belonging to Constance was found and despite no apparent motive she was arrested, but later released due to lack of evidence.
When the Kents moved to Wales Constance entered a convent in France for three years, and then moved to another convent in Brighton. Voluntarily she approached Bow Street magistrates to confess to the murder, but it is suggested that a minister, a Reverend Wagner at the convent, put pressure on her to confess. As a doctor had judged her mental state to be normal, it is likely that Constance’s motive for the murder was jealousy of the children of her father’s second marriage.
Constance was tried at the assizes at Salisbury, found guilty and initially sentenced to death, though this was commuted to life imprisonment on Portland. Between her arrival in 1864 and her release in 1885, she laid the mosaic to be seen in St Peters Church.
