G.Woodhouse (1885 - 1910) was raised the youngest son of four brothers in a relatively wealthy family on the outskirts of a place then known as Atwood Moor. He lived through a spoiled and uneventful childhood, watching his older brothers get married and develop fine careers of their own. At age eight, he witnessed the death of his only sister, Rose Woodhouse (1896 - 1900), whose cause of death is still a matter of debate among some historians1. In my opinion, it was her death which shaped his tragic life. Rose Woodhouse was found by her governess, lying dead in front of her impassive brother. I believe that the boy, fifteen at the time, was merely in severe shock, but Victorian hysteria occasionally runs away with itself:
"The boy made no move to help the poor child, nor acknowledged my presence when I entered. He sat like The Devil, with his eyes most unnaturally pale, as his babe sister bled out from between her legs." The governess became convinced that the boy was some kind of 'antichrist' (a much misused term, but these are her words I am quoting), and left. We know nothing of her identity, save the unsigned letter of resignation she left, which has become a popular example of 'evidence' of Victorian witchcraft, with its hysterical rants about 'Devil-worship' and 'poisoned wombs'. Due to this letter, the Woodhouse family became very distrustful of their only son, and forced him from their home on his eighteenth birthday. Luckily for him, a miss nee Mary Park fell rather helplessly in love with him, and her extremely liberal family allowed them to marry. They enjoyed five years of unhappy marriage, during which the young Mr Woodhouse brought no money into the family and Mary Woodhouse brought no children. On the sixth year, Mary fell pregnant. Nine months later, she was found murdered on the moors with her unborn child cut out of her and her husband lying dead beside her. It has taken years of analysis to conclude that this was not, in fact, a double murder, but a murder-suicide, perpetrated by Mr Woodhouse. Why he did this is still contested, but my own thoroughly researched opinions on the matter can be found in my book, "G. Woodhouse: The Misogyny of Madness".
1I recommend the book by Shapard, "Infant Death Under Queen Victoria", written approximately 1955, which devotes a chapter to Rose Woodhouse and her death, and is probably the most comprehensive work on the subject, albeit extremely difficult to track down.