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I stumbled across a book entitled "20 Mortal Murders" by Orlo Miller, and found inside an entire chapter discussing the story of Henry Sovereign and the murder's he committed.
Among the things I found out, was that there was a survivor of the murders, 2 year old Anna who later went on to become Anna Patterson who died in 1914. The three eldest children were also away from the house the night of the murders.
Henry apparently had a "bad reputation", and told stories when he drank {I got the feeling this was a frequent occurrence}. He is described as having an unruly mop of white hair, heavy jet black eyebrows, enigmatic eyes and at the time of his trial seemed to carry with him an air of "utmost melancholy".
In 1828 he was sentence to hang for shooting a horse, but was acquitted. Four years later on Jan. 22, 1832, he murdered his family, among them Polly and David Sovereign, who were found between the shed and the house together. While Miller doesn't go extremely far into the state of the bodies found, he uses many adjectives suggesting the brutality of the crime.
On Jan. 23, 1832 before dawn Henry knocked on the door of his neighbour Ephraim Serles {according to the book an "uncle-in-law" of the accused} It was noticed then that Henry had wounds on his arm and his chest.
The murder weapon, a knife, was found bloodied in Henry's pocket. He was also seen looking around his wife's body for what turned out to be a blade. He spent 7 months in a London courthouse before sentencing. He is described as "stubborn", partly because he continually believed he would be acquitted before his execution.
He was hung on Wednesday, August 13 1832.
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