William Crabtree

In the short story Sing a Song of Sixpence, William Crabtree is the nephew of Lily Crabtree.

William and his wife Emily lived with his aunt Lily Crabtree, the sister of his father, at her house in Chelsea. The couple was partially supported by the old lady. Although William had a certain amount of money of his own, his health was not very good and he had to spend a lot of time at home. When Lily Crabtree was found murdered, having been bludgeoned to death by a paper weight, William became a suspect, together with the other occupants of the house which also included two other relatives of Lily. William stood to inherit one quarter of Lily's estate, and his wife another quarter. Moreover, on the morning of her death, Willam and his wife Emily had a violent quarrel with the old lady. However, at the time of her death, William had been upstairs working on his stamp collection. The maid Martha said that he remained upstairs the whole time. The stairs creaked and she would have heard anyone coming down the stairs and she could even tell who it was by the strides.