Emily Crabtree

In the short story Sing a Song of Sixpence, Emily Crabtree is wife of William Crabtree whose aunt Lily Crabtree was murdered.

Emily and her husband 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. Lily Crabtree was found murdered, having been bludgeoned to death by a paper weight, Emily became a suspect, together with the other occupants of the house which also included two other relatives of Lily. Emily stood to inherit one quarter of Lily's estate, and her husband another quarter. Moreover, on the morning of her death, Emily and Willian had a violent quarrel with the old lady. However, at the time of her death, Emily had been upstairs asleep, having taken some medication for a headache. The maid Martha said that she 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.