Thomas Woolgar and Einor Murder Children

The murders of three children are disclosed in Thomas Woolgar’s chronicle as the darkest consequence of his relationship with Einor: the children trusted the nun, and Woolgar says he helped silence their cries when she harmed them. Their disappearances eventually exposed the pair’s crimes, while his account of them remains entangled with guilt, self-excuse, and a plea that future readers believe him.

Disappearances and Trust

In the second year of his association with Einor, Woolgar writes, suspicions spread as children vanished over a period of several months in the forests near St. Joseph’s Church in Banfield. Three children were lost and never seen again. The disappearances transformed what might have been treated as separate losses into a pattern, though the chronicle does not provide further circumstances of each child’s death.

The children had been drawn to Einor because adults regarded her as devout and believed she had cured illnesses. They sought her blessing as if she were a saint. Woolgar’s account sets that public trust against his later claim that the children were vulnerable to her cruelty: in his image, they had been treated as lambs brought within reach of a wolf.

Woolgar’s Admission and Self-Exculpation

Woolgar places himself inside the crime rather than describing it as a distant witness. He says he had to stifle the children’s screams while Einor’s punishment was inflicted on them, and he declares that he can expect no forgiveness for his part in their deaths. The manuscript thus identifies both Einor and Woolgar as responsible, even though it gives no account of the children’s individual experiences beyond his admission of complicity.

That admission sits beside a recurring effort to make Einor the source of his conduct. Woolgar describes himself as having been controlled by her will and initially presents her influence as an explanation for his weakness. Yet he also acknowledges that his own will had to contribute to his choices. The tension matters: his account names his guilt, but repeatedly tries to recast a deliberate participation in wrongdoing as the effect of Einor’s power over him.

Exposure and Consequences

The disappearances formed part of the suspicions that gathered around the pair. Later, after a novice confessed to the Prioress, Woolgar went to her and admitted his sexual relationship with Einor, while withholding some information because he feared for his life. The chronicle connects the confession and the children’s disappearances to the Prioress’s decision to act against Einor, although Woolgar’s own account also shows him accepting a role in the accusations that followed.

The revelation became public when Woolgar told members of his congregation what he and the Prioress had discovered about Einor. He records that the community was informed that she had been responsible for the slaughter of three children, and that news stirred anger among those whose children had vanished. The accusation helped precipitate the mob’s attack on Einor. Woolgar says he followed and encouraged the crowd, revealing that his complicity extended beyond the children’s deaths to the public denunciation and punishment of their alleged killer.

The Chronicle as Testimony

Woolgar writes as a compromised witness: he confesses to helping Einor harm the children, yet describes his own conduct through language that transfers agency to her. His account is therefore both testimony and self-defence. Its claim to warn later readers does not erase the fact that he had participated in the events he condemns.

The chronicle’s intended secrecy gives the disclosure a further consequence. Woolgar says he is setting down an account for future readers and that the paper will remain hidden until it is found. The children’s deaths thus become not only the crime at the centre of his confession, but also the concealed history he tries to preserve against the public version of events.