The Children of Adam and Eve

Edward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, KG, MBE, TD (6 May 1895 – 26 November 1950), known as Marquess of Hartington (1908–1938), was the head of the Devonshire branch of the Cavendish family. Born in the Parish of St Georgein the East, Stepney, he was the owner of Chatsworth House, and one of the largest private landowners in both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. He was also Member of Parliament for West Derbyshire from 1923 to 1938 and a ministerin Winston Churchill's wartime government.

He was Chancellor of the University of Leeds from 1938 until 1950. He was a freemason and was Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England from 1947 to 1950.

On 26 November 1950, he suffered a heart attack and died in Eastbourne in the presence of his general practitioner, Dr John Bodkin Adams, the suspected serial killer. Despite the fact that the duke had not seen a doctor in the 14 days before hisdeath, the coroner was not notified as he should have been. Adams signed the death certificate stating that the Duke died of natural causes. 13 days earlier, Edith Alice Morrell — another patient of Adams — had also died. Historian Pamela Cullenspeculates that as the Duke was head of the freemasons, Adams - a member of the fundamentalist Plymouth Brethren - would have been motivated to withhold the necessary vital treatment, since the "Grandmaster of England would have been seen bysome of the Plymouth Brethren as Satan incarnate". No proper police investigation was ever conducted into the death but his son, Andrew, later said "it should perhaps be noted that this doctor was not appointed to look after the health of my twoyounger sisters, who were then in their teens"; Adams had a reputation for grooming older patients in order to extract bequests.

Adams was tried in 1957 for Morrell's murder but controversially acquitted. The prosecutor was Attorney-General Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, a distant cousin of the Duke (via their shared ancestor, George Cavendish). Cullen has questioned whyManningham-Buller failed to question Adams regarding the Duke's death, and suggests that he was wary of drawing attention to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (the Duke's brother-in-law) and specifically to his wife who was having an extramaritalaffair with Robert Boothby at the time.

Home Office pathologist Francis Camps linked Adams to 163 suspicious deaths in total, which would make him a precursor to Harold Shipman.