The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-15 00:00:00

EXECUTION AT HORSEMONGER•LANE,
LONDON.

nu Tuesday morning Margaret Waters, convicted at the
last tessirms of the Central Criminal Court of the murder of
John Walter Cowen, an illegitimate child. few weeks old, of
which she had assumed the charge for a consideration in
money ether baby-farming establiahnient, so called, at Brix-
ton, expiated the crime with her life within the precincts of
florsemonger-lane Gaol, London, in which she was last con-
fined after sentence.

1 ---Tfre-Triai:ii--WIII be remembered, was held before the
Lord chief Baron, end occupied nearly three whole days. It
disclored a pra.dice in which the convict had been for some
time engaged ~f procuring Illegitimate children on the pre-
tence of adopting them, receiving with such children sums of
rohney varying in 01110 MIL from the parents who abandoned
them, and afterwards of shamefully neglecting them, failing
to provide them with necessary food, subletting them to an
Inconceivable state of filth, and In some Instances, as there
was reason to believe, of accelerating their death by the use
of narcotics The prosecntion was undertaken by the Crown,
and the trial excited much public interest.
Sarah Ellis, 2S years of age, was arraigned with Mrs.
Waters on the same indictment, but on the second day of the
trial the lodge interposed, and on his recommendation the
jery AO illi tted her of the capital charge on the ground that the
evidence as against her failed to support IL The stater was
afterwards convicted on her own confession of a misde-
mammoth obtaining money by false pretences In connexion
with baby-farming and sentenced to IS mouths' hard
labour.

After sentence of death had been passed, the convictWatere
was removed from Newgate to the county gaol of Surrey,
, that being the Jurisdiction within which the crime ',Amcor°.
milted, and there she was repeatedly visited by two of her
brothers. By them and by Mr. Mayo, the solicitor
who prepared her defence bp the trial, urgent ap-
peals are understood to have been made to the
Home -rttary on various ground. for • commuta-
tion of the ,erotsi sentence. railing In that, they
erucrlatised 3' . -.nice to respite Its execution for a time to
• them to adduce fresh fact, tending to bear out her
••peatee ..1.11U,S110•11 fret she had not Intended to perpetrate
'der whatever or offence she might have committed,
.t are Lai treated the children Intrusted totter with
• , '• care • 4,1 kftl,l len as her means admitted. That last
as men e r.. the Home Secretary on the day preceding
,ti, at wlth,mt avail, and she prepared herself

•
•••• •• • nu been under sentence the prisoner ap-
-1 have taken very little sustenance; and It was
,e1.1.1y necessary to administer stimulants to her, and
".is Rev. Mr. Jessop, the chaplain of the prison, who hu
been unremittlrgly ktnd and attentive to her since she has
been under his charge, was frequently called up In the night
to visit her and endeavour to console her while In a paroxysm
of grief and despair.
On Monday night she prisoner roinested to be allowed
to write a statement of her case, which she desired to be
published after her death. She was engaged a consider-
able time In doing so. She declared that "before she
closed her eyes In this world' she considered it right to
gate the truth. She then declared that her difficulties were
first created by contracting a loan, for which she had to pay
exorbitant interest, suit that, when she resorted to baby
farming, she thought she should be able to gain enough to
support herself. She said she pleaded guilty to obtaining
money by false pretences, and admitted she had " laid
down" the dead bodies of live infants, but she declared
that they all died of convulsions or cliarrhies, and the first
that ehe so "laid down" was In March last. She said
that if she had not given the children proper food it was
an error of judgment, and declared most positively that
she never gave the children any food that was sour.
She said she thought It was Very bard that she
should be blamed for the deaths of the children who
died in the workhouse no long afterwards- and with re-
gard to keeping the children clean, she said that she some-
times paid as much as I.on a week for wuhing, besides the
washing that was done at home. She employed a wet nurse for
" baby Cowen " lie did not die until he had been away from her
a fortnight, and she said she considered it very hard that she
should be made responsible for his death under such circum-
stances. She sold she perfectly understood why this case
had been "got sip," and sail she considered the parents of
Illegitimate children who wanted to get rid of them by any
means were more to blame than persons like herself, who
took the charge if them, and said that If there were no
parents of this class, there would be no "baby-farmer,,"
Tune a-ere the material points in her statement, and she
again asserted that she never intended to destroy the lives of
the children.

The culprit slept very little on Monday night, and the
Rev. Mr. Jessopp was with her soon after seven o'clock on
Tuesday morning, and remained with her till the last mo-
ment. She was engaged in prayer down to the time of Cal-
craft, the executioner, being ii troduced to her cell. She did
not betray any emotion while undergoing the operation of
pinionir g. and appeared to have recovered all the firmness that
characterised her during the t lel. A procession, consisting of
Mr Abbott, the under sheriff upon whom devolved the painful
duty of carrying out the preliminaries for the execution). the
governor, and some of the gaol officials, was formed, and the
culprit was brought through the residence of the matron,
which adjoin, the prison, to the place of execution. She
walked with a firm step, and after the rope had been
adjusted, she. In a calui, composed tone, uttered what
was described by all who heard it, as a most beautiful
extempore prayer, and expressed a fervent hope that she
might be saved. She then shook hands with the Rev. Mr.
lessopp, and sail in a firm voice, " Good bye, Mr. Jeuopp,
good bye, good bye." She alao shook hands with Calera' t
and one of the prison warders, who was standing near her;
and, upon the bolt being drawn, the drop fell, and she ap-
peared to be dead almost Instantaneously.
The black flag was hoisted over the prison gate : and at ten
o'clock the body was cut down. The usual formalities of an
Inquest having been gone through, it was buried within the
prison walls.
" " .

"-ii;;c-o;;;ICt was tbirty-nve years of age, slim In figure, and
allttle below the average height. If er features as seen ou
her trial were regular and somewhat pleasing In expression,
00110 since much chanced by the effects of grief, and she
was a woman far above the average of her class in

Whilst on this painful subject, It may not be out of place
to remark, that the Impressi,n, which has so often been con-
tradicted, that the Swereign has the painful duty of signing
the warrant for the execution of every capital convict,
appears to be still entertained by persons who are ignorant
of the course taken in these matters. It may, there-
fore, be as well to state that no such document as a
death-warrant exists in practice, and the erly formality
carried out if that the Clerk of the C ,urt before whom
the primmer is tried draws ups statement of the fact of the
Conviction of the prisoner, and the sentence ordered to be
carried out; and this order is transmitted to the sheriff of
the county or place within which the offence was Cone-
milted, audit is his duty to carry out the sentence. No re-
port Is even made to the coroner in reference to the case
of any prlaoner who receives sentence of death.