The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-12-14 00:00:00

THE CASE OF LADY GOOCH.

In London, on Monday morning, the December sittings for
the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court were opened,
with the usual formalities, at the Sessions House in the Old
Bailey. The Recorder, in his charge to the Gram' Jury, in
referring to the case of Lady Gooch, said:—

They (the Grand Juty) no doubt would be very
familiar with the facts of the case through the ordinary
newspaper channels. Lady Gooch was indicted with
another person with conspiring to pass a supposi-
titious child upon her husband as his child. The
case was an exceedingly curious one. There
was nothing to detect in it because there was nothing
to discover. The whole thing was disclosed at length by
the housekeeper and the medical men of the family—
gentlemen of considerable eminence and long standing
in their profession. To all of them she declared her
intentions. If secrecy was an important element in
a - conspiracy, which it was not, it was entirely
absent in this instance. The case was free from
such secrecy, and in fact the way she set about the
matter, telling the medical gentlemen, the servants,
and others, rendered it impossible that any conspiracy
could for one moment have succeeded. The case, how-
ever, was a peculiar one. It was not an ordinary case
of conspiracy, for secrecy in that case was one of the
ordinary means of distinguishing it. But the diffi-
culty in this case lay in this :—The charge against
the servant, the only charge against her, was that she
had told a story— a wilful lie—with reference to the
birth of the child. She knew that it was not born at
three o'clock in the morning, and yet she said it was.
No doubt she was told to say so. The statement,
however, was utterly untrue, and he repeated that ex-
cept for this fact there was no evidence against her. The
question for them (the Grand Jury)to consider was as to
whether the servant knew when she made it that the ob-
ject was to pass off to Sir Francis Gooch a child as his
own. 'Unless she had a general acquaintance of the scope
and object of the conspiracy there was no case against her.
It was not necessary to give a general support to a scheme
to constitute a conspiracy, that it was mental that
there should be some sort of an agreement or con-
currence with one or other persons to attain a certain
object, whether lawful or unlawful. An agreement
of this kind would be a conspiracy, but in order to
make a person guilty of the offence it must be
shown that they had a knowledge of the design and
that there was a wilful agreeing or concurring to carry
out the design. If in the present case there was
nothing but the fact of this falsehood, he (the
learned Judge) considered that it would be very
difficult to convict. Lady Gooch herself told the
doctors and housekeeper of S ir Fran cis Gooch everything
as to what she intended to do, but unless she told her
servant also there was no evidence of conspiracy.
There was no allegation that she conspired with
any one but this servant. A person could
not conspire with herself, and therefore if they
(the Grand Jury) thought the mere fast of tell-
ing the lie was not sufficient to charge the ser-
vant with the whole object of the alleged conspiracy,
then the case entirely failed, for there was no other
charge but that of conspiracy preferred. The matter,
however, was in the hands of the Grand Jury, who
would have to be guided by the facts.
The Grand Jury were then dismissed to their duties.
It was then arranged that the bill in Lady Gooch's
case should be presented to the Grand Jury on the
next day.

•
On Tuesday the witnesses in support of the charge
against Lady Gooch and her nurse, Anne Walker, of
having conspired together to palm off on her husband,
Sir Francis Gooch, a child other than his own, with
G intent to cheat and deceive him, came before the rand
Jury. After hearing all the evidence that was laid
before them, the Grand Jury came into court and
made the following presentment—" No true bill
against Annie Louisa Gooch and Anne Walker for
misdemeanor." No remark was made, and the Grand
Jury were shortly afterwards dismissed, having com-
pleted their labours.
stet.