The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-02-03 00:00:00

A MISCHIEVOUS SERVANT.

At the Central Criminal Court, in London, Esther Elking-
ton, aged fifteen, was indicted for feloniously setting fire to
a dwelling-house.
The prisoner had lived as a servant in the house of
Alfred Richard Brogden, in Theobahrs-road, Holborn.
On a morning in January, about four o'clock, Mr.
Brogden was awoke by the wife of a lodger named
Guthrie, a compositor, who was dying of consumption
on the second floor, and from what she said he went
downstairs to the back parlour, and found the window.
curtains all burnt, an arm-chair on tire, and also the
bottom bar of a little fancy table. In a cupboard
the remains of some paper with three pieces of
charred wood on it were found; some of the floor
swas burning, and the wood lining of the window
had been charred. A child's chair had been burn-
ing, but the fire had gone out. The prosecutor went
to the prisoner's bedroom, the door of which he found
ajar; she was partly dressed, having her night-dress
over her ordinary clothes. She was standing in the
room when he went in. Being asked if he could
account for the fire, She replied she knew nothing
about it, and that somebody must have come in and
done it. He said it was very strange, the room had
been on fire in different places; and he sent for
a constable. The prisoner's room asljoined that
in which the tire occurred. The prosecutor, his
wife, and children slept on another floor. In reply
to the constable who had been brought, she said
she had opened the cupboard to get some sugar for a
cup of tea she had made, having a piece of lighted
paper in her hand, and as she was looking for the
sugar she dropped the paper. The prisoner's box was
found in her room ready packed for removal, and there
was liOnle tea in it. The prosecutor had left I.od, in
copper in his till over night which was missing in the
monili,g, and exaetly that sum in copper was found in
her box. Inside the cupboard a child's money-box,
containing about d:2, was kept, and that was also mis-
sing, except a piece of it which was found among the
charred furniture. The fire was. discovered by Anne
Guthrie, the wife of the lodger, who in the dead of
night had occasion to get up to attend her dying hits.
basil, Perceiving the upper part of the house full of
smoke she took a lamp and went downstairs, where
she found the prisoner under the circumstances de-
scribed. On being searched at the police-station ss. 4d.
in silver and Gs. 71. in clipper were found upon the
prisoner.
The prisoner, who had no counsel, occasionally de-
murred to some parts of the evidence for the prose-
cution, lint made no defence.
The jury returned a verdict of Guilty, accompanied
by an expression of opinion that she was totally
ignorant of the consequences of the crime, and re-
commending her to mercy.
The Deputy-Recorder told the prisoner, in passing
sentence, she had been guilty of a most serious offence,
which was for many years capital, and was now
punishable with penal seri itude. She must have
known the possible consequences of her act,
though he did not suppose she intended de-
liberately to destroy the inmates. Her object was to get
away with the things she had stolen. As it was, how-
ever, she had run the greatest risk of committing
murder. There was at the time an unhappy man
dying of consumption, on the second story, and her
inaster and iniatreas, with their children, were sleeping
upstairs. She, on the other hand, in the dead
of night, was wickedly prowling about the house,
taking what she could steal, and, still more wickedly,
setting tire to the house. Nothing could be more
wanton or diabolical, and, in addittiou to that she had
never exhibited the least remorse since the commission
of the crime. He sentenced her to be kept in penal
servitude for seven years.