The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-12 00:00:00

DEATH IN BOLTON WORKHOUSE THROUGH
VIOLENCE.

VERDICT OF WILFUL MURDER.

On Thursday evening an enquiry was instituted at the
Bolton workhouse, before Mr. Johh Taylor, coroner, and
a respectable jury, touching the death of an old woman,
70 years of age, named Isabella Lougworth. Deceased
was a widow, and formerly kept the Victory publie.house
in Halliwell, but for the last ;seven months had been an
inmate of the lunatic ward in the workhouse, she being of
weak intellect. It appeared from the evidsnce of Esther
Ashcroft. nurse in charge of the female idiotic and insane
inmates, that the deceased slept in a room partitioned off
from .a room occupied by a lunatic namel Nancy Horrocks,
and it was necessary to go through Horrocks's room to
the deCeasecrs. •The bedroom door of deceased's had the
bolts on, and also a lock, but the lock was not used ; the
bolts, which were outside the .door, but in Horrocks's
bedroom, were, however., bolted on Saturday' night, as
usual, and the door of llorrocks's was also bolted and
locked by the nurse, so that, although neither of these
inmates could get out into the ward, there was nothing to
prevefit'llorrocks from 'unbolting the room of the deceased
and going in. It appears that about three o'clock on
Sunday morning the nurse, whilst attending a dying
woman in another morn, heard a scream proceeding from
the deceased's room, and on going there found the
deceased lying on the floor, and the lunatic Horrocks
standing beside her in an excited state. Deceased was
crying out, " Oh, dear, she's jumped on me I" and on the
nurse asking Horrocks what she had been doing, she came
out with an oath and said, " Oh, she's not kilt yet I she's
not kilt yet I" 'Deceased had been mach injured about
the breast and shoulders, as. if Ahe had been dragged out
of bed and violently abused. Deeeased was got into bed,
and Horrocks was removed. Deceased has not since
been able to glee any sensible account of the occurrence,
nor has Horrocks, her only reply to any question being,
" Oh, she's not dead yet I" About ten o'clock on Sunday
forenoon deceased was removed to the hospital, where
she died about one o'clock on Thursday morning. Mr.
Fergusson, medical officer to the workhouse, said, that in
his opinionS-deeeaSed-ehuld hot-have lived - long from the
amount of disease previnualy existing, but it was difficult
to say whether the violence she had received had
shortened life; but there was a strong probability that
the shock on one hand, and the violence, on the other,
.may have hastened death. The jury agreed to adjourn,
that a post mortem examination..of the body of deceased
might. be-made by Dr. Chadwick; and on Saturday Dr.
Chadwick reported that he had made a post mortem
examination of the-body in the presence of Mr. Fergusson.
Dr. Fergusson, Dr. Settle, and his own assistant, and
had found various external injuries. His opinion was
that with the disease of the brain deceased suffered from
She could not have lived very hug; but she might have
been living now, and he attributed her death 'to the
external injuries. The coroner then summed up, and the
jury, after consulting for a few minutes, unani.nopsly
agreed to' a-verdict of "Wilful murder" against Nancy
Horrocks, who will consequently have to take her trial
-on the charge at the next Liverpool assizes.