The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-19 00:00:00

Neglect of a Family in St, Luke's,

Yesterday Mr John Humphreys, Middlesex MO
ner, resuincd at the Green Gate Tavern, Cityaroadf
the aajoarm.4 inquiry respecting the death from
starvation and r;olect, at the hands of the mother,
of Sarah Blake, aged two years, and the second
inquest was opened on view of the body of
Blake, aged two months, wt.? died from the same
cause.
It appeared that the mother of the
deceased chil-
ben was a married woman, living apaat from her
husband, who cohabits with another women. She
was an artificial florist, and she cohabited with a
person of the same trade, named Beamen. Her six
children were left by her in a room, first in Bishop's-
court, Clerken well, and then in Pearrstreet, St
Luke's, without furniture or bedding, and almost
without food. They were found by the parish au-
thorities dying from starvation and neglect, and the
•"4 Sarah died almost immediately.
I
-on said that the infant deceased was the
Mr A-"-- -crs Blake,af . and was unnamed. It was
daughter of Da.. •,u tuefather being a potman
an illegitimate en,.--
named Wright.
at. the workhouse of Si'.
nurse Honors Lyons, admitted on the
albs undercloth-
Luke's, said that the infant WA:
washing.
2§th of June, ill and exhausted.
ing was pasted to the skin for want or
Everything was done to tzave its life, but it hb.,4 not
a thane© of surviving, and it died on the 12th inst.
Mary Ann Blake, a little girl ten years cld
sad to
, said
that she used to get enough to eat. She u
get bread and butter, and sometimes a little sausage
or bacon; but the two little children that were
dead could not eat the bread and water. Until
Sarah got the smallpox she could eat the dry
bread. They slept on the boards.
Dr. E. C. Harris, surgeon to the workhouse, said
that he attended the deceased infant child on ad.
mission. It was very thin, and its eyes were sunk.
It was weak and ill. Witness did all he could to
save its life, but it died on the 12th of July. The
body was very destitute of fat—a circumstance
quite unusual in a child of that age. All the
organs were tolerably healthy. The mother's
neglect was the cause of the loss of the child's life.
There was no disease to cause death if the child
had been carefully tended and fed. Being allowed
to lie on the boards of the room was destruction

to it.
Mrs. Wagstaffe, 4, Bishop's-court, said the chil-
dren lived for three weeks in a room at that house.
They were shockingly neglected and starved, the
mother leaving them for three or four days together.
The girl Sarah was quite wolfish with hunger. The
infant was quite as badly neglected.
It was stated that Beaman, the man with whom
the mother of the children cohabited, and whom she
assioted in his business, made £3 or £4 a-week,and
she had the management of the money for housee,
keeping purposes. The bread which she gave to her
children—four loaves every Wednesday, was fur-
nished by the parish to her. Her husband was in
prison.
The Coroner summed up at length, and
The Jary after a brief deliberation returned a
verdict of manslaughter against Mary Ann Blake
for feloniously killing and slaying Sarah Ann
Blake and another daughter unnamed.
The Coroner then issued his warrant for the de-
tention of the mother in Newgate unstil her trial at
the Central Criminal Court,