The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-01 00:00:00

AN INCORRIGIBLE IMPOSTOR,

Wolverhampton would seem to be fatal to impostors.
Here the notorious Alice Grey was committed to the aseizes,
from which she was sent to penal servitude ; a few months

ago another female impostor, who had feigned illness and
alleged that she had been robbed in railway trains, was
committed from the same town; and now a third Alice Grey
has been effectually stopped for a while in her extraordinary
career. Yesterday in the Wolverhampton borough police-
court a young woman named Mary Ann Jones, alias Hutton,
alias Williams, alias Taylor, who had been remanded from
that day week, was again brought up, charged with being an

imposter.
Capt. Segrave, the chief constable—l have made inqui-
ries about the prisoner, and hold in my hand a number of
letters which I have received from nearly all parts of Eng-
land. Her history seems a long one, and it proves her to be

a rogue and a vagabond beyond any room for doubt.
John Chidley, chief warder at the Stafford gaol, deposed
that he knew the prisoner had been committed to that pri-
son seven times. On the first occasion, on Oct. 3d, 1861,
she was sent for a month's imprisonment as a disorderly
pauper. Ile did not remember where she had been commit-
tal from in this or any of the cases, as he had come away
with little notice.

The prisoner—From Burslem.
Witness—On the 13th Nov., 1861, she was sent to prison
for 21 days as a rogue and vagabond. On the 11th of the
following December she was sentenced to three months for
want of sureties. On the 19th of March, 1863, she was com-
mitted for a month under the Vagrant Act. Aftor being out
about a day she was sent back also for a month, likewise for
being a rogue and vagabond. On the 25th May, again
under the Vagrancy Act, she was sent to prison for three
months ; and on the 31st of last month she was committed

as a rogue and vagabond for 21 days.
Police- constable Henry Tew stated that about half-past 4
on Sunday morning he was on duty in Queen-street, and
saw the prisoner standing at the top of Princess-street.
Hearing her groan very much, he went and asked her what
she was doing there. lie could get no reply further than
that she came from Stoke, and that she would go and drown
herself. She subsequently sat down on a step and appeared
to go into hysterics, and although he put many questions,he
could get no satisfactory answers. He at length took her to
the station, and she then said she had run away from Bur-
lem with a young man, who had deserted her near Wolver-
hampton. Judging from the smell of her breath that she
had taken poison, he sent for a surgeon, and the result was
that it appeared she had taken something of the sort.
Mr. T. H. Wolfington, surgeon, and assistant to Mr.
Dehane, surgeon to the police, deposed that he was sent for
by the police on Sunday morning, the 20th inst., to the
police-office, where he found the prisoner attempting to
vomit. In reply to him she said she had taken some powder
as a poison. He gave her an emetic and afterwards several
nauseous draughts. The emetic produced a slight vomiting,
and the nauseous draughts cleared the stomach. The pri-
soner appeared very ill, and being himself alarmed, he called
several times during the day. She appeared better after she
had taken the medicine, and calling him aside said a young
man had given her the powder to obviate the consequences
of previous misconduct, and that she was likely in five or six
months to become a mother. Yesterday morning, however,
on the instruction given by the Mayor a week ago, he made
an examination which enabled him to state positively that
she was not in that condition.
The prisoner declined to put any question to either of the
witnesses.
The Chief Constable said there was an officer present who
could depose that there was no such person in Burslem as
the imaginary young man charged by the prisoner with the
offence named. It was not thought necessary to examine
this witness.
Mr. Iremonger then read to the prisoner certain of the
communications that had been received by the police autho-
rities. From those documents it was gathered that the pri-
soner's name is Mary Ann Hutton. She is the daughter of
respeetablelworking people of Burslem; for some time she
lived as servant in the family of an uncle, who is a grocer
in that town, but she absconded about six years since.
Nothing was again heard of her until about two years ago,
when she was found 17 the roadside at Stone by Mr. R.
S. Adderley, who having been told by her that she had
been violated by three men at Trentham, took her in his
carriage to the Stone Workhouse. The abominable charge
was proved to be unfounded, and she afterwards con-
fessed as much. We next hear of her in the city of Chester,
where she made a somewhat similar charge, and was de-
tected, but being destitute, the magistrate only sent her to
the workhouse. At Eliza Ann Williams she has also been
in the custody of the county police of Chester, on the charge
of feigning fits in the streets of Tarporley, in that county.
For this offence she was imprisoned four days. She is well
known at the General Railway Station at Chester, from
which place, after feigning fits, she was taken to the Chester
Infirmary. Because of her celebrity, the Chester police
had her photographed, and the likeness was yesterday pro-
duced in court. The prisoner was evidently the original,
notwithstanding her effort, by closing her eyes when the
photographer was before her. to disguise her identity. At
midnight on the 22d of May this year a young woman was
found in the streets of Eccleshall, in Staffordshire. She
appeared very much excited, and said " I will destroy my-
self. Oh I I wish I had never done it." She was ap-
parently in great pain, gave her name as Mary Ann Taylor
Hutton, of Burslem, but would not say what she had done.
She was searched, had refreshment given to her, and was
put into a cell for safety. On the next morning she ap-
peared very ill, and Mr. Greatrex, surgeon, was sent for.
She told him that she had taken arsenic that had been
purchased at Shiffnal, in Shropshire. Every attention was
paid to her on Saturday. On Saturday morning she seemed
a great deal worse, and Mr. Greatrex was again called in.
She told him she had taken more arsenic, which she had
concealed in her stays. Mr. Hawthorne, another medical
man, was sent for, and they both considered that her depo-
sition should be taken. Accordingly, the magistrates (Mr.
E. Lyon and Mr. H. Hillick) were called out of church to
be present, when the clerk took down her statement. On
Monday morning Policeman Keith saw her in the cell,
and at once recognised her as the woman whom Mr.
Adderley found on the roadside at Trentham, and further-
more showed that three months after that time, when a
keeper on the Trentham estate had been nearly killed
by poachers, she alleged that she could give evidence
which would secure the conviction of the offenders, and a
house pointed out by her at their rendezvous was searched,
only, however, to prove an imposture. This evidence the
officer gave before the magistrate on that (Monday) morn-
ing, and they committed the now fully-recovered impostor
for three months' imprisonment. Since that time she has
been further imprisoned by order of certain of the Pottery
magistrates. We next hear of her in the South Staffordshire
Hospital, at Wolverhampton, to which place she had been
conveyed from the adjacent village of Mosley on the 11th
of last March, alleging that she had been poisoned, &c.;
but Mr. Keogh, the house surgeon, who had detected a
similar case a few months before, soon discovered the cha-
racter of his patient, and she was discharged on the follow-
ing day. Although she gave,the name of Mary Ann Taylor
Hutton, yet Mr. Keogh has identified the prisoner as one
and the same person. On the 12th of March last, the very
day she was sent from the 'Wolverhampton Hospital, aMary
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