The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY E,VENING, SEPTEMBER 12, 1863.

The Discovery of Bodies in Whitechapel

Church,

INQUEST THIS DAY.

This morning Mr. Humphrey, the coroner for East Mid-
dlesex, held an inquiry at the Angel Inn, Whitechvel, in
reference to the deaths of the boe ies found in the roof and
belfry of Whitechapel Church.

Mr. Mitchell, solicitor, appeared cn the part of the Rev.
Mr. Cohen, the rector, and the churchwardens, and ex-
pressed their disgust at the facts which had transpired, and
assured the coroner that every means should be taken to
prosecute a thorough investigation. He added that still-
born children were never buried in the churchyard at
Whitechapel.
Charles 'Wolfe, of 62, High street, Whitechapel, said he
remembered a man named Smith. They called him '• Bill
Smith." He had seen him about the churchyard. It was
about three years ago. One evening he saw Smith go into
the church with a black bag. There appeared to be some-
thing in it. He bad no reason to form an opinion that the
bag contained a child's coffin. He had thought nothing
more about the matter.
Joseph Bradley, of 37, Great Hill-street, plumber, said
he had been an undertaker, in fact he was born an under-
taker. (Laughter.) His father and brothers had been under-
takers.
The Coroner said he was lucky in getting such evidence.
It was difficult to get evidence from present undertakers—
they were obliged to go to the past.

51 501
431
25

1251

661
113

101 i
1014

1201

Witness said it was the custom of the undertakers to
hand over stillborn children to the sextons to be buried
where they could. Parents did not generally follow still-
borne to the grave. It was not usual to have certificates
with stillborns. As far as he was aware, it was not the
duty of the undertakers to ascertain in any way whether a
child brought to them was a stillborn. The undertakers
relied upon the statements made by parents and nurses.
There was a keen contest amongst undertakers for business,
and no doubt that sometimes young children were buried at
unreinunerative prices. Of course if an undertaker could
save the coffin and burial fees he would be the more in
pocket.

1001 II 1001

88 7k

Ni} i

By Mr. Mitchell—He never heard of certificates being
given for stillborn children. He had had no experience
since the passing of the Burials Act, but he did not believe
the practice had been in any way altered.

Mr. Mitchell-:—lt is evidently a very loose practice.
Mrs. Allen, who was called on a previous occasion, said
she thouglA she could recognise the man who fetched away
her child (one of those found), and four very doleful Icok-
ing men were introduced, but she failed to identify either
PI I of them.

George Shakes, of Hayfield-lane, Mile-end Old Town,
engine-keeper, said he was formerly employed by Mr, Can-
ham, an undertaker. He had taken a good many children
from Mr. Canham's shop to Bow Cemetery. He never took
any to Whitechapel. How they came to Canham's he
did not know. Sometimes people used to bring stillborn
children to Mr. Canham's house themselves. In all cases
they were given up to the gravedigger. Half-a •crown was
the general fee at the Cemetery for a stillborn, so that a
parent would save 7s. 6d. on burying a child as a stillborn.
Sometimes he had a certificate, but he never thought it
worth while to look at them. He could read a little, but
he had no idea by whom the certificates were signed.
John Davis Pilly, an undertaker, of Wellington place,
Stepney, said he had occasionally gone, on funerals, for Mr.
Canham. One he fetched from Calvert's Brewery, in
Thames street, but he did not know what became of it.
Another he had he took to Bow Cemetery. With the last
he had a certificate, which he gave up at the office when he
paid the fees. He could not say whether it was signed by
a midwife. He sometimes received stillborns on his own
account. He fetched them from the people's houses. If a
stillborn were brought by a midwife he did not know that
he should refuse it—in fact, he would take it. If he gave
credit for a stillborn ;t would be 7s. 6d. ; if the people
paid
prompt, it would be 6e. He paid 3e, 6d. for fees, and
the coffin cost about ls, 9d.
By Mr. Mitchell—He never buried children in a church-
yard closed by order in council, nor any other churchyard.
Robert Dormer, of Bancroft-terrace, Mile-end-road, un-
dertaker, said he used to assist Mr. Canham. He fancied
he fetched two bodies from Mrs. Allen's house in Bedford-
street. The last one he fetched away about ten o'clock on
a Saturday night. He left it at Mr. Canham's, and did not
know what became of it. ft was not an usual thing to
fetch still-borne from the parents' houses. Sometimes an
undertaker would take a shell and bring the body away
and keep it in his house until he had a funeral. He could
not say whether the children brought away were still-born.
A Juror—Children might be murdered and -taken away
in this way.

Witness—He did not know any case in which a child was

tnauhgk tee usual
s a bag
without a shell. In such cases children were
p
or wrapped up in anything that was handy.
T
sualacharge for burying a stillborn was 6s 6d, includ-
The Coroner—Does it not sometimes happen that when
i3in6d for the ground.
an adult Is to ho buried a child is put in sbe sam e uufark ?
Witness—I never did it, but I have heard of its being
done in the trade.

The Coroner—ln that case the 3a 6d for the ground would
be saved ? Witness—Yes, it would.
William Barker, an undertaker, who said he was an
undertaker and patronised." Victoria," had worked for Mr.
Canham. He knew that stillborns and adults were brought
to the establishment. He had known nurses come for
shells and bring stillborns back. Mostly a paper was
brought with them, but he did not know whether it was a
certificate, or by whom it was signed. He had never seen
more than two or three stillborns there at a time. For Mr.
Canham he had buried about three dozen stillborns a year,
but Mr. Canham was not his largest employer. He made
about 150 coffins for stillborns a year for Mr. Canham and
others. When he was at Mr. Canham's he saw many still-
borns come in, but he never knew how they went out. Of
500 coffins he made in the year 50 were for stillborns. The
very lowest he could charge for a stillborn was 4s. 6d. up to
a pound, if he could get it. He paid 2s. 6d. at the Vic-
toria for the ground. He fetched the bodies from the house
and took them to the cemetery. When nurses or others
brought bodies in a shell they were fastened up, and the
undertakers did not consich r it to be their business to in-
quire whether they were stillborn or not. Certificates were
brought, but if a certificate was signed '• Anne Thompson,
midwife," the undertakers would accept it without inquiry.
It would not pay them to go to inquire whether there was
any " Anne Thompson," or if there were, if she was a mid-
wife. _

Thesswan and in
r ewm hai
aCsocrooruccteenddbeymnuenddtehr eta lkaexr
wayrckhetdhsetebrunsliy-
upon the way in which bodies of children were disposed of
without any examination whether they were born or not.
He thought the jury might come to the conclusion that the
busi-
ness
bodies had been in the church two years and upwards, but
that there was no direct tes:Amony as to how they were
placed there. He did not think that violence of any kind
had been offered to the bodies, but that they had been
placed where they were found to save the burial fees and
with the connivance of some one connected with White-
chapel church. With regard to the low cutting under-
takers who buried fsr 4s. 6d. or 55., he believed ho might,
without disrespect to that business, express his opinion that
they frequently dropped bodies about the streets to avoid
the expenses of coffins and burial grounds, leaving g those
who were fortunate enough to find the bodies the responsi-
bility of burying them. He could not in any other way
account for the large number of childrens' bodies constantly
found about the streets. It was impossible that any under-
taker could possibly undertake to bury a child for 4s. 6d.,
when he had to pay 2s. 6d. or 3s. for the ground and some-
thin g for the coffin.
The jury then deliberated on their verdict with closed
doors for about half an hour.
On the admission of strangers to the room the jury
found, the verdict being only on one child, that the said
female child, being of a tender age, to wit, of the age of
about three months, was founi dead on the roof of 'White-
chapel Church. And the said jurors do further say,
from the decomposed state of the body, the evidence
fails to prove the cause of death. They also
added these words, that the jury finding from the
evidence that it was the practice of undertakers to receive
certificates of still-born children from midwives, or any
other women, they feel that the perpetration of abortion
and infanticide may be facilitated by such a practice, and
suggest that any person burying, or assisting to bury,
without a certificate from a legalized or qualified resident
parishioner, or registered midwife, shall incur thereby a pe-
nalty of the law as in caves of misdemeanour. They also declare
their opinion that the sexton of whitechapel has been
guilty of great irregularity in secretly burying still-born
children without certificates, as well as of culpable negli-
gence in his want of the care of the church for which ho
is responsible, an entrance to which he knows is entirely
with himself. They recornmennd that ;the various officers
represent their recommendation to the Secretary of State
for the Home Department.

A VI ORS TO RAILWAY DIRECTORS.—AII in-
conveniences would be remedied if our companies
would consent to the simple expedient of establishing some
means of communication between the passengers and the
guards. Mechanically, there is absolutely no difficulty
about such an arrangement. In the United States the
contrivance employed is of the simplest. A. cord runs from
car to car, fastened by loops to the roofs. The guard at the
end of the train can stop the engine at once by jerking the
cord a certain number of times, and the passengers can
summon the guard at any moment by pulling it. More-
over, as each car contains from twenty to sixty people,
according to the fulness of the train, no mischievous or
nervous passenger can stop the train 'without sufficient
cause. If he did so, Lis fellow-travellers would be there to
report him. There is really no reason, however, why, with
certain modifications, a similar plan should not be intro-
duced here. If the footboard alongside our carriages were
made a little broader, and projected a foot or so beyond the
carriage, and if a stout rail was fixed to the side of each
compartment, a guard might walk with perfect safety from
carriage to carriage, no matter what the speed of the train
might be. It is done in Belgium, and might be done
equally well in England,--Once a Week.

------:----
Quadruple Execution at Liverpool—This Day.

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
LIVERPOOL, Sept. 12.

The interest and excitement as to the ultimate fate of the
four condemned murderers lying at Kirkdale have been in-
oternowds of p
se duringeopthlee,
manylast
of whom
.Yeastpepredaaryedatfotehrnevoe madeon, largea
pilgrimage from the manufacturing towns, were upon the
ground in front of the scaffold, the preparations of the
workmen, and the ghastly ceremonial for which they were
preparing, appearing to afford abundant material for specu-
lation and gossip. In fact, so large was the crowd, that a
visitor inquired if there was about to be a " rehearsal"
of the spectacle of to-day. The weather being
favourable great numbers, desiring to have " front
places," encamped for the night upon the ground.
As an immense concourse of spectators were eepeeted, bar.
riers of great strength were erected, and an unusually large
police force was stationed at the gaol, and in its vicinity.
The spectators at the execution of Taylor, it is believed,
numbere'l 80,000; and, though there was not that intense
and peculiar interest which distinguished his ewe attaching
to any of the four murderers executed to-day, yet, from the
fact that a quadruple execution for separate crimes was un-
precedented in Liverpool, there was an equal, if not greater,
number of people. The criminals, from inquiries made
last evening, were as resigned as could be expected
from men in their dreadful situation, and Alvarez
and Thomas appeared to have changed their somewhat
callous and indifferent bearing which they at one time
manifested. Alvarez had been visited by the Spanish
Consul and Vice Consul at Liverpool, who communicated
to him the unsuccessful result of the efforts made to ob-
tain a reprieve in„his case. Mr. Godwin, of St. Anthony's
Catholic Church, had also spent a good deal of
time with Alvarez. Thomas received the information
that the efforts made in his favour had been fruitless with
more composure than was anticipated. It may be remem-
bered that he had feigned madness during his trial, but his
conduct during the past week confirmed the opinion of the
surgeon of the gaol that his mind was never affected. Mr.
Hughes and Mr. Saunders, two Welsh Dissenting mini-
sters, have been in frequent attendance upon him, and
took the greatest interest in his case. He was seen
two or three days ago by a former schoolfellow, who called
again at the gaol yesterday afternoon, hut as Thomas ex-
pressed a disinclination to see him, Captain Gibbs, the
Governor, did not allow an interview. O'Brien had no
visits from friends or relatives, but had been most assi-
duously cared for by the Rev. Mr. Gibson, the Catholic
chaplain of the gaol. Hughes had received visits from two
of his brothers, and from a daughter by his first wife. Cal-
craft arrived yesterday afternoon. At no former execution
at Kirkdale have more than two criminals been hung, and
no foreigner has previously been executed there. The
usual preliminaries having been gone through, the proces-
sion slowly wended its way towards the scaffold; and Cal-
craft having adjusted the rope on each of the culprits, they
were in a few moments launched into eternity. The im-
mense crowd shortly afterwards dispersed. The bodies
having hung the usual time they were taken down, and
were be buried within the precincts of the gaol.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

UNPROVOKED ASSAULT.—Henry Wallace, of 18, Queen-
street, Grosvenor-square, a tin plate worker, was charged
before Mr. Tyrwhitt with the following unprovoked assault
on Mr. Thomas Taylor, of the Albion tavern, Duke-street,
Grosvenor-square, and William Wyatt, porter, of James-
street, was charged with creating a disturbance.
Mr. Taylor said the defendants came into his house
yesterday evening and made use of very bad language.
They then caused such a disturbance that he was obliged
to put them out of his house, and as soon as he had done
so, Wallace gave him a severe blow in the face, deluging
him in blood. (Mr. Taylor exhibited his apron, and it was
completely saturated with blood )
Phipps, 126 C, said he saw the two defendants in Duke-
street, Wyatt with his coat off, challenging every one to
fight, and as Wyatt refused to go away he took him into
custody, Woodger, 159 C, taking Wallace.
Mr. Wm. Hughes, of 99, Carnaby-street, proved seeing
Wallace both strike and kick Mr. Taylor, the only mison
for doing so being that Mr. Taylor put him (Wallace) out
of the house for using bad language.
Mr. Tyrwhitt said the assault on Mr. Taylor who, of
course, did not like to have a disturbance in his house, was
a mcst unprovoked one. He should fine Wallace 40s. or a
month, and Wyatt, ss. or 7 days.