The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-01 00:00:00

Inquests on Children Found Dead.

Last evening Dr. Lankester held an inquest in the board
room of the Marylebone Workhouse on the body of a female
child which was found dead under the following circum-
stances:—

Mr. Miller, proprietor of the Hope Pole Tavern, Edgware-
road, deposed that a fortnight ago he had a servant in his
employ named Jane Lovett, aged 19, who had then been in
his service six months. A fortnight ago she was taken ill,
and suspecting she was in the family-way, he sent for Mr.
Grant, surgeon, who merely said she might have had a
miscarriage, but that at that time she was suffering
.from
diarrhoea. As it was probable the girl would be ill for
some time,Mrs.Miller took her toherparents' home,Gotten-
green, in Kent. On arriving at the Sevenoaks station the
girl told Mrs. Miller ,that when she got back to the Hop
Pole she was to look in the far corner of the room, where
she (the girl)had slept, and there she would findsomething.
Mrs. Miller did so, and found the dead body of a female
infant wrapped up in two skirits. He (Mr. Miller) then
gave information to the police.

In answer to the Coroner, witness said his servant worn
a large crinoline, and that was the reoson why she was not
sooner detected.
Dr.Lankester said that as the use of crinolines diminished
so did child murder, and the burning of women diminished
in a like proportion.
Dr. Beak, divisional surgeon, said the child hadleen
dead a fortnight when ho saw it at the Marylebone Work-
house. Since then he had made a post mortem examina-
tion, but although the lungs partly floated in water, the
body was in such a state of decomposition that it was im-
possible to say whether or not it had been born alive. The
child was evidently of the full period of gestation.
Inspector Baldock said that on Saturday last he appre-
hended Jane Levett, on a warrant, at Gotten-green, Kent.
At present she was too ill to attend either at that or the
magistrate's court.
The jury returned an open verdict.

Yesterday morning Mr. Humphreys, coroner for East
Middlesex, held an inquest at the Green Man Tavern, High-
street, Hoxton, upon the body of a male child, supposed to
have been murdered.

Mary Ann Slow said that on Friday evening last she was
paying a visit to a friend in Harland-square, Kingsland-
road. Upon coming away from the house she saw in Dun-
stan-street a parcel lying on the pavement. She went into
a shop and asked the people to take it up and examine it.
They did so, and found that it contained a child. The
police were called, and they carried it away.
H. Williams, 102 N, said that he was called at 9 o'clock
on Friday evening to Dunstan-street. He found a large
crowd assembled looking at the body of a child. It had
been wrapped up in the skirt of a gown of printed cotton
and in a black petticoat. He had not been able to find any
clue to the persons implicated in the affair.
Dr. Gluon Griffith said that he examined the body of the
child. It had been three weeks born, and was therefore very
much decomposed. It was a very fine male child, large and
fully developed. The decomposition was so great that he
was not able to say positively how it came by its death; but
he saw no reason whatever why it should not have lived.
The Coroner said that it was singular that in these cases,
which had become so numerous, no clue, except in one in-
stance, had been obtained to the guilty parties. Under the
circumstances the jury should return an open verdict, but
the police could follow up their inquiries in the matter.
The Jury returned a verdict, " That the-child was found
dead, but how it came by its death the medical evidence,
owing to the decomposition of the body, failed to prove."