The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-15 00:00:00

rturb 92bition

TIIE MURDER in HARLEY-STREET

. MAIIYIEBONE POLICE COURT.
(THIS I)AY.)
Sarah Drake, the woman charged with the murder
of Lewis Drake, her own child, eged two years, was
again brought before Mr.• Long, this afternoon, at
the Marylebone Police court, to undergo a re-exami•
nation. She is about forty years of age, with a some-
what ugly expression of features—was respectably
dressed, and seemed deeply impressed with the awful
nature of her position. 7 She held a white handker-
chief to her eyes, and appeared to be crying
during the whole of the inquiry. Being in a
weak state of health, she was accommodated
with a seat at the request of her solicitor.
The singular circumstances attending the dispoial
of the child after its murder, and the fact of it having
been insinualcd that this was not the firit offence of
this nature the woman has committed, have invested
the case with a good deal of interest, and some time
before she was.placed in the dock the court was
thronged with eager levers of the horrible and mys-
terious, while the various approaches to it were
equally besieged with well dressed people, including
many females, who were unable to obtain admission.
llerring, the solicitor, attended to watch the
case for the prisoner.
Mr. boNG sail the first thing to be done was to
read over the deposition,, to give the prisoner's soli-
citor an opportunity of cross-eLlnining the wit-

TIC sses.
The depositions of the two officers who arrrste
the prisoner were read over and signed withou
an observation.
It will be remetnbered that Thomas Kinder, the
superintendent of the Nottingham constabulary, at
East Retford, deposed to the finding of the bax ut
North Leverton, containing the body of the child,
while Sergeant Whitcher, of the detective police, 27
A, spoke to the arrest of the prisoner at the residence
of F. Huth, Esq., 33, Upper Harley street, in whose
service the prisoner had lived as housekeeper and
cook, when she asked him how he knew that she
had murdered her child. Mary Anne Wignell,
the housemaid in the same service, stated that the
prisoner entered upon her situation on the Monday
wet k previous to the first examination, and a
few days afterwards a woman named Johnson
called at the house in Harley-street with a child,
which was never seen to leave it again. George
Glass, the butler, wrote the direction for the box, and
the footman took it to the station at Euston square.
The female searcher of the Marylebone police station
spoke to a conversation she had with the prisoner on
the night of her arrest, in the course of which she con-
fessed having murdered the child. This was the
substance of the depositions.
The first witness examined to-day was Mrs. John-
son, the female who had brought up the child. She
deposed as follows :—My name is Jane Johnson. I
am a married woman, and my husband is a policeman,
living at Shirely-common, near Croydon. I knoa
the prisoner at the bar. It is two years next January
since I first saw her. She was introduced to me
through a Miss Harrington, who lives at
Chelsea, and I agreed to take the child to
nurse fur six shillings per week. The money
was to be paid, and all communication on the subject
of the child was to pass through Miss Harrington.
At this time the child was called Lewis, and was
about three months old, and I was to bring it up as
my own. At the end of the mouth the prisoner canoe
and paid me 245. for the support of ;the child. After
that I received three letters from her, which
she signed with the name of Jarine. I
have fourteen letters in all, but with the ex-
ception of those I have named they are
signed with the name of Mary Drake. In time the
child was taken ill, and at the request of the prisoner,
who stated that its father was a Catholic, it was
baptised by a Roman Catholic clergyman as Lewis.
I then understood that the prisoner went to
Northampton, where she remained till August, when
the prisoner came over to my house and proposed to
take the child away to got it into a Catholic institu-
tion in France, where its father had beensbrought up.
She owed me at this time 11/. 12s. She then took the
child away, and I did not expect it would return
again. I went with Mrs. Drake to the Croydon sta-
tion and she paid her passage to Dover, and went
away by the train, taking the child with her. This
was on a Friday morning. On the following Saturday,
between eleven and twelve o'clock, she came to our
house in a cab. I was in bed at the time, but got up
and again received the child. She tokl me she had
been to a doctor, and he had ordered the child medi-
cine for water in the head, and it would not live long.
She said she would not take him away any more, it
I would but keep him, and I said " Very well ;" and
she gave me 113. in liquidation of the old debt. 1
told her that I would keep him for ss. a week from that
time, and she agreed to that. I did not see her
again, but received several letters from her at diffe
rent times, enclosing various sums of money. On
the 27ili November 1 received the letter I now pro.
duce, dated the 26th of November, which 1 believe
to be in the prisoner's handwriting.—(The letter
stated that she was going to Madrid with a family,
and as she could not afford to maintain the
child any linger, it was to go on the parish.)
In consequence of that letter I went to Edward street,
Dorset-square, to try and hear where she had gone.
From intormation I received there, I went to Upper
Harley-street, but I did not know the number. This
was on the 27th of November, in the evening, but
I did not succeed in finding the prisoner. On the
28th I went again and found her at Upper Harley-
street, at the corner of the New road. I brought up
the child with me, and I saw the prisoner in the
housekeeper's room. She said in consequence of what
she had heard the night before, she was not going
abroad. I said "don't say that, for I believe you had
no intention of going." She replied "I think the
family have put it off till April or May." She said
she thought the child was looking very much better,
and had got stout since ske saw it last. I said he was
quite well and a very hearty eater, and I could not
keep it any longer, as it was the second time she bad
deceived me. She asked me to take him back again
for a week or so till she could get soma one to take
care of him. I told her no; I must leave the child with
her. She was at this time indebted to me 91. 10e.
She took off the hat end coat of the child, and then
came to the street door with me, where I told her
that my husband intended to summon her for the
money. I went up the area steps, and she called
after me to know huw much it was. Istold her, and
then left. t day was Thursday. I saw her
again on thelVlday in the housekeeper's room, and
she asked me if I had received her letter. I told
her no, and said I have brought the child's things
with a note in it from my husband, and also the bill.
She said very well, I will look at them by and by.
She said she had got the child out to nurse
without any one knowing it was here, at a
friend's, who would lend her the money. I then
went home and there I found a letter from the pri •
sour, which I now produce, stating that she would
pay the money in January. Last Saturday morning
I went down to North Leverton where I saw the body
of a child, which I am quite certain is that of the
child I brought up and received from the prisoner.
1 saw some of its clothes—the same it had on when .1
left it with the prisoner. I can swear to them (the
clothes were produced and identified by the witut ss.
I had been in the habit of calling the child by the
name of Lewis Drake.
The Solicitor who appeared for the prisoner, pest.
poncd his cross-examination till he had had an op-
portunity of reading the letters.
Mr. LONG agreed to this, observing that it was
impossible the case could be tried at the next session.
Mr. WILLIAM HALL, of South Retford, deposed as
follows :—I am a coachman, driving a coach from
Newark to East Retford. On the 30th of November
Ireceived a box, to be taken by my coach. I got it
not from the station at Newark, but through a Mr.