The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-08 00:00:00

SHOCKING OCCURRENCE IN

LINCOLNSIIIRE.

BARTON-UPON-HUMBER, SUNDAY.

On the morning of Friday, the 27th ult., an Irish-
man, named Kane, had finished harvesting for Mr.
Spencer, a farmer, the overseer of Horkstow parish,
and bailiff to the I-lon. Mrs. Tufnell. Kane had with
him his wife and six children, four of whom, with the
mother, were ill of fever, and the poor woman was
also in the last stage of pregnancy. About noon on
the above day the woman, feeling the pains of labour
approaching, desired her husband to go to Mr.
Spencer. and obtain his permission or them to re-
main in the stable until the Monday morning.
Spencer refused to allow them to remain there any
longer, and, passing the stable door shortly after,
asked the woman whether she was brought to bed ?
She said she was not, but felt very poorly. Finding
herself worse she afterwards begged her husband,
" for the honour of God," to go a second time to Mr.
Spencer, and intreat him to allow her to remain.
Kane did so, and told him his wife was not fit to
be removed, and that she was very ill. Spencer,
however, again refused, made up the man's money,
and told him he should not have a farthing of it
until he brought his wife and family into the road,
and taken them fairly off the premises. Kane then
begged for a cart in which to take his wife to
Winterton, a neighbouring village, where he ex-
pected to find a lodging-house in which his wife might
be confined. Spencer said there was no cart to be
had, and mounted a stack which his men were making
in the rickyard, after again telling the Irishman that
he would not pay him for his reaping until he had
brought his wife and children out of the stable into
the road. The poor woman then made shift to get up
and walk into the road, and on seeing her there with
her six children, four of whom were shivering from
the fever, Spencer came down the stack and paid
the man the money owing to him, 11. I 9s. They had
not proceeded 20 yards before the woman felt so
much pain that she was compelled to sit down on the
roadside, and she told her husband she was afraid she
should be confined " before she got anywhere." Two
Irishmen here came up, and, seeing her state, they
wanted to carry the woman back to the stable she had
left and force her in, even against Spencer's consent.
The miserable woman, however, again summoned
strength to proceed on her painful journey, but
before she could reach the next village, South Fer-
riby, about a mile distant from Horkstow, she was
forced to sit down two or three times by the way,
surrounded by her compassionating children and her
husband, who were compelled to he the witnesses of
anguish which they could do nothing to relieve. Be-
tween four and five o'clock the family reached South
Ferriby, and here in the middle of the public
street the poor creature was obliged to lie
down against the wall of a cottage, and
within five paces of the cottage door. The pangs
of labour came on, and the husband in the greatest
distress of mind hurried from farm-house to farm.
house, imploring permission to bring his wife into any
barn or stable. He does not appear to have thought
for a moment of asking shelter for his wife in any of
the cottages in the street in which she lay, nor was
any such asylum offered to her. The children of the
village, of all ages, soon drew round the wretched
woman, and gazed with curious and inquisitive eyes
upon throes and sufferings of which they could so
little understand the cause; while she, with an in-
stinctive delicacy which every mother will under-
stand, even in that hour of nature's hardest trial,
stifled her cries as well as she could, out of a certain
respect and shrinking, from that young circle of spec-
tators. Some of the women of the village looked on
at various degrees of distance, but no one came to
render her any help. She called out, and one woman,
herself the mother of five or six children, at length
came up, but was too frightened to remain, and went
away "to get assistance," it being ten minutes, ac-
cording to her own account, before she returned !
For half an hour did this poor Irishwoman, accord-
ing to the statement which I received from her own
lips, lie in the High-street of the village, before
any one castle to her assistance. When her
husband returned to tell her that he could not
get her an asylum even in a barn or a stable, the
woman had, alone and unassisted, given birth to a
female child, which she wrapped up and protected from
the cold as well as she could in her tattered garments.
Some of the cottagers at length came up, and the
mother and the infant, which gave no signs of life,
were removed to the stables of the Nelthorpe Arms,
a public-house in the village. No medical man appears
to have been sent for until 24 hours afterwards, when
Mr. Morley, a surgeon of Barton-upon-Humber,
medical officer of the district, attended, upon the
order of the overseer of the parish of South Ferriby.
He found the woman very ill, and delirious from the
effects of fever, as well as from the circumstances of
her exposure, and he immediately ordered her re-
moval from the stable in which she lay with her
children to a room in the inn, where she now remains.
On the following day the poor woman was visited by
thejAbbe Canut, the Roman Catholic priest of Barton-
upon-Humber, who performed the ministrations of
his church, and who has since manifested great sym-
pathy for the hapless family. Mr. Morley's attention
and humanity have also been highly praiseworthy.
Three of the children, of the respective ages of 10, 8,
and 2 years, were yesterday lying in the stable, help-
less, and shivering from the fever, covered up with a
few miserable rags, while a third hild, between 4 and
5 years old, is lying in bed with the mother, both of
them also being ill with the fever. To-day the
mother is somewhat worse, and she remains in a dan-
gerous state.

THE INQUEST.
An inquest was held on Thursday last, at the Ne
thorpe Arms, South Ferriby, before Mr. G. Marris
coroner, on view of the body of a female infant, the
daughter of Andrew and Mary Kane, when the fol-
lowing evidence was taken :
Andrew Kane, of the county of Mayo, kingdom of
Ireland, labourer, upon his oath saith—l am the
father of the infant the jury have just now seen lying
dead in the parish church of Ferriby. My wife was
brought to bed on Friday last about two o'clock in
Ferriby town street. I was not present ; I was
looking out for a barn in which to place my wife. I
and my wife had been working harvest in the parish
of Horkstow, under Mrs. Tufnell's agent, Frank
Spencer. For the last four or five days prior to her
confinement my wife had not been able to work ; she
was poorly on Friday last. After I had finished my
job about noon my wife told me she thought she
was going to get her bed, and she desired me two or
three times to go to Frank Spencer to ask leave for my
wife to remain in the barn. I told Spencer my wife
was too unwell to be moved. I went twice to Spencer
for the same purpose. Spencer refused to let my wife
remain in the barn, saying they were not his stables.
The stables are on Mrs. Tufnell's premises in Hork-
stow, and Spencer superintends them. I, my wife,
and six children, had been lodging in that barn ten or
eleven days. Four of my ' children were then un-
well. On the Friday in question Spencer came to
the barn, and asked my wife whether she was poorly,
and whether she was brought to bed there. My wife
replied she had not got her bed, but she was poorly.
I don't know by the word "poorly" whether my wife
meant that she was unwell merely, or that she was in
the pains of labour. Spencer then desired me to go
out and get the land measured that I had been shear-
ing. Spencer went with me and measured the land
for me, which occupied about half an hour. The
money amounted to 1/. 195., which I had to take.
Spencer then said to me, " When you have brought
your wife and children out of the barn, and go on the
road, I will give you your money," and he said he
would not give me a farthing of it until I had taken
my family out of the barn. I then asked Spencer
where I could get a cart, and he said there was
no cart to be had in that town, that I had
better take my family on to Ferriby, and that I
might get a cast in a carrier's cart to Winter-
ton. I had previously asked for a cart to go to
Winterton. I then took my family out of the
barn, and Frank Spencer came from a stack, and paid
me my money. The first day we went to work
,u, nder
Frank Spencer, Mrs. Spencer said to my w.ife, YO.II
will soon get your bed, I think My wife !epi_rd,
"No ; I don't expect my bed until Christmas:l Hav-
ing ing left the barn at Horkstow I and my f
towards Ferriby. My wife had not. proceeded more
than twenty yards when she was obliged to sit down,
and she told me she should get her bed, she thought,
before she got anywhere. My wife got up again
and proceeded towards Ferriby, and she ultimately
got her bed as before described. I don't. know
whether Spencer could see my wife when she first
sat down on the road after having left the barn. I
can't say that Spencer knew my wife was about to get
her bed.
Elizabeth Skinner, the wife of Richard Skinner, of
Ferriby, aforesaid, shopkeeper—About six o'clock on
Friday evening last, having understood that a woman
was in labour in the High-street, Ferriby, I went to
the spot and found a woman with a newly-born child
upon her knee. There were several people there, and
some of them told me the child was dead. I put my
finger into its mouth ; the mouth was warm, but
there was no symptom of life, and I judged the child
had not been long dead. I can't say whether the
child was full grown or not. My opinion is, the
child was born alive, but I won't be certain. I have
occasionally delivered women, and I have been a
regular nurse fourteen years. I had no conversation