The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-20 00:00:00

WHOLESALE POISONING IN
NORFOLK.
During the last week the inhabitants of Happisburp-,h, a
village on the Norfolk coast, have been in a state of great
excitement in consequence of the exhumation of a number
of bodies believed to be poisoned, including those of a man
named Jonathan Balls, his wife, and four grandchildren, all

of whom recently died under very suspicioiis circumstances.

Information was not given to either Of the county coroners
after the first death, as the parish officers throughout the-
county had received a circular from the magistrates request-
ing them to make strict inquiries before the expense of an
inquest was incurred, there having been a deal of complaint
at the magistrates' meetings as to the heavy expense of
coroners' inquests. Mr. Pilgrim, the county coroner for the
district, received information of the deaths, but was, at first,
unwilling to institute an inquiry until a second and third ap-
plication had been made to him; and rumours increasing of
many persons having been poisoned, he found it necessary
for him to issue his warrant for the exhumation of the bodies.
They were placed in a tent at the back of the parish church,
round which hundreds of people collected. Special con-
stables had to be sworn in to prevent improper interference
and to preserve order.

On Monday last an inquest was held before Mr. Pilgrip.

and a very respectable juiy, at the Hill-house, Happisbitigh.
The bodies were identified by the relatives, and the surgeons
who attended, after making a post mortem examination, rc-

moved the stomachs from the bodies, and stated that the ap-
pearances created great suspicion in their niinds that the
parties bad been poisonel.
The Rdv. Mr. Birch, Vicar of Happi.burgh, and the parish
officers, expressed the most anxious desire to have the matter
thoroughly investigated, and offered to render any assist-
.

ance in power.
The jury having been sworn,
The CORONER explained the nature of the inquiry to
them. Ile begged they would dismiss from their minds any
rumours they might have heard, and attend only to the

evidence.
The jury having returned from viewing tile bodies, several
witnesses were examined.
Ann Pestle, a married woman, living at Happisburgh, de-
posed that she had identified the bodies of Jonathan Balls,
her father, and of Elizabeth Pestle, her child. Her father
had died on the 20th, and her child on the 15th of April last,
after violent vomiting and purging, but she did not think
they had taken poison. On her return home from washing
die found the child very sick, but unable to get anything
up. The child died iu a few hours after. Her father also
She thought Iler''us
wasn taken very ill after returning from a walk and partak-
ing
that
fil,g:discliiigi•ht dinner. He also died in a few hours after.
either of them had been poisoned.
a sore throat. father died from old age, and the child from

surgeons to analyze the stomach
The in
order to
inquest was adjourned in
geons were examined
On Thursdayjast, at 9 A.M., stomachs,
jury allow time for the
Statham, deposedre-
Hill House, and the stir, as. se mobl loetd
on
nt
tt
hh
ee
Mr. Clowes, a surgeon of s
20th of April last he was called in to Mr. Balls, and found
him vomiting and retching violently. Deceased complained
of great pain in his bowels and about the stomach. lle died
soon after. Witness did not suspect that he had taken
poison, but some improper food. Witness had examined the
body and found it perfectly healthy, with the exception of
the stomach. The appearances in that organ were quite suf-
ficient to account for death. Ile analyzed a portion of the
stomach, and found that it contained a large quantity of
arsenic, which was undoubtedly the cause of death. He also
removed the stomach of the child, Elizabeth Pestle, and
examined it chemically, and found a quantity of arsenic in
it, quite sufficient to cause death.
Mr. Hewitt, another surgeon, who assisted the last witness
in examining the stomachs, confirmed his evidence. ,
Mr. Firth, a Norwick surgeon, had also analyzed the con-
tents of the stomachs, and said they contained arsenic enough
to poison the whole parish.
Phcebe Ann Eliza Neave, a single woman, living in the
parish, deposed that she had known the deceased Jonathan
Balls, and that some years since she refused, at his request,
to write a note to Dlr. Saddler, chemist, of North Walsham,
for some arsenic, which he said he wanted for the purpose of
destroying rats. She had previously written a note to that
effect for his daughter, Mrs. Pestle, for that purpose.
Mr. Hewitt, the surgeon, here observed, he had reason to
believe that all the parties who had recently died there came
by their deaths in a similar way to those whose bodies had
been raised and examined.
The Rev. Mr. Birch exceedingly regretted such an occur-
rence in his parish, and again hoped that the matter would
parties.that
a n n Severalgne
st was
not h
be thoroughly investigated, and that no pains would be
presentspared atto &fled
inqutiry
ryt hree
ggreutitelt3dgentlemeneld
immediately after the first death, as it might have operated
as a check, and been the means of saving several lives.
They believed that an inquest had not been held in the first
instance in consequence of the circular issued by the magis-
trates to the parish officers.
It was considered necessary that the bodies of three other
persons should be taken up and examined, and in order to
allow time for this to be done the inquest was further ad-
journed. Summonses were issued for the attendance of
witnesses from Yarmouth and other places.
HAPPLSBURG (NEAR NORTH WALSRAR), TUESDAY MORN-
ING.—The investigation concerning the recent murders by
poisoning in this village was brought to a close last evening
by Mr. Pilgrim, one of the Norfolk county coroners, at the
Hasberough-hill House, and the disclosures which were made
during the inquiry leave very little doubt that the acts of
poisoning must have been going on for years, and it is im-
paisible to conjecture how many unfortunate persons have
fallen a sacrifice.
In accordance with the adjournment, Mr. Pilgrim' the
Coroner, arrived from Norwich at nine o'clock, at the Has-
borough-hill House, to prosecute the inquiry. On the jury
being called over they proceeded to view the bodies, which
had been ordered to be exhumed at the previous inquiry.
On reaching the churchyard a novel sight presented itself.
The police were stationed at the gates to prevent the erowd
pressing their way in. IR the churchyard, by the side of the
tower, was a temporary tent erected, under which the coffins,
that had only that morning been exhumed, were deposited.
The lids had not been opened until the jury's arrival, thereby
rendering their duty of a most unpleasant character. With
the exception of the infant, the bodies were not so decom-
posed as to prevent identity. At the conclusion of the pain-
ful ceremony they retired to the inquest-room, the Coroner
directing the surgeon to make an immediate post ireortent,
examination of the bodies.
Evidence was then adduced at great length. It was shown
that all the deceased had died of poison by arsenic; and
one witness swore that she saw old Balls put into his wife's
teapot pinches of a white powder resembling flour. All the
deceased had died in a short time, and had shown symptoms
attendant upon metallic poison. Judging by the evidence,
Balls must have wound up the tragedy by administering to
himself a portion of the arsenic with which he destroyed the,
others.
The three married daughters of the deceased were present
at the deaths of their mother and father, but there did not
appear to be any ground for suspicion that they partook of
the terrible crime.
The Coroner proceeded to sum up the evidence. He
thought the facts did not fix upon any party so as to warrant
them in sending the case to another tribunal. If any one was
inculpated the finger of suspicion most certainly pointed tsa
the deceased Jonathan Balls, and he was beyond the reach
of the law. He recommended them to return such a verdict
as would enable the officers to have the matter further in-
quired into should such circumstances arise as required it.
It was a case of great suspicion.
The jury then found, after half an hour's consultation,
Uhat the deceased Jonathan Balls, Elizabeth Balls, Samuel
Pestle, and Ann Elizabeth Pestle, died from the effects of
poison, but how administered there was no evidence to show."

ENILIA WYNDHAM.—Let no one (says the John Bull)
who wishes to read a work of fiction with the stamp of
genius upon it, hesitate in procuring Emilia Wyndham.
The author's " Two Old Men's Tales," and " Mount Sorel,"
have won for him no mean reputation—a reputation which
"Emilia Wyndham" will deservedly expand. This novel
.
has the peculiar merit of rivetting the attention, rousing
the feelings, and creating an interest that never flags, with-
out having recourse to any of the ordinary devices by which
novel writers attain these ends. It is a tale of domestic
life ; all the characters are characters of home ; and yet,
from the trials which are prepared for the latter, and the
moral virtues they are called upon to exercise in passing
through them, the reader feels precisely that sort of deep
interest which he would do if he were the intimate frien
lia
d of
the parties. Mr. Danby, Lisa, Colonel Lenox, Emi
Wyndham her father, Jonny Wilcox, Mr. Danby's mo-
ther, the fa, ithful, plain-spoken Susan, form aivtnegcngr:lgedn.
the memory long after the third volume _
is dialogue is essentially ra-
Molikre or Addison; while h.
loft
moral tone pervades the
matic, and full of vigour. A y
d by a style at once powerful,
The author has considerable humour, approachilg thatd of
whole story, which is enforce
rapid, and graceful.
published, exceed, if possible, in interest, the " Memoirs" of Tim TRAVELS OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, just
pu so
-
this extraordinary personage, which created, last yetut,
great a sensation—for, independently of the valuable infor-
mation the volumes contain respecting the countries visited.
by her Ladyship, comprising Turkey, Egypt, Palestine,
Syria, and the Desert, with the curious characteristics pre-.
served of the different races of the human family there to be
met with, more particularly of the Bedouins, Druses, Jews,
and Christians, the narrative abounds with remarkable inci-
dent* of personal adventure in which her Ladyship was the,
heroine. In one place she is seen enduring the horrors of
shipwreck or the fears of plague—in anotliar, enjoying the
dignity of Queen of Palmyra, conferred upon her by that
I most intractable of the Arab tribes, as- she marched at their
head through the burning Desert—further on, directing the
Turkish authorities in making excavations for buried trea-
sure—elsewhere, equally honoured as a visitor to the harems
of the moat powerful of the nobles ; and always exhibiting
to the astonished people extraordinary courage, wisdom, ans.
benevolence.
There were present yesterday evening at her Majesty's
Theatre, her Majesty the Queen Adelaide, attended by the Earl ant
Countess Howe, the- Marquis :and Marchioness of Ormond, the
Hon. Miss Hudson, the Hon. Miss Seymour, and Captain.
Somerset ; her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, accom-
panied by her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, and at.
touted by e,
the BaronessAhlefeldt, the Baron Knesebeck, and Mr. EU-
mund Mildmay his Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge, th
Duke and Duchess of Cleveland, the Duchess of Beaufort, the Marqtdo
and Marchioness of Worcester, and the Ladies R. and B. Somerset.
his Excellency the Russian Ambassador and,the Baroness Brunnow.
and Mdlle. Olga de Lechner, the Marquis and Marchioness of Douro.
the Marquis of Clanric,arde„ the Marquis and Marchioness of
Abercorn, the Marchioness of Sligo, the Marchioness of West-
meath, the Marquis of Huntley, the Marquis of Titehlleld ; his Ex.
cellency the Hanoverian Minister, the Earl and Countess of Wilton.
the Earl of Clare, the Earl of Lonsdale, the Countess of Kinnoul, tho
Vlscount:Cantalupe, Viscount Duncannon, the Viscount Dupplin.
Lady Fitzroy Somerset, Lady Charles Wellesley, the Earl of Fal.
mouth, the Earl of Munster, Lord and Lady Trimleston,
rLory Vrd andane,
Lady Ashburton, Lady Macdonald, Leas' Eldon, Lord Ha
Lady Mary Hood, Lord Foley, the lion. Captain Foley, and the Hon.
Misses Foley, Lord Saltoun,
Sir Thomas Hare, Sir IV. and Lady Houlston, sir and Lady Dom.
Sir IV. W. Wynn,, Sir James ',might's%
vile, Lady Clay, Sir John Guest, Lady Meux, &c.
PEACE SOCIETY.—Last evening the members and
friends of the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and 'Universal.
peace
Finsbury Chapel, Moor.
Charles a
llt indley,
Esq., M.P. The
report. of heldtheho their
chair
wasnualfit
committee of management, read by the secretary,
stated the pacific principles, which it was the object of the society to
fic Tangetnenerably meeting
encourage, had made considerable progress during the past year.
Since the last anniversary the committee had distributed an immense
number of tracts on the subject of the wars in India, and had
cos"MimiietYteeTh's
attention,ane Oregon qudes,twiointhhaavdieo,e:
to
oupuiedriooz
ad-
dressed letters to the ministers of religion, calling upon them to advo.
thepo cat
ou
us e oof f thhee
egareteat
that long-disputed subject to an amicable close, the Governments o
England and America had been presented with a memorial, praying
them to arrange all differences by arbitration. The receipts during
the year amounted to 2,3441., and the expenditure left a balance oPf
5501. The report was adopted, and the usual resolutions passed 4
when the meeting separated.
SOCIETY FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE PUNISHMENT
OF DEATH.—A public discussion upon the question of the abolitiono(
capital punishment took place, on Tuesday evening, at the City).
London Liter Institution, Aldersgate-street. The theatre of that
institution wascrowded. In the absence of the Rev. Dr. Mortimen;
from domestic bereavement, the chair was taken by Mr. Wrightsor..
The discussion was opened by Mr. George Thompson, who addressed
the meeting at considerable length. Mr. Roulton read some in.
teresting statistical details, to show that where the punishment of
death was most used e crime of murder was most prevalent. The
meeting eeparated at shits hour.
PEDESTRIANISM.—Yesterday the half-mile rae2 for
lot., between Reily and Anderton, was decided at Camberwßicand,
won by the latter, who coyered the distance In two minutes WIN
(ROW.