The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-12 00:00:00

MAY 12,

TWO CHILDREN POISONED.

Another addition has just been made to the long list
of instances already afforded of the fatal results of the
present lax system of administering pecuniary relief
by means of burial clubs. The victims in the present
instanee are two children, named Sarah Ann Barcroft
and Ellen Mills, the former aged eleven months,
and the latter two years and three months. The deceased
Sarah Ann Barcroft was the child of Jonathan
and Ruth Barcroft, residing at the Hague,
near Mottram. This child died suddenly on
the 29th ult., after a few hours' illness, about eleven
o'clock in the forenoon. Shortly afterwards Mrs. Mills,
the mother of the other child, who resides at a short
distance from Barcroft's house, was sent for by Mrs.
Barcroft, to assist her in laying out the dead child. Mrs.
Mills took with her to Mrs. Barcroft's, Ellen Mills, and
another of her children named George, about 13 months
old, and also two children named M‘Gleclan, who
lodged with their father at Mrs. Mills's house.
Mrs. Barcroft then requested Mrs. Mills to go to a
place called Tommylowe, about two miles off, to fetch
Mrs. Barcroft's mother, offering to take care of the chil-
dren till she returned. Mrs. Mills accordingly went to
Mrs. Barcroft's mother, and returned with her at about
two o'clock in the afternoon. Seem after she returned,
some porridge, which had been prepared in her absence,
was given to the children, who, in about five minutes
were seized with vomiting. Ellen Mills became rapidly
worse, and expired about half-past ten o'clock that
night. The other children recovered. Information of
these circumstances having reached Mr. Little, special
high constable, at Hyde, he visited Barcroft's house
on the following morning, the 30th ult., to make in-
quiries as to the cause of the sudden death of the
children. Mrs. Barcroft then told him that on
tho Monday night, when her husband was from home,
she went to bed with her child about eight o'clock. Her
husband came home during the night, she could
not say at what time, there being no clock in the
house. Some time afterwards the child became rest-
less, and began to cry. Mrs. Barcroft woke her hus-
band, and he went down stairs, and brought up some
flour porridge, which the mother had made before she
went to bed, and put on the hob by the fireside. She
gave the child some of the porridge, and in about five
minutes it began to vomit, became very ill, and died
about eleven o'clock the next morning. Jonathan Bar-
croft, the father of the deceased, told Mr. Little that
on Monday he was at a beershop in Mottram
in company with a man named Fairhnrat, till
about ten o'clock at night, when he went home to bed.
In the morning he went to his work, and did not hear
of his child's death till some hours afterwards. Ile gave
the remains of the porridge to a man named Cooper,
next door, for his hens. Cooper said he had given the
porridge to his hens, and it had done them no harm.
On Saturday last an inquest was held on the bodies
of the two children, before Mr. Hudson, coroner, but
nothing of importance transpired, and the proceed-
ings were adjourned. On Tuesday last the inquest was
resumed, when Messrs. Alcock and Sidebottam, sur-
geons, of Mottram, stated that they had made a post•
mortem examination, and had found arsenic in the
stomach. The inquest was accordingly adjourned again,
and. Barcroft and his wife were apprehended that even-
ing on suspicion of the murder. Mr. Little, on making
further inquiries, learnt that on the day of his child's
death Barcroft went to the registrar of deaths at
Glosop, and stated that he lived at Littlemore, about
four miles from the Hague; that his child had died of
the beeping cough, and obtained from him a certificate
for the interment of the deceased. It also appears that,
on the 23d ult., Barcroft, who was employed as a washer
at Messrs. Ed. Potters' print works, Dieting-vale, ob-
tained from Thos. Marsden, who has the care of the
drugs and colours at the works, 2 oz. of white arsenic,
and about the same quantity of sugar of lead, stating
that he wanted them for a person at the Hague, to put
round some plants. All the five children were members
of the Dieting-vale Burial Club. Barcroft received
21. 10s. from the treasurer of the society, en showing
him the certificate which he had previously obtained
from the registrar. The parents of the deceased Ellen
Mills also received 41. from the club.

In consequence of the suspicion which rests upon
Barcroft and his wife, Mr. Little has received authority
from the coroner to exhume the b,,dy of a child of which
Mrs IlArcroft was delivered on Goad Friday last, and
which died about six hours afterwards.

The adjourned inquest on the bodies of the two
children will be held on Tuesday next, at the Griffin Inn,
Broad-bottom, near Mottram.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HOUSE.
On Saturday three Germans, named Moses Snyders,
Moses Jacobi Andring, and Jantezo Vlognion, and a
German woman named Gerret; Vander Lowhen, were
brought before the Lord Mayor, in the custody of Henry
m 'ace, the officer, charged with having had in their pos-
session a number of Dutch bonds for the security of
money, and 177 sovereigns, without being able to give a
satisfactory account of the property.
Mr. John Matthews, of Arthur-street West, appeared
as solicitor for the prosecutors, Mrs. Frances Schaller
and Co., of Amsterdam, and to watch the proceedings
for the Dutch consul; andfMr. Humphreys and Mr. Wont-
ner attended for the prisoners.
Mr. Matthews said, on the 31st of April bonds to the
amount of 30,000 florins were stolen from Mrs. Frances
Schaller and Co., and brought into the city of London to
be disposed of. Several of these bonds were taken to the
houses of Messrs. Spellman and Co. and Bower and
Co., and offered for sale; and the prisoner Snyders
was given into custody by ono of these firms upon sus-
picion of having become unfairiy possessed of certain of
the stolen bonds. As most of the persons qualified to
give evidence upon this occasion are of the Jewish per-
suasion, lam prevented by the forms of that religion
from producing them here this day, but request that your
Lordship will remand the accused until Monday, when:l
shall be able to get into all the particulars of the case. I
shall at the present moment just call sufficient evidence
to justify a remand.
John Isaacs (a City constable)—l received informa-
tion that the prisoner Snyders had been offering several
Dutch bonds of consideradle value for sale, and had
already sold some to the amount of 400/. to the proprie-
tors of,the Exchequer Bank in Leadenhall-street. Upon
hearing this statement I went to look for Snyders at the
house, 28, Rosemary-lane, and thence to 9, Tenter-
street, where I found the three other prisoners. I asked
for Snyders, but they said they knew no such person.
The female prisoner, Gerret Vander Lowhen, said,
" Ash Snyders." After having made further inquiries
in Tenter-street I returned to Rosemary-lane, to the
house at which I had first called, and I heard some
shuffling at the back of the shop into which I had gone,
and saw the two prisoners, Moses Jacobi Audring and
Jantezo Vlogman, trying to escape, and I apprehended
them. Upon one of them I found 41 bonds and some
English acd foreign money. I then took the two men
and the woman to the stationehouse, whore I found
Snyders already in custody, that prisoner having been
apprehended at Messrs. Speilman's offices by Morris
(City policeman 419). I took from on of the prisoners
a key which opened a box in the back parlour of the
house in Tenter-street (a sort of Dutch lodging-house),
where I found 14 bonds and 170 sovereigns, and a wig,
which I learned had been used by Snyders.
Mr. Matthews submitted that, upon the statement
made by the officer, quite enough appeared to authorise
the remand of all the prisoners.
Here a foreigner, who represented himself to be a
merchant in London and related to one of the prisoners
who had been apprehended in Rosemary-lane, said that
his relative had only arrived on the very morning of his
apprehension in company with the sister of the deponent,
and could have known nothing of any felony, but owed
the disagreeable circumstances in which he was placed
to the fact of having been accidentally present when the
officers appeared.
The solicitor for the prisoners said there was nothing
at all against the prisoners in the evidence adduced, and
questioned the right of the Lord Mayor to detain them
in custody when it could not be shown that they had any
guilty knowledge of any robbery.
Mr. Matthews—A large robbery has been committed
in Amsterdam, of which we have received unquestion-
able information. Two of the prisoners are taken in the
act of endeavouring to escape from the officer engaged
in the investigation. I can produce, on Monday, the
party who received from one of the prisoners a number
of the stolen bonds, and who can prove that the state-
ments made upon the occasion were at variance with the
truth. The Lord Mayor is completely justified in grant-
ing a remand.
The gentleman who stated that he was related to one
of the prisoners here submitted it was very hard upon
his relative to be looked up in prison, and wished to
know what would have been done with himself if, pos-
sessing a high character in the city of London as a
merchant, he had happened to be with the prisoners?
The Louis) Mavost—No doubt you would have been
taken into custody with them. The company in which
a man is seen is an argument generally of his character.
If I were an officer I would not hesitate to take you into
custody.—(A laugh.) This is a most serious matter,
and it is my business to look after the interests of more
parties than one. A tradesman has paid a considerable
sum fur some of these bonds, and it is due to him as well
as to the prosecutors that the investigation should be
most strict.
The prisoners were then remanded till Monday.
Paul Peitzal, a shabby looking German, was charged
with having cheated the captain of a vessel trading
between London and Ostend of 125., the price of the
voyage.
G. E. Balliston, master mariner, belonging to the Sir
Edward Banks, plying between London and Ostend,
said—We left Ostend on Thursday morning, and ar-
rived in London in the afternoon. Upon application to
the prisoner we found that he had neither money nor
luggage, and we had no alternative but to bring him be-
fore your Lordship.
Alderman HuuTen—You ought to be cautious about
the parties you bring over at such a time. We ere inun-
dated with persons of this description, who, of course,
come here to prey upon us.
The complainant said that a tavern bill was found in
the possession of the prisoner, from which it appeared
that he had made a meal, just before he set off from the
other side, at the price of from 10s. to 12s. The bill
was marked as " paid," so that it would appear
shore
as if the
man had determined to step upon h
completely penniless. When questions
Englishhe said he
was the near relative of a general officer in the service

of the Queen.
Alderman HUNTER said, the prisoner must try the
effect of an English prison for a few days, and accorc-
ingly committed him for a fortnight.
GUILDHALL.
James Gray and John Allen were brought before
Alderman Wilson by Constable Allen, 354, who said
that between twelve and one o'clock that morning hp
saw the prisoners on Blackfriars-hridge, with a pail of
whitewash, painting the words, "Free-trade and star-
ration !" on the parapet of the bridge. They had
painted several walls in a similar manlier.