The Sun.
London, England, 1802-12-21 00:00:00

M ANS lON-HOUS E.

. .
William Brown, and his Wife, were yesterday
again brought before the LORD MAYOR, to answer
a complaint of extreme ill-treatment towards the
persons of three of their female apprentices. One
of whom, Susannah Harris, a girl of ten or eleven
years of age, is now in so dangerous a state,. that
little hopes are entertained of her recovery. From
the testimony of the Master of the Poor-house, in
the Parish of St. Giles's, it appeared that the three
children were, on Shrove Tuesday last, bound ap-
.prentices to William Brown, a Pin-header, in Skin_
net's-street, Bishopsgate ; at which time they were
all in ptrfed health, and were chosen by Brown
from amongst near forty children.
The child, Harris, exhibited So• shocking a spec-
tacle, that. the tear of commiseration started:invo-
luntarily from the eye of almost every one present.
She was literally an animated corpse, with her face
and several parts of her body torn and scratched.
A Professional Gentleman, who at the reqUest of
the Parish Officers of Bishopsgate, - had been the
depo,ed that he believed it' might have been
Subjea to a consumptive- habit, which had, in all
probability, been considerably accelerated in its
progress, by the treatment the child had received.
Susannah Bluet, one of the children, was then
examined by the Lord -Mayor., The scene this
child disclosed, and which-WE strongly corroborat-
ed from circumstantial and other evidence, was, that
the custom, both of Brown and his wife, .was, to
set them to work from six o'clock in the morning
until eleven at night, allotting them a certain por-
tion to perform, the third part of which, if not
executed by breakfast time, they were not al.
lowed any ; and if the half was not completed by
dinner, then no vkluals was given for the day.
Their brealchst generally consisted of water gruel
and bread and butter, which they were obliged to
eat at the Work-bench, not being allowed 'any time
from their work for their meals. This was also
the mode in which their dinner (generally consisting
of a slice of bread and butter) was given them.
For any negled they were beaten, and frequent-
ly with an iron hammer, with which instrument
this woman had once struck the child (Bluer) so
severe a blow on the forehead .as to cut it; the
scar of which now appeared. The child (Harris)
was much more frequently beaten than either of
the other two. She was weakly, and could not per.
form so much work. A method
.of punishment used
towards her was, to lash a large log of wood to one
foot,and make her stand with the other upon the grate,-
holding up in the opposite hand a large brick; in this
state of torture she has been kept two hours together,
and when so exhausted as to be obliged to let the
brick .fall, Mrs. Brown herself would pick it up, and
force her to hold it out again. She was very ill for
a length of time, without any remission of her labour,
or any better treatment. Brown himself used fre-
quently to kick her (as also the other two) about the
house, and when the poor thing had, either from
inability or accident, spoiled her work, the pins
were turned into instruments of torture, and the
Child's flesh (as the marks proved), torn with them.

A Woman who lived in the House, swore to her
(Harris) having been kept upwards of thirty-six
hours without food of any kind. She saw the Child
droop, and mentioned to Mrs. Brown the necessity
there W2S for something being done, Mrs. Brown
replied, it was nothing but art and laziness, after
which the Child was sure to suffer more severely.
The demeanour of this man and his wife, was, dur-
ing the whole examination, insolent in the extreme.
Mrs. Brown herself saying they were not treated half
so bad ;s she had been during her apprenticeship,
They called two women who worked with them, to
.prove the children being well fed, and to dis-
prove "any acts of cruelty ; one of them, however,
having beaten them herself, was of course implicated
in some degree, in the charge : and the other,
having lived only three weeks in the house,. could
not know much of the matter. The Lord Mayor
ordered them to be committed to take their trial for
The murder, if the child should die. He, at the
same time, paid a just tribute of praise to the Gen-
tlemen who had brought this business to light. He
'remarked, that more attention should be paid to the
chariaer and situation of people to whom parish chil-
dren' were apprenticed. Somebody, it is true, had
• given this man,-BroVin,icharader to theßeadle,when
he inquired ; but that was 'not sufficient ; they
shoUld have _examined his' house, to know whether
he could have proper accommodation for these ap-
prentices. It turned out that Brown was only a
lodger,, and that five helpless children slept together
in a situation but ill calculated to afford comfortable
shelter to three. So indignant did the auditors feel,
that on their being conducted to prison; it was with
difficulty the Officers could protect them from their
vengeance.