The Sun.
London, England, 1835-10-03 00:00:00

WORSHIP- STREET.

Yesterday Stephen Hambley, a weaver, aged 49, was
placed at the bar before Mr. GROVE, the sitting Magistrate,
and charged by the parish officers of Bethnal-green, with
secretly confining his child, a little girl, eight years of age,
in the cellar of the house No. 104, Hare-street, Bethnal-

green.
It appeared upon inquiry that the child had been for two
or three weeks a tenant of the cellar, unknown to the people
of the house, when a female discovered her there, and
called in two police constables, named Lermon and Huddy,
who found the poor little thing in a most miserable condi-
tion, with only a bit of straw bed in the cellar, the floor of
which was ancle deep with wet mud. The constable imme-
diately sent for the parish officers, who took the child into
the workhouse, and gave charge of the prisoner, who was
found at a public-house, where he had been the greater part
of the day.
The girl, who had been cleaned, fresh clothed, and fed,
at the workhouse, said that her mother was dead, and about
a fortnight ago her father took her to the cellar in which
she was found, and brought the bed there, (for which he had
given half-a-crown), and he sometimes came there himself,
and slept there. She never got anything to eat while there
but bread, which her father brought her, sometimes the half
of a penny loaf, but he had sometimes also taken her in out
and given her a little beer at a public-house. He had never
beaten or ill treated her.
The Constable said that when the child was discovered
she seemed almost starved, and some bread and butter
being given to her, she snapped at it, and devoured it in an
instant. It was a wonder that she had not peristeEl in the
wet and muddy cellar.
The defendant said that he was turned out of a lodging,
and had all his things seized for rent some time ago, and
had now no settled place of residence.
The Parish Officers said that he was able to earn a very
sufficient maintenance, but he was a lazy drunken fellow,
and had for three years past been drawing occasional relief
from the parish on account of his child. A manufacturer
who employed him had been applied to, and stated him to
be a capital workman, who could always have more of the
best-priced work than he could perform, but after working
for a few hours in the morning, he would set off to a public
house, and remain there until turned out at night. It was
ascertained that his employer gave him 9s. last Saturday,
and lie had but 9d. in his pocket when taken into custody.
The rest he had spent upon himself, leaving his child in
the famishing and miserable condition in which he was
found.
The relieving overseer, Mr. Christy, said that on Tues-
day week he relieved the prisoner, and the same night found
him lying in a kennel, dead drunk.
The prisoner could not deny that, but he said that if the
parish officers would give him a trifle to purchase a few
things, he would get a place, and should be able to do bet-
ter for his child in future.
The Churchwardens, however, said they would trust no
more to him, but leave him in the hands of the Magistrate,
and take the girl into the workhouse.
- Mr. GROVE, after a minute inquiry, spoke in severe
terms of the defendant's conduct in exposing his child as he
had done to the danger of perishing.—Committed to hard
labour in the House of Correction for one month.