The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-27 00:00:00

afterwards charged the defendant. I have known
the defendant ten years ; he is a particularly mild
and inoffensive gentleman.

Defendant—l should be ashamed to strike a man
with such a weapon, unless in danger of great vio-
lence ; how much more so, then, to harm a woman ?
The blow was by chance, and as I have described.
Mr. Hammill intimated that he should adhere to
his intention of sending the case to a jury, and
again refused bail. The depositions to be completed
to-morrow.

SHOCKING CASE OF MURDER AND
MUTILATION OF THE BODY.

Considerable sensation was created yesterday at
Bristol, in consequence of the murdered body of a
child, frightfully mutilated, having been found by
some boys in Tyndall's Park.
Information of the discovery having been made
to the police, no time was lost in informing the
coroner, who at once issued his warrant, and an
inquest was held at the Hope and Anchor Tavern,
Jacob's Wells.

The body, upon being viewed by the jury, pre-
sented a shocking spectacle. The throat was cut
from ear to ear, all the large bloodvessels, the gullet
and windpipe being divided, right down to the
back bone ; both arms had been cut off near the
joint of the elbow, and the legs at the junction of
the hips with the pelvis. The arms and legs are
all absent, and are supposed to have been either
burnt, or destroyed in some other way. The trunk
and head were packed in some dark-grey alpaca
cloth, which had been carefully sewed together
with cotton.

It appeared from the evidence that the body was
found by a little boy, named Mills, the son of a
fancy-soap maker, residing at 19, St. James's-street,
St. James. The little fellow was playing with a
companion younger than himself in the park, and,
being heated, they retired to the shelter of some
trees, underneath which, and amongst some high
grass, they found the bundle. Mills opened it, and
on seeing the body of a child, with its throat cut,
he vas greatly alarmed. A young man happened
to be passing, and a policeman soon after came up,
and the body was carried without delay to the
station•house of the Clifton division of police to
await the inquest.
The Coroner having summed up, the jury re-
turned a verdict, " That the deceased was found,
wilfully murdered in Tyndall's Park, but by whom
murdered is to the jurors unknown."

THE BEI?EFORDSHIRE MURDER.

LEBBURY, THURSDAY AFTERNOON.

The resumed inquest on the body of the mur-
dered woman Harriet Baker was held before Mr.
Underhill, coroner, and a respectable jury of
tradesmen, this morning, at the Feathers Hotel, in
this town.

John Isaac Jones, the clerk, who was suspected
on the occasion of the first inquest, is in custody.
He was arrested by Superintendent Tanner and
Detective Williamson, on Tuesday evening, at his
lodgings. He was apprehended after a warrant had
been issued, subsequent to a private investigation
by the magistrates.
Mr. Masefield, sworn, stated that Jones was one
of five clerks, and worked in the lower office.
Jones had been a clerk in his office two years and a
half. Had served as a clerk faithfully. Received a
recommendation with him from Australia, but be-
lieved that he came originally from America ; yet
he came to Ledbury from Birmingham. Before
leaving Ledbury for London, on Tuesday, he called
Jones into his office, and set him some copying.
Jones was in his office almost daily, yet he seldom
called him up, because he had a wooden leg. From
the office day book, to which the clerks downstairs
had access, it would seem that nearly £3OO was in
the two drawers upstairs, but he had sent the
greater portion of that sum to the bank before
going to London. Witness kept wax tapers on his
table, and sometimes wooden lucifer matches.

Henry Masefield, son of the former witness, iden-
tified in a packet of money, consisting chiefly of
fourpenny and threepenny pieces, a sixpence, with
a hole in it, that had been in his father's drawer.
W. G. Woodward, a clerk in the office adjoining
Mr. Masefield's room, deposed that he kept business
money in his desk, of which the young Mr. Masefield
knew, but he did not think the other clerks knew
of it. Found the money safe and the drawer un-
touched on Wednesday morning. Before leaving
for London on Tuesday, Mr. Masefield gave him
nearly £2OO to take to the bank. Adding money
ftom his own desk, he deposited at the bank, when
he went to dinner, about £225. That he was going
to take this money only Mr. Dew, in addition to
11r. Masefield, knew. After leaving the offices at
night, met Jones near them, coming from the
town, at about ten minutes past ten. In going
towards the offices Jones was also going towards
his lodgings. Merely said " Good night," to him.
About a quarter to 10 next morning found the
offices closed and a crowd round them. Was told
Mrs. Baker had been hurlg and then set on fire.
Went in and found Jones there with others. Jones
looked very pale and agitated. There were other
drawers in his (witness's) desk beside the one he
had spoken of, neither of which was broken open.
_ _

Win. Masefield, another son of Mr. Masefield, the
proprietor of the offices, deposed that he was clerk
to his father, and kept money in one of the drawers
in the last witness's desk. At the time of the murder
there was about £2l there. The drawer was un-
touched. Did not think that Jones knew that he
had that money—£l9 belonged to the Cricket Club.
On the morning after the murder found a bunch of
three small keys on the gravel walk which sur-
rounds his father's paddock, at a point about. five
yards from the back entrance to the offices.
Richard Dew deposed that he was a copying
clerk in Mr. Masefield's service. He had been there
nine years. On the day of the murder he (witness)
left the office at about ten minutes past eight at
night. Before Mr. Masefield went to London on
that day, witness saw him give Mr. Woodward a
considerable sum of money to take to the bank.
Would swear that he did not communicate that fact
to Jones, who left the office about seven o'clock.
The examination of :this witness was being pro-
ceeded with when the parcel was despatched.
The magisterial examination of Jones will be
resumed to-morrow afternoon.

MURDER OF A CHILD AND SUICIDE
OF THE MOTHER.

On Wednesday an inquisition before the county
coroner for the Manchester district (Mr. W. S.
Rutter) disclosed the particulars of the murder of
a child by its mother, and then her own self-de-
struction, under circumstances of a melancholy
character. The sad event took place in the small
village of Hollyhurst, in the township of Pilkington,
between Whitefield and Radcliffe, about six miles
north-west of Manchester. The deceased, Sarah
Kay, aged 22 years, lived with her husband, Samuel
Kay, in one of a row of four or five small cottages.
She had been previously married to a man named
Smith, a Mormon, who went to the Salt Lake
Valley, and died there. After his death, and about
18 months ago, she was married to Kay, a young
man, who is a power-loom tackler, and both he and
the deceased worked at the cotton factory of Mr.
Buckley, about five minutes' walk from the cottage.
She had a little girl (by her former husband) named
Mary Alice Smith, a little under fire years of age,
and both appear to have been fond of the child,
which lived with them, and went to school while
they laboured at the mill. Three weeks ago, on
Sunday, the husband was away from home until 10
o'clock at night, and some report was officiously
spread, which reached the wife the following day,
to the effect that her husband had been improperly
in the company of her cousin. This led to a quarrel
between his wife and himself, he denying that there
was the least truth in the report. The deceased
appears to have been of a sensitive disposition, and
was not satisfied with her husband's explanation.
The occurrence preyed upon her mind, and, unfor-
tunately, on Monday last, at noon, the unpleasant-
ness was revived. As they were leaving the factory
for dinr.er, they met a woman who complained of
the deceased having spoken disrespectfully of the
person alluded to. No sooner had they entered the
cottage, than the deceased began to reproach her
husband with not having kept at home on the
Sunday referred to. Angry words ensued, and the
quarrel was heard by a next-door neighbour (Mrs.
Butterworth), but all she could distinguish was
the husband saying, " Get thy dinner and go to thy
work." The deceased, from her voice, appeared to
be much exasperated. The dinner, previously
cooked, had been placed in the oven to warm, and
he rapidly partook of what he chose, then returned
the remainder to the oven for his wife and child,
and went to the mill alone. The deceased re-
mained in the house nearly half an hour, during
which she appears to have determined upon the
horrid tragedy of sacrificing her own life and that
of her child. The poor little creature was inno-
cently- gathering flowers in an adjoining field with
another girl belonging to Mrs. Devonport, a neigh-
bour. The deceased asked Mrs. Devonport where
the'cbildren were, and in telling her, Mrs. Devon-
port noticed that she was agitated, and that her
face was flushed, and that she spoke in a short and
hurried manner. Having returned with the chil-
dren, the unhappy woman sent her own child
to
Mrs. Butterworth s to borrow a razor
the direction given to the child,Hearing
having once
before lent the instrument tQ the 4
eceasva fox the
purpose of cutting her ec24si Mrs. Butterworth
g4l.° the little unsuspecting victim what
proved to be the instrument of its own and its
mother's destruction, The little girl followed her

mother into the house with the razor, and the door
was closed and locked. The cottage has two bed
rooms, one of them very small, and to this the
frenzied mother took the child, and perpetrated the
fearful deed. Th© bodies lay side by side, within
half a yard of each other, the mother's face being
towards that of the child, and their blood comming-
ling in one pool between them, in which lay the
open razor. The frightful gash in the throat of
each showed the excited energy with which the
weapon had been used; and there can be little
doubt, from the position of the bodies, and the blood
not being spurted in any direction, that both were
in a sitting posture upon the floor when the mother
despatched the child (which was to the left side of
her), and then, as it fell backward repeated the
fatal stroke upon herself, and let drop the razor be-
tween them.

Nothing was known of what had occurred, even
by the immediate neighbours, who supposed that,
notwithstanding the quarrel, the deceased had gone
to her work as usual. Shortly after six o'clock
the husband came home, and finding the door fast,
knocked loudly. Mrs. Butterworth told him
that his wife had not come from the fac-
tory yet. He replied that she had not been there
since noon. A fearful thought immediately flashed
upon her mind, and she exclaimed, " Oh dear, the
child fetched a razor from me." The husband an-
ticipated the dread result. A neighbour, Henry
Hayes, procured a ladder, and on looking through
the bedroom windom, announced that both mother
and daughter were lying dead. Shortly afterwards
another man, John Howard, got through the win:
dow, and going down stairs, unlocked the door, and
a surgeon went upstairs and saw the bodies, which
were then cold.

The inquest was held at the Bay Horse, Chapel-
field, on Wednesday afternoon, when the facts
above narrated were adduced in evidence. The
husband, we regret to state, evinced even less con-
cern in the matter than either of the witnesies.
He admitted that jealousy on the part of his wife
had led to what had happened, but averred that
there was no ground for it. He said that if ever a
quarrel occurred she originated it ; that her temper
was irritable ; that nine months ago, after some
words with her brother, she went to a lodge of
water, with the intention (as she afterwards stated)
of drowning herself, but was prevented by seeing a
man sitting upon the bank.
The jury, after a brief deliberation, returned a
verdict concerning the death of the child of wilful
murder, that being the offence for which the mother
would have been tried had she been living. The
verdict upon the mother was, " Destroyed herself
whilst labouring under temporary insanity ;" and
the jury expressed their reprobation of the conduct
of the persons who had spread the scandalous re-
port by which the poor woman had been distressed.