The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-17 00:00:00

RO uANCE IN HIGH LIFE.

RUGBY, MONDAY EVENING.
This afternoon, at two csclock, Richard Guinness
Hill, nephew of tne celebrated banker and stout
brewer, of Dublin, was brought before C. M. Cal-
decott, Esq., and J. Atty, Esq., two of the War-
wickshire magistrates, at their offices, in this town,
charged on a warrant with having " unlawfully
and wilfully made, or caused to be made, to one
William Herbert, then being registrar of births of
and for the district of Rugby, for the purpose of
being inserted on the register of births in the said
district, certain false statements touching the par-
ticulars by the statute made and passed in the 6th
and 7tl years of the reign of his late Majesty King
William IV., entitled, ' An Act for Registering
Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England,' re-
quired to be made known and registered of and
concerning a male infant, born of the body of one
Amy Georgina Hill, by the said Richard Guinness
Hill, her husband, in the district of Rugby afore-
said, on the sth day of January, in the year of our
Lord, 1861."

The prisoner is about 32 years of age, and of
aristocratic bearing. He wore a large moustache,
but his whiskers had evidently been shaven,
although when apprehended he had on a large pair
of false whiskers and moustache. He was to day
dressed in a fashionable manner, wearing a mas-
sive gold chain and valuable watch. His sleeve
links and shirt-collar fastenings were also of golo.
He however presented a somewhat careworn and
dissipated appearance.
Mr. George Francis Cooke, solicitor, of 30, King-
street, Cheapside, London, apteared for the prose-
cution, and the prisoner was undefended.
The matter was first placed in the hands of Brett,
of the city of London detective force, and it was
then surrounded by such au atmosphere of mystery,
and presented so many difficulties of an apparently
insurmountable character, that the hopes enter-
tained of the successful result of the exertions
being made were by no means of a sanguine cha-
racter. As will be seen, however, success beyond
all expectation has been achieved, and, as it now
stands, the case evinces ability on the part of
Brett and his assistants, which has rarely if ever
been surpassed; and it is satisfactory to know that
a child who, at his majority, will be entitled to
£14,000 a year, will through the present proceed-
ings take his proper position in society.
The following is a general statement of the case
as detailed in the evidence laid before the magis
trates. Some years ago the mother of this child,
then a young lady, the granddaughter of Sir Francis
Burdett, was, it is believed, adopted by Miss Bur-
dett Coutts, who took the greatest interest in her
welfare. Everything that wealth could procure was
placed at her disposal, and in course of time her ac
complishments became of a high order, while her
great beauty formed the theme of general conversa-
tion_ in the higher circles. Her mother, Lady Bur-
dett, while staying at Brussels, received various
offers for her daughter's hand. Amongst these was
one made by the prisoner, who being a member of
one of the oldest and most important families in Ire-
land, was at first regarded with considerable favour,
and was ultimately accepted. After the marriage
the prisoner and his wife lived together happily for
several years, passing a considerable portion of their
time in travelling. It is necessary here to state that
a life interest on the lady's fortune, which was very
considerable, with the exception of a small portion
which was placed at her disposal, was settled on the
prisoner at the marriage, and subsequently she made
a will devising the whole of her property, inclu l-
ing, it ia understood, a valuable estate, absolutely to
him in the event of no issue surviving her decease.
In the beginning of 1859 Mrs. Hill, then residing in
St. Stephen's-green, Dublin, expecting daily to be
confined, and being desirous for her accouchement to
take place in London, left Ireland with that view.
While on her journey, accompanied by her hus-
band, she was taken unwell, and was unable to
proceed beyond Rugby. There she was
taken from the carriage and conveyed to
the nearest place where accommodation could be
afforded, a small beer-house called the Globe,
about half a mile from the station, where she was
delivered within two hours afterwards of the child
involved in the present inquiry. A few days after-
wards the prisoner adopted a course to destroy the
identity of the child, with the presumed object of
possessing himself of the property devised by the
will. As shown on oath the prisoner went to the
registrar, Mr. Herbert, since deceased, and regis-
tered his child as "Robert Hill, son of Robert Hill
and Mary Hill, maiden name Seymour." A week
after the birth of the child the prisoner induced his
wife to consent to put the child out to nurse, and
came to London for the purpose of making the ne-
cessary arrangements. The day following his
arrival in town ha informed his wife that he had
made arrangements that would be satisfactory to
her and requested her to forward the child to Lon•
don by a train which he indicated. This train was
not due in London until midnight. The mother,
believing her husband's representations, entrusted
her child, then only 10 days old, to Catherine Par-
sons, a girl 14 years of age, but the daughter of the
woman who was then nursing her, and they left
by the train mentioned by the prisoner. The child
was wrapped in a shawl prized for particular rea-
sons by the mother, and, as will hereafter be seen,
it forms an important ingredient in the case, and a
box containing baby linen was also sent with the
child_ Catherine Parsons states that on arriving at
the Euston-square Station she was met by th pri-
soner. He took her in a cab to some part of the
metropolis, with which, of course, as a country girl.
she was unacquainted, and, having deposited the
box, returned with her and the child to the vicinity
of the Euston Station, where they were met by two
women, one of whom she describes as a black
woman, and both of teem as being drunk. By
Mr. Hill's direction she handed the child to one of
these women, who asked if it was alive and clean,
to which Parsons replied that she hoped it would
be taken as much care of, and kept as clean as
it had bten at Rugby. Parsons bad re-
ceived strict injunctions from Mrs. Hill to
bring back the shawl in which the child was
enveloped ; but when she endeavoured to do so,
the woman replied that if she took the child she
would take the shawl and all with it, and accord-
ingly retained possession of that article. Mr. Hill
took the girl to the Queen's Dining rooms, in Great
Portland-street, Oxford-street, kept by Mr. Man-
ning, where she remained, the prisoner also occupy-
ing a room in the same house. On the following
day the prisoner and the girl returned to Rugby,
where she intimated to her mistress tbat the child
had been placed in improper hands. The prisoner,
however, combated this assumption by assuring his
wife that the girl was entirely mistaken. From
time to time Mrs. Hill expressed the greatest
anxiety regarding the welfare of her child, but her
husband always asseverated that it was in proper
hands, and was progressing most satisfactorily.

This state of things continued for about two years,
and at length Mrs. Hill told her husband that she
insisted upon seeing her child. He refusQd to
comply with her request, a serious altercation
took place, and he ultimately subjected her to gross
ill-usage. Upon this a separation took place; but
a short time subsequently he made overtures to his
wife to live with him again. She indignantly re-
pelled his offers for a time, but at length promised
to consider them favourably, providing he satisfied
her as to what had become of her infant. He, in-
formed her, in return, that it was dead ; and she
then demanded the register of its death, and pressed
him upon this point. Being thus placed in a diffi-
culty, he altered his story, stating that the nurse in
whose care he had placed the child had left England
for Australia, he providing the passage-money.
Mrs. Hill, who had been acting all through with the
advice and cognizance of her mother, still doubted
the truth of his statements, and placed the
matter in the hands of Mr. Cooke, solicitor,
who at once applied to Mr. Inspector Hamil-
ton, of the City of London detective force, for
assistance in elucidating the mystery which sur-
rounded the case. Mr. Hamilton judiciously selected
Mr. Brett, to whose extraordinary ability, per-
severance, and foresight the present aspect of the
case is to be entirely attributed. Having, after
much labour, obtained certain information, Brett
and Mr. Cooke issued the following bill, which was
posted in great numbers i❑ St. Giles's, and every
other low neighbourhood in London, a copy at the
same time being sent to every workhouse in the
metropolis :
" To Masters of Workhouses, Police Officers, Cabdrivers,
and Others.

• " CHILD MISSING.

" Twenty pounds reward will be paid to any person or
persons who may give such information as shall lead to the
discovery of a male infant brought in the evening of or
about the 17th January, 1859, in the care of a servant girl
15 years of age, to the Euston Station of the London and
North-Western Railway, and opposite the station in
Drummond-street, was given into the custody of_twe women
by a gentleman aged about 30, five feet six inches high, thin,
and fair, who went in a four-wheel cab, from the neighbour-
hood of the Haymarket, with the women. One of the
women stout in person, about 40 years old ; the other very
dark, thin, and tall, both dirtily dressed in cotton gowns.
The infant was then but ten days old, and was enveloped in
a large double plaid shawl, dark green and blue, rather
faded. The infant was a fine healthy boy, and would now
be about two years and a half old. The stout woman gave
the name of Farebrother,' and the address of Litchfield-
street or Titchfield-street, &Al°, and had meetings with the
gentleman above-mentioned in Windmill-street, Hay-
market, early in January, 1859.
" Whoever will give such information as will lead to the
discovery of the child may receive the above reward.
" Application to be made, and information to In-
spector Hamilton, City Police Detective Office, 21, ma
Jewry, E.C. ; or to George Francis Cooke, solicitor, 30,
King-street, Cheapside, E.C.
" June 8, 1861."
The effect of the above was all that could be de-
sired A woman named Mackay, living in St.
Giles's, saw the offer of the reward, and had an in-
terview with the solicitor and the officer. She
stated that about 18 months previously, when lodg-
ing in a house in the Seven-dials, a woman who
occupied a room on the same floor, and who had no
children of her own, one or two nights consecutively
had a child in her room, which Mackay knew by
hearing it cry. She spoke to the woman about it,
asking her to whom the child belonged. Her fel-
low lodger replied that she had received it from a
woman who had obtained it from another woman
named Andrews, who had informed her that
she had .received it from a gentleman at a rail-
way station. Mackay added, that the female
in question left the house a few days after-
wards, and she then knew nothing about her.
Slight as this clue appeared, Brett worked upon it;
and by dint of extraordinary perseverance he ulti
mately discovered by its aid that tl.e child his in-
formant had heard cry was the one being eagerly
sought after. This, however, was not accomplished
without great labour and some danger. The belief
at first. was, that the child had been " dropped"
upon some door-step and had perished, or that it
had been rescued from death only to become the
inmate of a workhouse. Biett's primary inquiries
were directed to that 1_ oint, but he soon found it to
be fallacious. He then directed his attention to
the discovery of the woman indicated by Mackay.
He travelled from court to court throughout St.
Giles's, and at length went to a filthy alley, called
" Lincoln's-court," in Drury-lane. In one of the
houses in this place he discovered the woman
Andrews, and he also traced the child into her
possession. After searching various rooms, Brett
proceeded into a small apartment on the second
floor. In one corner lay a man, nearly naked, ap-
parently in a dying state; and squatting all over
the floor were several women in a most ragged and
miserable condition. The whole place was in a
titeadful state, the stench from the filth being
almost overpowering. On the floor in this horrible
den Brett discovered the heir to £14,000 a year
almost in a state of nudity, and covered with vermin
and filth. No shoes were on his feet, and only one
dirty rag enveloped the entire body. The toes
were terribly scarred with the impressions of
wounds, no doubt inflicted by walking over stones,
while the head and body generally showed unmis-
takeable marks of negligence and ill-usage. The
house from bottom to top appeared to be occu-
pied by prostitutes and beggars ; and the officer
only escaped with the child in safety by literally
"parrying" his way through the swarm of people
who blocked up every means of egress. Having
at length reached the street, Brett placed the
child and Mrs. Andrews in a cab and conveyed
them to Mr. Cooke's office. Brett was afterwards
informed by Mrs. Andrews that on one wet Satur
day she was standing in Windmill-street, Hay-
market, apparently selling songs and staylaces, but
in reality begging with her two children, one in
arms and the other in the gutter by her side, when
the prisoner passed her, and in a furtive manner,
slipped a shilling into her hand. Having passed
and re-passed several times, he beckoned her to fol-
low him to a dark part of the street. She did so,
and he then asked if she would take a child to nurse,
telling her that she need only treat it as her own,
and that she might, if able, dispose of it by placing
it in some workhouse or Asylum. She promised
to procure the advice of 'a friend, and
made an appointment for the following night
in the same place. Prisoner kept the appoint-
ment, and at that meeting he agreed to give her
£l6 a year for taking charge of the/child, and told her
to meet him at the same spot on the following
Wednesday night, when he would take her to a
place where she should receive the child. The fur-
ther appointment was also kept, but Mrs. Andrews
was accompanied on this occasion by a woman
named Mrs. Scott, alias Mary Alin Idle, who is
at present undergoing twelve montbs imprison-
ment in Tothill-fields for robbing a gei;tleman in
the street. She added that all three went in a cab
to the North-Western Railway Station in Ens
ton-square, on the Wednesday night, where they
received the child, as stated by the girl Parsons.
Mts. Andrews related the conversation she had
with the girl as to how the child htd been treated
at Rugby ; stated that her friend Scott, alias Idle,
went with the prisoner to a beer-shop near the
station, and there received £l5 from him to take
the child away. She also stated that when
she received the child it was wrapped in a
shawl, which she afterwards pledged. Brett
had redeemed the shawl, which had been
identified by Mrs. Hill. The officer had a'so
obtained possession from Mrs. Andrews of a box
which Mrs. Hill also identified as being the one
sent by her with the child, filled with baby linen,
and it was worthy of mention that the prisoner
had, with the object of still further destroying
identity, cut out all the marks which had been in-
serted upon the infant's clothing. Mrs. Andrews
further stated that when the prisoner gave her the
child, he told her that the mother was dead ; that
he was a clerk, going to travel on the Continent ;
but he gave her neither name nor address. She did
not believe " all was right," and ultimately had the
child registered in her maiden name, which was
Farebrother. Brett tested the truth of that state-
ment, and found an entry in the book of the regis-
trar of St. Giles's to the effect that on the 28th
of February, 1859, a child, five weeks old,
had been registered in the name of Albert
Farebrother—the name given by the pri
soner to the woman when she received the child.
To further prove the identity of the child, Brett
went to every house where Mrs. Andrews had lived
in St. Giles's from the time the child left Rugby to

the hour of its recovery, and he found her statement
true in every particular. He ascertained that on
one occasion when Mrs. Andrews was sent to prison
for begging, the child, with her own, was placed in
St. Giles's workhouse, where it remained until she
regained her liberty, when she used it as before for
the purpose of exciting the commiseration of the
public in her begging expeditions. Scott, alias Idle,
had been seen in prison and corroborated all the
features of the case, as detailed by Andrews, alias
Farebrother. Upon its recovery the child was re-
stored to its mother, who, it was scarcely necessary to
state, received it with unbounded expressions of joy
and affection, Unfortunately, owing to the neglect
from starvation and cold, it was still under the
careful attention of eminent medical men, and its
ultimate recovery was by no means certain. Upon
the above facts being clearly established Mr. Cooke
and Mr. Brett applied to the magistrates here for a
warrant for the apprehension of the prisoner. The
warrant was granted, but it could not be executed,
inasmuch as the prisoner was not in England. He
was Known to be in Brussels, but as no treaty of r x-
tradition existed, he could not be demanded Mrs.
Hill was advised to proceed to London, in the hope
that the prisoner, who had privately renewed his
entreaties for forgiveness, would follow her. The
ruse ultimately succeeded, for on Saturday afternoon
last the prisoner, having shaved o,ff' a large pair of
red whiskers, and in their place substituted a pair

of false black ones, eluded the vigilance of the Bel-
gian authorities, who were watching his movements,
and succeeded in reaching London. By some 5( eret
means he had obtained the address of his wife (who
had been located by her friends in a portion of the
metropolis where it was thought she was safe from
intrusion), and to her great surprise, while out upon
a visit, she received information that the prisoner
had endeavoured to see her. She, naturally much
alarmed, sought the assistance of Mr. Brett, who
hastened to the neighbourhood, and at last succeeded
in securing hitli at a house a few doors removed from
his wife's residence; and it was clear that he had
taken the apartments for the purpose of overlooking
his wife's movements. When taken into custody,
prisoner said it was a bad job, but he must make the
best of it. He was taken to Bow station, where he
remained until this morning, when he was conveyed
by Brett to this town, and placed before the magis-
trates.

The evidence having been taken,
Mr. Cooke applied for a remand, in order to pro-
cure witnesses from Brussels (where prisoner had
been living), including the British Vice-Consul, and
also other persons necessary to complete the case.
The Chairman (Mr. Caldecott) asked the prisoner
if he had any reason to show why he should not be
remanded.

Prisoner-1 have only just arrived from Brussel:3.
I was not aware of this warrant, and I should like
my brother and Colonel Burdett to be present.
Chairman—But can you say why you should not
be remanded ?

Prisoner—No ; but I should like it for as short
time as possible. I must get my solicitor from
Dieppe, and he will not be here to day. I have had
no opportunity to get him here. Mr. Cooke hcs
made these charges against me. I see my marriage
settlements on the table now, but I could not obtain
them before, although I have applied for them.
Themagistrate suggested that the prisoner should
withhold any statement he had to make for the
present.
Prisoner—Can I have bail till the next occasion
I have not changed my clothes since I left Brussels.
After some further conversation,
The Chairman intimated that bail would be ac-
cepted, to prisoner in £5OO and two sureties in .CSCIO
each, with 24 hours' notice.

The prisoner was then remanded until Tuesday,
the 24th instant.

ANOTHER RAIL ri7-11' OFFICIAL CODI-

ItITTED FOR MAItTSLAUG.E2:ER.

On Thursday an inquest washeld at South Shields
on the body of John Thompson, the carter killed on
a level crossing on the South Shields branch of the
North-Eastern Railway. It appears from the evi-
dence taken at the inquest that the gates across the
turnpike had to be kept constantly closed unless
carts had to pass. If a train was nearly due the
danger signal had to be put on and the line blocked.
On Tuesday last, about 25 minutes to 12 a.m., the
ordinary train from Sunderland and Newcastle
called at the Tyne Dock station and crossed the
turnpike road all right. But 10 minutes alter nn
express train from Pelaw Main with passengers
from the south was due, and this train only calls at
the Tyne Dock station when there are passengers
to leave, and hence the greatest precaution had to
be observed in passing it. About 20 minutes to 12
Adams had allowed a fish-cart to cross the railway.
He forgot to close the gate after it passed. About
a quarter to 12 a mason working at the station ob-
served John Thompson, labourer in the employ of Mr.
Melburn, a contractor, coming up with a horse and
cart. He was sitting on the cart head and driving
without reins; he passed within the gates, and was
just e bout to cross the rails when Adams, the gate-
keeper, and the stationmaster, began to shout to
him in a frantic manner, calling on him to put back.
Thomson, hearing them, shouted to his horse, which,
instead of stopping, jumped forward. Thompson
leaped from the cart-head, and was turning his
horse about when the express came down at a speed
of 17 miles an hour. It smashed the cart shafts and
carried the horse and its unfortunate driver about
25 feet forward, mangling their bodies too horribly
to describe. The engine-man, fireman, and guard
stated that the whistle was sounded when the train
was about half a mile from the station„ and again
on reaching the stopboard, which was seen to be
down for "All clear." The engine-man could not
see the turnpike because of the station and some
new buildings, and did not observe the horse and
cart until the train was close upon them. The jury,
after a long consultation, returned a verdict of man-
slaughter against Adams, who was committed to
Durham assizes for trial. Bail was taken.