The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-30 00:00:00

THE CASE OF POISONING AT

ASHFORD.

The interest in this extraordinary and mysterious
affair appears unabated, and during the whole of
Friday a great number of persons from the adjacent
villages, and for several miles round, came to Ashford
for the purpose of making inquiries into the sad affair.
No public allusion has yet been made, for obvious
reasons, to one of the reports that was very generally
circulated as to the cause of the deaths of the de-
ceased persons, viz., that they were occasioned by
starvation, and that the union had refused to grant
the necessary relief to the deceased and their family ;
but it is satisfactory to state, from the most careful
inquiry, that there is not the slightest foundation for
such a rumour; and it appears that, en the Friday be-
fore the melancholy occurrence, five quartern loaves
were given to them, together with other necessaries.
The village of Ashford forms a portion of the
Staines Poor-law Union, and although its labouring
population has, in common with that of most other
agricultural parishes, suffered a good deal from want
of employment, yet it has been very favourably
situated by reason of having a most humane and cha-
ritable minister, and several resident gentlemen who
have been most ready to relieve any case of real dis-
tress in their neighbourhood. One gentleman in
particular, Mr. Higlet, has recently behaved in a
most munificent manner, having at his own expense
givers a new suit of clothes to every poor boy in the
parish ; and upon a suit being shown to him as a pat-
tern which was made at the workhouse, he is repre-
sented to have said that the poor boys should have no
workhouse clothes or any of the same pattern, and he
very liberally ordered them a good useful suit, equal,
in fact, in quality to those worn by the children of the
tradesmen and farmers of the parish. In addition to
this act of liberality, it appears that finding the pro-
ceeds of some land appropriated to charitable pur-
poses in Ashford was sufficient to provide a little more
than two sacks of coals for each poor family, hf! gave
directions that it should be made up three sacks to
each, vend paid the difference out of his own pocket.
Although the deceased man and his wife bore a very
indiffe,sent character, they were constant recipients of
Mr. Higlet's bounty, and on the day before they were
found dead, the woman applied to him and received
half-a-crown, so that it is not possible they could
have suffered from want of necessaries ; and indeed
the children state that they were not, but on the con-
trary, they had as much food as they wanted.
Alt'bough the roost diligent inquiry has been insti-
tuted, up to the present time no discovery has been
made of the purchase of any poisonous ingredient by
either of the deceased persons. So far as the woman
is con.oerned, it does not appear probable that she at
all contemplated self-destruction, as on the day before
her death she had carefully cleared up the sitting-
room, and decorated it with holly, intending, as she
told a neighbour, to enjoy herself at Christmas.
The children of the deceased are still in the union
workhouse, but they are both now quite recovered.

THE INQUEST.
T he inquest upon the bodies of William and Sarah
Oliver, who were found dead, under very extra-
ordi.ciary circumstances, in a cottage at Ashford, on
Tuesday morning last, was held on Saturday at the
Kin g's Head, Ashford, before Mr. Wakley, the
cor.Yner, and a jury composed of the principal inhabi-
tants of the village, when the evidence clearly made
out that the unhappy man first murdered his wife and
then destroyed himself. The following witnesses
we :r e examined :

William Lathem, the constable of Ashford, was the
first witness. He merely deposed that, in consequence
of tan alarm that was given, he went to the cottage of
the deceased on Tuesday morning last, and found the
wornan lying dead on the bed, and the man reclining
with his head on her body. The two children were
in 21 corner of :the room crying, and the boy pointed
to the bed, and said, " Look there !'"The man was
foa•rning at the mouth very much, and the woman also
appeared to have been voiding foam, but she was at
that time quite dead. The deceased man was not
sensible, and the only sign of life he exhibited was
brew thing very hard. He died between twelve and
one o'clock.

In answer to questions from the Coroner, the wit-
ness said that the boy was nine years old, and the girl
five. He also stated that what the boy said was,
"Look here : my mother is dead, and my father can-
not op en his mouth !"
Dom. H. Richardson, one of the Overseers of Ash-