The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-03 00:00:00

CHARGE OF CHILD MURDER.

Yesterday, at three o'clock, Mr. Mills, Deputy Coroner for
West Middlesex, held a protracted inquest at the Coach and
Horses, Air-street, Hatton-garden, on the body of William
Hill, aged six months.
Elizabeth Hill, a very young woman, mother of deceased,
examined—Mv husband is a glass cutter, and we reside at
No. 26, in this street. About eleven o'clock on Saturday
night last I left the baby well and hearty in bed, and went
into Leather-lane to buy it some milk. It was then fast
asleep. I returned in 15 minutes, and found it dead in bed.
The child was not born in wedlock, and my present husband
is not the father of it. It was born at my mother's, No. 15,
Somers-street, over the way. There was no one in the
room when I found the child dead. I had not left it a
quarter of an hour altogether. When I went out for the
milk I left my husband in the room quite sober, and stand-
ing with his back to the fire. As I was going out I asked
him to go on an errand to my mother's, in Somers-street,
and he said he would. When I came back he was gone
When I took the child from the bed it made a strange
noise in the throat once and then died. On passing my
hand over its head, it had no cap on ; I found on the left
side, behind and above the ear, a bump as big as the half of
a good-sized egg, and a spot of dry blood on the cheek. 1
could see it was a bump from a hit. There was another red-
dish bump at the back of the head, not so large as the other.
My husband was the first person to come into the room,
almost directly after me. I said to him, " Baby is dead ; it
has been killed some how or other—run and fetch mother."
He replied, "Is it-quite dead?" I answered, "Yes, for some
minutes." He went and fetched Catherine Shephard from
my mother's (my mother not being at home), and he said he
had been to fetch Mr. Mullins, surgeon, of Leather-lane, but
that he was not at home. He went out again and fetched
a doctor (the summoning officer said it was a non-medical
man) from Hatton-wall. who merely looked at the child, and
said that it had died of inflammation of the chest, and that
the bumps on the head were the result of convulsions. When
the doctor was gone, I said to my husband, " If you have done
it, tell me." He said, "I have not touched the child." I
afterwards said, in the presence of witnesses, "You wicked
wretch, you have killed the baby. This is the night you have
long wished for." He made no answer.
The COAONEA here inquired where the husband was ? and
having been told that he was below stairs, sent for him, in
order that he might hear the evidence, which now assumed a
criminatory character.
The accused husband then came into the jury-room, and
took a seat. He is a mere youth, of small stature, of pert
rather than repulsive aspect. The inquiry did not appear to
affect him in the least.
Witness (in continuation)—My mother laid out the child,
and the next morning (Sunday) I went to an undertaker's
about a coffin. I then told my husband that I was sure he
had killed the baby, when he replied, " that it was no use to
say anything to me about it, and to have my own way." I
asked him on Monday morning to go to work to get the
baby under ground. He said he would not, and that he did
not care how it got under ground. My mother also begged
him to go to work. when he said "he would never touch a
tool again—that he would go for a soldier." I said, "If you
had not killed the child, you would go to work." He an-
swered, " If I am born to be hanged, I shan't be drowned."
By the CoßoNen—He did go to my mother's when I asked
him on Saturday night, but did not find her at home. The
child was ill from its birth until within the last fortnight,
when it grew better. It was in very good health on Friday
and Saturday last. When I left the child on Saturday night,
I placed it in the centre of the bed, with its head on the pil-
low. When I came back and found it dead, its head was off
the pillow, hanging forward, but the rest of the body was in
the position I had placed it in. The counterpane was dis-
turbed, and the top part of the bed clothes looked as if some
one had moved them, but not much. I saw that some one
had laid their hands down on the clothes. I can swear posi-
tively that there were no bumps on the clelld's head when I
placed it in the bed.

The CORONER—What did you mean by saving to your
husband, " The night you wished for is come e' Witness—
Because he frequently ill-used and threatened the child.
About a month ago, in the middle of the night, the child
being ill and crying at the time, he said if I did not keep
it still he would dash its brains about. I told him I could
not help its crying, and that if he hit it, I should hit him.
He then struck at the baby, but hit me, and I had a struggle
with him to prevent him hitting the child. He hit me on
the side of the head and rose up a great lump. He fre-
quently ill-used me as well as the baby.
Cross-examination in chief resumed—About two months
ago, during the night, he got out of bed, and thinking I was
asleep, he put his hands near me, and pinched a piece out of
the calf of the baby's right leg. The wound did not heal
until last week. I took the child to Mr. Mullins, surgeon,
who ordered me to poultice the wound, and asked how I could
live with such a vagabond. I also went to complain of my
husband to Clerkenwell Police-court, but they told me I must
get a warrant, which I could not do for want of money.
After he had pinched the child I said to him, "How could
you hurt the poor child so, how could you be so brutish?"
He answered, " Before I do anything better to it, I will do
something worse very likely."
The husband, in an irritated tone of voice—Be cautious
what you say.
A juror—Be silent, air, she is on her oath.
The CouosEtt—By and by you may ask her any questions,
but you must not interrupt her now.
, The witness in continuation—After he knew that I had
been at the police-court, he said if I would look over it he
would never ill-use me or the baby more. I did look over
it, and in a week afterwards he came home and ill-used me
dreadfully, and told a woman named Mary Foles and a man
named Snilling that he had often beaten the child, and would
some day hit it on the head. He has often said to me he
would do for it (the child) some day or other. When I mar-
ried him, five weeks after the birth of the child, he knew all
about it, and my mother said to him previously, "Consider,
there is a child in the way." He said, "Never mind, I will
treat it as my own." A month after our marriage he gave
the child a black eye, and in a fortnight after that he began
to threaten it. He once hit the child in the stomach whilst
it was lying on the floor, and it was very sick for two or three
days afterwards. I have nothing more to say.
The CORONER (addressing the accused)—Your name is
William Hill, and I sent for you as soon as the witness began
to state anything legally implicating you. Do you wish me
to ask her any questions? The husband—Yes, sir. Ask
her when she took the child to the doctor's last ?

The wife--Three weeks ago last Monday. The child was
then very ill and would not eat. Mr. Mullins's assistant
told me it was teething, and gave me a bottle of stuff
which did the child a great deal of good, and it was well ever
Since.

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put The h
several
husband
questions
nota i n eadt i
at 1 wasf
eornr
il yn
ga
tfortnight
csai nrrceen,
Saturday night.
boTunhde
tCootuelol
NyEonu— thatil a vlec3,a-onunoatnypasitta
ut o?tn make, foraoo In
accused
wteimthenyto: —a
clohpoypeofltisiheadlelpb,e,siatlilozd to hear all the witnesses, and get
The Conoxlitt—You shall hear all the witnesses. The de-
positions are not yet completed.
Police-constable Daniel Humphreys, 74 G, was called iu
and charged with the safe custody of the prisoner.
Mr. Benson Whitfield, surgeon, of 61, Lamb's Conduit-
street, examined_l have opened the body, and apart from
what I saw on and in the head, I found nothing material.
There was a healed wound on the right leg. Behind -the
left ear, externally, I observed a blue mark on the scalp,
with a swelling upwards towards the vertex There was no
abrasion of the skin, and the swelling was caused a short
time before death. The body appeared that of 3 healthy