The Sun.
London, England, 1829-09-30 00:00:00

SEDUCTION AND SUICIDE.

A case of suicide of a very melancholy nature has
been brought under the notice of the Magistrates
of Union•hall. The victim was the daughter of
Mr. Brockbridge, a turner, residing at No. 27,
Gravel-lane, Southwark. It appeared that Mr.
Brockbridge is a widower, and resided with his two
daughters in Gravel-lane, one of whom, the subject
of the present melancholy account, became ac-
quainted with a young man, named Arthur Eryan,
who works in the manufactory of Mr. Friend, the
engineer of the Southwark Bridge-road, about ten
weeks ago. The acquaintance between the person
alluded to and Elizabeth Brockbridge (the deceased)
commenced by his having addressed her one morn-
ing while she was standing at her father's door. She
had previously seen him pass the house several
times, and upon this occasion he expressed much
regard for her. The interview ended by the unfor-
tunate girl consenting to meet him in the afternoon
of the same day. She kept her promise, and on her
return home she divulged to her only sister the cir-
cumstances attending the meeting between her and
her supposed lover. She told her sister that she
had walked about that part of the town with Bryan,
mid that she consented to marry him in a month, if
her father permitted it ; Bryan, on his part, saying
that all he required as a portion with her were some
articles to furnish apartments which he proposed
taking for them to reside in. On the Monday fol-
lowing Bryan called at Mr. Brockbridge's during
the absence of the latter, whose business called him
away from home during the greater part of the day,
and he was invited into the house by the two sisters,
when he reiterated his former vows of love and
constancy. The intimacy continued, and about six
weeks ago Bryan prevailed upon the deceased to ac-
company him to Islington to visit his sister, as be
alleged. The sister, however, was not found at the
place where he said she resided, and they returned
to Southwark in a hackney-coach. The deceased
informed her sister that on this occasion Bryan had
succeeded, in spite of the resistance made on her
part, in ruining her. She afterwards became ex-
tremely melancholy, and never left the house from
the evening she returned in the hackney-coach
until Monday last, on the morning of which day,
when her father went out before breakfast, she
complained to her sister of her restless nights, say-
ing that she would go to the chemist's, and get a
pennyworth of laudanum to make her sleep. Her
sister, who had not the slightest idea of the dread-
ful intentions of the unfortunate girl, permitted her
to leave home, and she shortly afterwards returned
with an empty phial in her hand, saying that she
could not procure the liquid she wanted. After
having remained in the parlour a few minutes, dur-
ing which she manifested considerable agitation, she
told her sister that she should go up stairs for a little
while. Having remained longer there than her
sister thought necessary, the latter called to her to
come down, upon which she descended, and her
sister perceiving a death-like paleness over her
countenance, inquired eagerly what was the matter
with her ? The unhappy girl, who appeared at this
time to be in great agony, ejaculated, " My dear
Mary, I have destroyed myself, I have taken six-
pennworth." A medical man having been instantly
sent for, the stomach-pump was applied, buts the
operation was rendered useless, owing to the quan-
tity of time destructive poison the unfortunate girl

had swallowed, from the erects of which'she died
shortly afterwards in excruciating agony. In the
room up stairs, where the deceased went imme-
diately on her return home, after having told her
sister that she could not procure any laudanum, was
found a phial, containing a small quantity of oxalic
acid, from which there is no doubt she poured that
which she drank, and which caused the tortures
that ended her dissolution. Previous to her death
the deceased, in speaking of Bryan, said that the
last time he saw her he wanted to prevail upon her
to borrow 2/. 10s. from her father, saying that he
should repay it, and that he wanted it to get some
of his clothes out of pledge, in order to accompany
her to church respectably dressed. On the same
day, when the Union-hall Police-office was about
being closed, Mr. Brockbridge, the father of the de-
ceased, accompanied by his only" daughter, entered
the office. The unfortunate father stated the cir-
cumstances relative to his daughter's seduction and
suicide to the above effect ; adding, that he had
met with the betrayer of her virtue that day, and
had him taken into custody and brought to that
office to answer the charge. _

The Magistrates (Mr. SwABEY and Mr. HONE)
directed the accused person to be placed in the slip,
and upon being asked his name, he replied that it
was Arthur Bryan.
In the presence of the accused, Mr. Brockbridge
detailed, in a most pathetic manner, the exemplary,
virtuous, and filial conduct of his unfortunate
daughter, until she had met with Bryan. He was
not aware, he said, until the morning she destroyed
herself, that she had formed an intimacy with her
seducer; but he recollected, when he sat opposite
to her, whom he looked upon as the comfort of his
old age, at the breakfast-table, that she rejected her
food, and appeared melancholy; and when he asked
her the reason of it, she appeared confused and
went up stairs, saying that she should be better in a
short time. He (the father) went out shortly af-
terwards to his business, never for a moment con-
ceiving what had previously occurred, and therefore
under no apprehension that she meditated self-de-
struction. While engaged in his business he was
sent for to his house, and arrived just in time to see
the last struggles of his expiring child. It was then
and not till then, that his other daughter put him in
possession of the facts concerning his child's seduc-
tion, and t! e name of her seducer, and he lost no
time in seeking him, to make him atone before a tri-
bunal for his inhuman conduct towards his unfortu-
nate child, who was destitute of that maternal care
which was so requisite to guard young females
against the machinations of men such as the person
he had taken into custody.
Both the Magistrates condoled with Mr. Brock-
bridge on the distressing event which had plunged
him and his daughter into such affliction. As, how-
ever, it did not appear that the man in custody had
any hand either in procuring the oxalic acid, or be-
ing present when the deceased had swallowed the
poison, the law did not reach him. If the circum-
stances relating to the seduction of the unhappy girl
were founded in truth, and there was no reason
shown to disbelieve the deceased's sccount of the
violence used towards her, her seducer's conscience
would torment him the longest day he had to live,
if he was possessed of any feeling, and would em-
bitter his dying moments.
Bryan denied that he had taken the deceased into
a coach, and said he should be enabled to prove that
assertion when required.
The Magistrates directed that he should be de-
tained in custody, in order to prevent his keeping
out of the way when the inquest will be held on the
body of the deceased.