The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-11-19 00:00:00

DEATH BY POISON, AT OFFTON.

(From the Ipswich Journal.)
A most painful sensation was caused at Offton, a village
situate about eight miles from Ipswich, on Friday the Sth in-
stant, by the discovery that a respectable occupier of land, Mr.
Robert Minns, his brother William, his sister Susan (all of
them above sixty years of age), and Susan Minns, niece to
Robert, and daughter of William Minns, aged thirty-seven,
were suffering from the effects of poison, which had been mixed
up in a pudding of which they partook at dinner. William
Minns and his sister Susan are since dead. These four unfor-
tunate individuals formed a family, and were living upon a farm
of about thirty-four acres, the property of John Goodeve Spar-
rowe, 'Biqa of Gosfield, Essex • they were considered quiet,
inoffensive, simple-minded people—the niece—it is a remarka-
ble coincidence with the melancholy tragedy at Plumstead—was
deaf and dumb. The house in which they lived is an old fa-
shioned farm house, close by the roed leading to Bildeston, and
it is a singular fact, that there was no shutter to any window of
the house. On Friday, immediately after dinner, which took
place about twelve o'clock, which coesisted of a pudding, some
pork, and a few potatoes, the sister Susan was taken violently
ill, with excessive vomi'ing and inter: eet pain, when she leftehe
room and hastened to the bed-chanrer, where she died in
about three hours. Robert Minns and his niece were alsoaffected
in the same manner and went to bed. While they were lyiug
st:. et.--;., eset., W. mi...., who had been working upon
the farm, came home and teat into the house to get his dinner.
Seeing his brother upon the bed, he asked him what was the mat-
ter; Robert replied that they had been all suddenly taken ill
after eating their meals. William asked if there was any thing
the matter with the victuals, and upon Robert's reply, " No,
he didn't think that there was," sat down and ate heartily of
the pudding. He then went to the stable, saddled a horse, and
rode doe n to Bricett, the adjoining parish, for a nurse ; he was
gone rather more than half an hour, and on his return he
went intolthe barn where a man, named Piper, was at work, and
said, I' Piper! for God's sake go make a fire, for I am dying;"
he then went into the house, and soon after to bed, where he
continued in a very distressing state, till death relieved him
from his sufferings on Sunday morning. When William Minus
returned home, his sister Susan was dying, and a messenger
was despatched to call in a medical man. Mr. Grouse, of Had-
leigh, as soon as he received intimation, made all possible dis-
patch, and rendered every assistance medical aid would afford ;
he immediately saw that the unhappy people were suffering
from having taken some deleterious matter, which, on examin-
ation, he found to be arsenic. So potent bad been the mix-
ture that some fowls and two cats, which came and fed at the
yard door where one of the sufferers had emptied his stomach,
almost immediately died.
The pudding, it appears, was made by the elder woman,
Susin Minns, who kept house, from flour which was contained
in a sack standing near the window at the back of the house—
a pudding had been made from the same flour on the Sunday
previous, and there had been a baking on the Tuesday: the
window was about four feet from the ground outside, a small
casement window about two feet high, with an aperture nine
inches wide; the sack was placed about three feet from the
window, the mouth being left untied, and it is supposed that an
entrance was effected at the window on the previous night, and
the poison put into the sack. Suspicion has fallen upon a young
man of loose character, who a short time since, on the 3d inst.,
assaulted Robert Minns upon the high road and robbed him of
his purse, containing £7 18s. A warrant for his apprehension
was granted, but he has managed to keep at large.
Robert Minns and his niece, we are happy to say, are fast
recovering from the effects of the poison.
A coroner's inquest sat at Minn's house on Thursday and
Friday last.
Mr: Sparrow, the coroner, in summing up said, " that there
was no doubt how the unfortunate individuals came to their
death—by poison administered to them ; there was no reason
for the supposition that the poison was mixed by the unhappy
woman who made the pudding, but there was strong reason to
believe that an entrance was effected into the house, and the
poison put into the sack by some evil-disposed person, with in-
teut to take the life of one of the family. The question then
arose, who that evil-disposed person could be ; the jury had
evidence that a young man, Joseph Sayer, had been charged
with robbing Robert Minns upon the high road • what was
termed malas animus on the part of Sayer was fully proved;
yet there was nothing to warrant a conclusion that he com-
mitted the act; only there was cause for suspicion. The safest
course for the jury to pursue would be to return a verdict of—
Wilful Murder against some person or persons unknown, leav-
ing it to the county magistrates further to examine the subject if
at any time further evidence could be procured."
The court was then cleared, leaving the jury by themselves ;
they almost immediately agreed upon a yerdict—that the de-
ceased, William Minns and Susan Minns, died from the effects
of poison adrainiste.r4bv some Derean or germ-le 11 nit r..urn _