Glasgow Courier. — 1853-09-08 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

MURDER AT STOCKPORT.  On Friday evening last, between nine and ten o'clock, a man named Thomas Moore gave information at the Stockport Borough Police-office of the disappearance of his two step-children, and requested that inquiries might be made, at the same time giving a description of them. On the following day this man was apprehended, under varrant which had been out against him since last November for neglecting to support his wife and family, since which time the prisoner had been out of the way. Mr. Sadler, the superintendent of police, then questioned him respecting the disappearance of the children, and his replies excited a suspicion that they had received foul play at his hands. Placards were posted all over the town that evening, offering a reward for their discovery, and all the rivers and ponds in the neighbourhood were dragged, but without success, until Monday morning, when the bodies of both the children wire found in the Manchester and Ashton canal, near Shawcross or Whitehall Bridge, at a place called Reddish, between Stockport and Levenshulme. The prisoner was at that time undergoing an examination before the magistrates at the Stockport Courthouse, and was remanded till Saturday. It has since been ascertained that he was seen leading the children towards the canal, near the place where the bodies were found, between nine and ten o'clock on Friday morning. He afterwards went to the house of a woman named Elizabeth Barton, alias Walton, and requested her have to dry his clothes as he was wet through. Although it had been raining, his saturated appearance induced her to ask him where he had got so wet; when he replied that he had been helping a woman to lift a can on her head at the river side, and had fallen back into the water. Since his apprehension he has maintained a profound reserve, beyond a general denial of all knowledge how the children came to their death. The names of the children are James and John Iligham, the former eight, and the other four yearn old. Their father died about four years ago, and about two years subsequently their mother was married again to the prisoner, than employed as a stripper and grinder at the mill of Mr. M'Clure (late Alfred Orrell), cotton-spinner. She had one child by him, which died some time ago. Since his marriage the prisoner has been in no regular employment, and generally absent from home. In May, 18-52, lie was imprisoned for a month for neglecting to support his family. His wife had earned slicing by working in a factory, but during the recent turn-out was compelled to resort to begging for a subsistence, and, while so engaged, met the prisoner accidentally, as he was coming out of a mill;where he was at work,at Hyde. She has recently been living with her father, James Taylor, in Mareland Street, Portwood ; and on Friday last came home at noon and prepared dinner, but her children did not come in before she returned to work. Shortly after six o'clock in the evening her husband came in and began to scold her, because she had not sent him his dinner. He told her he had obtained work at M'Clure's, and had sent one of her sons to fetch his dinner. The mother was very much dietressed at the continued absence of her children, believing they were lost, and she and her husband went out in search of them. Although the man was covered w ith fragments of cotton when he came home, and seemed as if he had been at work, it appeared on inquiry that such was not the case. The motive which induced the prisoner to murder the children is only too apparent, as he would be entitled to £l9 Its on their death, the eldest child being in three burial clubs, and the other in two. It is said that he made an attempt to drown the children in the river Tame about a month ago, but they then made their escape. When the bodies were found on Monday they were without any marks of violence. The prisoner is a native of Itindon, and went to Stockport about twelve years ago. Nft. Rutter, county coroner, was 'molding an inquest on the bodies on Tuesday afternoon at the Navigation Inn, Heaton Norris.