The Sun. — 1829-06-09 (London, England)

MARYLEBONE.  On Friday, night, Williamson, the constable of Acton, applied to Mr. HOSKINS, for a warrant to apprehend a young woman, who, under the following circumstances, was suspected of having attempted to murder one of her children.  A farmer's man, on Wednesday night, as he was going across a field in that parish for the purpose of cutting tares, heard the half-stifled cries of au infant. He went to the spot from whence they came, and found one in a ditch, among stinging nettles and briars, struggling under some long grass and dirt, and he went into the village and fetched Williamson. Williamson went back with him to the place, and took up the child. There was a great deal of dry dirt about it, and its eyes and mouth were nearly stopped with some which had been turned into clay by its tears. It was in convulsions, and its face and hands were so discoloured that the people who saw him carry it home, said he had found a negro child. He sent for a woman to undress it, and put it into warm water, and when she had taken off its bedgown, she cried out, " Good God! the child is strangled." It had a piece of old black riband tied round its throat, in a hard knot, so tight, that it had cut through the skip, and he could hardly get the blade of a penknife under it to separate it. He put it into the care of a wet nurse, and, upon making inquiry, he found that a young woman had been seen that afternoon in the neighbourhood, with such a child, and one older, and was heard to say she was going into Berkshire by a waggon from Hammersmith. The child did not appear to be a month old, but it had already been vaccinated, and Williamson, drawing a conclusion from that circumstance that it had been born in some workhouse or lying-in-hospital, followed up his inquiries, until he ascertained that one Ann Chapman, who answered to the description of the woman, was discharged from St. George's workhouse on Tuesday, after having lain in three weeks, and had received a sovereign from the overseers to pay for her carriage to \Vantage, in Berkshire; and he also discovered that she cohabited with a young man at Hammersmith, called Mat Varney. A warrant NI as granted, and yesterday she and Mat Varney were brought to the office. Williamson stated to Mr. HOSKINS, that he met the prisoner on Saturday night, about eight o'clock, in the road to Starch-green, near Shepherd's-bush, in company with Varney. He took them to the George inn, at Acton, and several persons identified her as the woman with two children, who was seen there on Wednesday. During the examination the female prisoner fell down in the dock ; she was carried out of the office in strong convulsions, and it required several persons to hold her. After she recovered, a chair was placed for her near the door, and the case was resumed. They were removed from the George-inn to the cage, and her mind appeared so disturbed that two persons were appointed to sit up with her.  Joseph Shepherd; a farmer's man, is acquainted with the prisoner Chapman ; he worked in company with her last harvest. Between one and two o'clock on Wednesday afternoon he saw her in a field near a pond, which is surrounded with osiers; she laid a baby on the ground, and endeavoured to hide it from him with her black whittle. He said, you have got a baby there,—is it yours ? She said no, it belongs to a woman who is gone to call at a farm-house. He asked her to walk into Acton with him. She said no, she had promised to wait till the woman came back, The child was shown to the witness,and he said it was the same.  The messenger of St. George's parish stated, that when the female prisoner was put to bed, Varney came to the workhouse to see her, and he said the child was not his, and told her he should " cut it" with her,—that is, break off his connection with her. Varney did not appear to be implicated in the transaction, and Ann Chapman was committed for trial.