Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1864-11-09 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

INCH' T ON A CHILD. VEHDICT or WILFUL et:Ali:se rue MOrHEIL—On Thursday evening last th adjoureol inquest on the body of William Feley, aeel two menthe, was held at the Angel Hotel, before Themes Wiiliame Esq., deploy coroner. Some tizne azo the in eller ef ;he ti oseasgt. Ann Foley, was loomed up in eustiely at the Police Court, and charged With depwitieg her chill, then only a few weeks old, on the door-step of a helve opposite the workhouse gates. She lege, lied a: that time to be the very picture of misery, and she was then sentenced to a brief period of imprisentnent. At the inquest John Foley deposed that he was her het-them]; for some time he had been away from it r—ii:nemotiths—and returned five months before the Lit tli of Since that event he had given Dia bile all the money that be could get—from £2 to .C 2 10., and she had had only Is 6d relief since they came hula 'lid gar to live in Merthyr, but she was a ferteight in Tr eleger Union after her confinement. He bad often had aagry words with her respecting deceased, whom ha dil net acknowledge as his child, and consequently charged her with infidelity. He had not seen his wife since the burial of the child, which took place two days after its deeth, on the 20th October —el ary Clannan said the lied witness, his wife, deceased, and two ithildren besides, lodged at her house for four days, and she was with them one day out of the four; on that day demised had plenty of food.—Catherine Welsh said the family lodged with her for three weeks up to the death of the child. The husband and wife were always quarrelling about it. He alleged its illegitimacy, and she admitted it. One evening the mother attempted to suckle the deceased, but her husband struck her, and rwvented her. He used to say she ought not to give Ibis children's milk to that child. Foley did not sleep in her beim; for eleven nights receding the 18th October. On the S'durilay morning before he commenced to sleep cut witeass went upstairs, and found the family in bed. Their bed eon isted of a mattress on the floor, and thieeesei was wrapaed up in a shawl, and lying on the tare Ileer beneath t window. Witness sent a girl up for the h hr, and gore it some fend. On the Monday following this witness told the mother to take the child to a d ctor. She did so, and brought back some medicine. 'Witness lid not knoe whether to chid took any of it. The mother on two ir three oi casions gave it syrup of poppies. On the nieht of the 18th October witness came in between eleven and twelve o'clock, and saw the mother sitting with deceased before the fire apparently warming the child. She said she thought the child was dying, and witness said the infant breathed his last a laioute or two afterwards. It died very quietly. The aeother had plenty of milk, but the child was very much ' neelected.—Ellen Dunn corroborated much of the last , depesition, and ad tel that she had many times seen the baby on the if or; never on the mattress. The two days previous to the death deceased lay on the boards all the day. It was much neglected by the mother. About a week before death witness gave the child some food, and it was eating ravenously.—Mr Herbert James said when the child ,was brought to him it was suffering from genera atrophy. The mother could not have had the bust milk. Assisted by Mr Dyke he made a post mortem eine& ation on the body on the 20th, and found it terlthy, but terribly emaciated, and the stomach VIM completely empty, as were also the small intestines. If the child had had food for two or three days before death it was not enough to sustain life; they found no obatacle to the child's taking food.--The Coroner then ably summed up, and dismissed the jury to consider their verdict. In a few minutes they returned with a verdict of •• Wilful Murder" against Ann Foley, the mother. The mother has not yet been heard of.