Glasgow Courier. — 1848-03-18 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

MURDER OF A CHILD BY ITS FATHER.  A shocking case of infanticide has just come to light, which has been perpetrated in the neighbourhood of Brechin about three weeks ago, of which brutal occurrence the following are the particulars:—A young woman, residing at Inglismaldie, had been the unfortunate dupe of a man named Robertson (who had been employed as a farm servant at Findowry, in this parish), to whom she had born two children at separate times. The mother being unable to support both of them, Robertson assumed his readiness to undertake the charge of the youngest, for whom, he said, he had procured a decent person as a nurse, who resided at Creigend of Careston, a small hamlet close by Findowry. With this assurance the unsuspecting mother consented to part kith her child, sad brought it to the house of one of Robertson's sisters, where he was waiting, and immediately carried the infant away, under pretence of going to the nurse. A week or so afterwards the mother felt anxious to know how her child was doing, and made a journey on purpose to the person whom Robertson had named as having charge of it; but, alas! the woman neither knew Robertson nor anything of the child. The mother then requested of her seducer to know with whom the child was living, but receiving no satisfactory answer, she employed a writer in town to procure the desired object. Upon the father being informed that the mother had a legal right to see her child, he requested her to meet him in Brechin on Sabbath last, when he would satisfy her. Accompanied by her brother, she set out and met Robertson according to appointment. On asking for her child, he inquired why she was so anxious to see it? "I have some clothes to give it," sho said. "Time child does sot require them from you," answered the inhuman villain; "it is in better clothing than you can give it." "But I am determined to see my child," was the reply; when Robertson, taking the poor woman aside, made the awful disclosure that he had murdered the infant, and buried it in a drain near Findoevry. He had carried his poor child from four to six miles, through many trackless muirs and lonesome woods, to the spot where he committed the fearful crime. After Robertson's disclosure, the distracted mother and her brother hurried home to Inglismaldie, afraid, no doubt, that should they allow the darkness of night to overtake them, they might be waylaid by the murderer, and share the same untimely fate as the unfortunate child. The policeman at Inglismaldie being apprised of the circumstance, lost no time is coming to Brechin for assistance; and about midnight assailed the " bothie " of Findowry, when be and his brother officers were immediately answered by the prisoner, whom they secured and brought to jail. As soon thereafter as possible, Messrs. Black and Stramban. along with Dr. Mackie, went to the scene of murder, where they found the body of the child as Robertson had described, rolled among a quantity of straw, and stuffed into the mouth of a field drain. The prisoner and the remains of his innocent victim (which were brought to town on Monday afternoon), have both been examinee( by the proper authorities, and we bear Robertson is remanded to a higher court. The unhappy father is a young man from twenty-six to thirty years of ago, and has rather a prepossessing appearance.—Afontross Standard.