npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Sun. — 1844-11-25 (London, England)

AWFUL EFFECTS OF THE GAME LAWS.—On Tuesday last, about half-past three o'clock, the inhabitants of Pyrton, a village within a mile of Watlington, were thrown into 'the greatest consternation by a melancholy report, which, alas, proved too true, that a poor boy, about sixteen years of age, of the name of Henry Pridcheat, had committed suicide by hanging himself with a pocket handkerchief, from the top of a gate four feet high. It appeared that the pour boy was employed by Mr. Dickers, a respectable farmer in the parish, to shoot sparrows on the new sown wheat. On Monday afternoon, while performing hidAuties, ho started a pheasant ; the temptation being great, and feeling a desire to try his capabilities on a larger scale, he fired at the bird, and unfortunately killed it. At this moment William Clark, one of Lord Parker's gamekeepers, came up, and threatened him with a prosecution ; the idea of appearing before a magistrate, and in all probability, of being sent to prison, filled his mind with the greatest mental agony. The keeper having taken his master's gun, 11( W9S afraid to return to his employer, and he is described as having wandered about in the greatest distress. On the following morning it is reported that he applied to a person in the village for som poison to kill, as he said, his masters' rats, but was refused, and in the afternoon he was discovered by some children at play suspended from the top of a gate, on the footpath leading from Pyrton to Weston, in a kneeling posture, a breathless corpse. The deceased has been employed by Mr. Dickers nearly five years, who gives him an excellent character. The above may be relied on as an authentic I.ict, as onr cor• respondent has visited the village, and had a melancholy view of the mortal remains of this new victim to the atrocious game-laws. So great is the want of agricultural employment in the parish, that no fewer than thirty-three able-bodied persons are employedy: by our surveyors repairing the roads, 'withal, good judges say that the land !ants all the labour..—Oxford Chrenick.
The Sun. — 1844-11-25 (London, England)

SUICIDE AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY GEORGIANA FANS.—On Saturday night Mr. Higgs held an inquest at the Malpas Arms, Charles-street, Grosvenor-square, on the body of Joseph Keinch, aged forty, a servant out of place. John Wigmore, helper to Lady G. Fane's coachman, said that on Saturday morning, at seven o'clock, he opened the door of the stable at the back of her Ladyship's mansion in Upper Grosvenor-square, when, though it was hardly light, he saw something black in the water tub. Upon approaching it he found the deceased with his head and shoulders in the water, and his legs hanging over the side of the tub. Deceased was then quite dead, and had evidently been so for some time. The door leading to the back yard where the deceased was found was sometimes left open all night, and it was without doubt by that means that he got to the tub. The tub was only about two feet in height, and had deceased fallen in by accident, he could with ease have got out again. James Field said the deceased lived at No. 8, Shepherd's-court, and had been out of a situation for the last four months, with the exception of three weeks. On Wednesday ast deceased had a severe fit, from which lie was with difficulty restored. The next day, though better, he was by turns rational and delirious ; and as witness feared from his manner that he would lay violent hands upon himself, he advised his son, a youth, to watch him closely. On Friday deceased went out, followed by his son, and went to Oxfordstreet, where lie walked so fast, and, as the boy said, " dodged about so." that he lost him. Nothing more was heard of him, until his body was found at the rear of Lady Fane's house. Undoubtedly,. for the last two or three days of his life, he was of unsound mind. Verdict—" Temporary insanity."
The Sun. — 1844-06-12 (London, England)

LUNATIC ASYLUMS.—On Monday, at the close of an inquest held in Coldbath-fields House of Correction, a long discussion took place between Mr. Sergeant Adams, ater. Waklev, and the medical gentlemen present, respecting t Mr. Wakle lunatic asylum. y hu omu she: and dnthd tchonedeirteeiotniooof oflun aautiocsw, aenoduotthye necessity that there existed for en there were ius tap isodi upon sixteen paupers ipr when ay u up te he stehfervei visited trhe re tShLe placePancrasheHarwell ascertainedWAk the asylum. ijr. other paupe. Sergeantr lunatic dasAinimt s saidwsitintghafot in the H radmissioanwe admission into Asylumpp rethered curable, were and therenearly 60Oweinrem4a5otes,luonfawuhcosmwohnolsye tfwrieennti as were anxious to get them admitted, but for whom there was no room. He deprecated the proposition to raise the asylum another story. Nothing short of a new asylum, built epea, an extensive plan, and free from iron bars or any appearance of restraint, would meet the exigency. The mild treatment in the Hanwell Asylum worked most beneficially, as was proved from the fact that, while the deaths in private sayhens were ninety per cent., they were only twenty-two in the Hanwell. -OFFICE othstee-oLbffiFolloeidlEy.o--afgeOndnetnwrylieutyn7ddationeyelii. SUICIDE OF A POST DMar; iisi, i gag acl ehrekl di nant hinquest r aoln at his residence, 29, Shaftesbury-terrace, Vauxhall Bridgeroad. Mr. Dermott, a surgeon, said deceased had been residing with him at the above address for the last five weeks, and that on Saturday morning deceased's mother called him (witness) upstairs. He responded to the call, and going tip into deceased's bed-room he found him lying dead prostrate on the floor, in a pool of blood that had issued from a wound in the throat, dividing the wind-pipe and carotid artery, and which was six inches long and two deep. Two razors, with one of which he had inflicted the fatal wound, were lying on a chair close to the body. Deceased always appeared to him in a desponding state. Mr. Bloxam, a surgeon, of 59, Ebuiystreet, said he had attended deceased professionally, of 54,1(1 on, for the last two years. Just a year ago he had an attack, of yellow jaundice, which, with the remedial used, lett him so much debilitated, that he had been in a state of men* prostration ever since. In October, in consequeoPo g-TaP" toms of great excitement he exhibited,- Dr. SutherlandMtn consulted, and he was placed in that gentleman's aaylura at Chelsea, but after the expiration of a month, becoming and rational, he was allowed to come home. He seed from religious delusion, fancying himself unfit to receive, salvation in the world to come. Verdict, " Temporary' insanity. that the now in his 82d year, and an observer of the weather, h equalled in dryness since t e year We understand, on the authority of a gentleman present season has not been 1785, • t assigned no cause for this upusual phenomenon...as e which is a lapse of 59 years. The meteorologists have j Berkshire Chronicle. •
The Sun. — 1844-11-15 (London, England)

COMDE--' That exactly makes good what the ignorance, which exists amongst the destitute poor, against such establishments. More than one suicide in gentleman states, for that is just the this class of society have recently been recorded by dangerous, and which would catch one's head. It the daily newspapers, which profess to have been oc- does not answer to take a man into custody because easioned by destitution ; the parties preferring ra- he will not comply with such a demand. ther to fly in the face of their Maker, rather Policeman—He assaulted me. than avail themselves of the relief which might Mr. Coslßß—You had no business to meddle with have been afforded them in an union workhouse. the gentleman. He did not strike you until you Nor ought it to surprise any one, that the exagge- seized him. rated accounts of such places of refuge, which have Prisoner —I am ready to swear I never struck him. been repeatedly supplied by an influential portion of the My wife is in 'court ; I hope you will examine her. daily press, should have so wrought on minds de- She will prove that the constable used the worst lanpressed and weakened by painful personal privation. ,a e are no admirers of union workhouses, and are gue towards me. g Policeman—l took him back because there have little disposed to eulogise the New Poor-law Bill, even in its present improved and modified form; but we been several robberies committed in the neighbourhood. are quite satisfied that but for the factiously Mr. CoMna—Why, do you mean to say you susexaggerated accounts of the treatment of the poor under pected this person of intending to commit a robbery ? that law, which have appeared in a contemporary journal, The policeman admitted he did not. in which the union workhouse has been typified by Mr. COMER discharged the gentleman. Dante's Hell, and its executive represented as so many
The Sun. — 1844-06-07 (London, England)

APPREHENSION AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE  OF THE CRIMINAL. LOUTH, SUNDAY, ONE o'cLocK.—Our correspondent further writes : —We have just received information that the perpetrator of the diabolical outrage recorded above has been discovered, and has attempted self-murder by cutting his own throat, though not so severely as to destroy life. His name is Markham; he is about 45 years of age, and was originally apprenticed to a baker in Louth, and was formerly a keeper at the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum. Having some time ago threatened to revenge himself upon old Gainsley, for having informed upon a brother of his for riding upon the shafts of his waggon at the .time Gainsley kept the Ashby toll-gate, he took the opportunity referred to to carry his passion into effect. By some means or other, he became acquainted with a Mrs. Desforges, a widow, possessed of some little property, residing at Bilsby, near Alford, to whom he was actually paying his addresses at the time he attempted to carry out his sanguinary intentions. From information received the prisoner was traced to the house of Mrs. Desforges, at Bilsby, during the night of Saturday last, where Superintendent Campbell arrived at half-past eleven o'clock at night, accompanied by Chapman (Louth police) and Biggs (Alford police). On arriving at the house the superintendent knocked at the door. Mrs. Desforges asked " Who's there ?" The answer was, " A friend." She then ran Hp stairs, looked out of the window, and repeated the same question, asking, " What was wanted ?" He answered, " You need not be afraid, I want to speak to you." She then came down stairs, and opened the door. Campbell then asked who she had in the house ? She said, " I have only my children and Mr. Markham." He then said he wanted to speak to Mr. Markham, and requested her to show him the bedroom, which was only seven steps from the front door. She went up, and the officers followed. The door was open. Mrs. Desforges observed, " Do shut the door, Mr. Markham ;" but, on looking into the room, blood was seen, and it was immediately discovered that he had cut his throat. Mr. Handsley, of Alford, was sent for, and he very promptly arrived, and sewed up the wound, which extended four inches across his throat. The prisoner said it was his intention to wound Gainsley,' and to give him a desperate fright, for having about three years back, laid an, information against his brother for riding on the waggon-shafts. The prisoner was wounded by Gainsley in several places, and he stated that it was with difficulty he had made his escape. Ho had determined to cut his throat rather than be apprehended, and had his razor , with him for that purpose ; he did the desperate act directly Mrs. Desforges went down for the purpose of opening the door. Lle was left in the custody of Biggs. Since Mr. Handsley, surgeon, of Alford, sewed up the gash in the man's throat, he managed while alone to tear out the stitches, and now lies in a most precarious state ; indeed, with scarcely a hope of recovery.
The Sun. — 1844-04-19 (London, England)

CEIMANEOI7B. The total naval force on the Irish coast consists of 2 frigates, 1 brigantine, 1 cutter, 1 steam-frigate, 11 steam vessels, and 2 steam transports—force, 1,600 men. The Vernon, 50, Captain Walpole, is on her way to Cork from Portsmouth, and the Malabar, 72, Captain Sir E. Sartorius, was ordered there from Lisbon.  A general court-martial is ordered to assemble at Chatham, on Monday next, for the trial of a private of the 13th Light Dragoons, for striking a non-commissioned officer. _  ._. . The Benevolent Sificiety of Blues held their twentieth anniversary festival on Thursday, at the London Tavern, where an excellent dinner had been provided by the proprietors of the establishment. Upwards of one hundred and forty gentlemen were assembled, the greater majority of whom had received their education at Christ's Hospital. The donations amounted to upwards of 900/. Among the contributors were the names of Mr. Charles Few, the Chairman, for twenty guineas ; Mr. G. Thackeray, twenty guineas ; Lord Arundel and Surrey, ten guineas ; Mr. B. B. Cabbell, ten ; Mr. Baring Wall, ten ; Mr. S. B. Brooke, ten ; Mr. R. Pigeon, the Treasurer, ten ; Mr. Barnard, the Hon. Secretary, ten ; Sir Adolphus Dalrymple, ten ; 31r . Bellassis, ten; Mr. J. Curteis, twelve; Messrs. Bathe and ' Breach, fifteen guineas ; Alderman Farebrother,e anniversary five, &c. Yesterday evening being the seventh annivrs of the Westminster Literary and Scientific Institution, a very numerous and resrctable company assembled in the new Lecture Theatre, Great Smith-street, Westminster, tohear the customary address. It was read by the Secretary, and dwelt upon the gratifying fact of the great increase of the members, and the general prosperity of the Society. The library, it appeared, now contains no less than 4,000 volumes on the suttiemctseeot meeting science was heldand ao ft generaltheQueen's literature.uead Tavern, A street, Bethnal-green-road, on Thursday evening, to Consider posedtli e proprietytax u pon coot' at petitioning i tohnei npga Parliamentrpaaes afthe againstl, the pro_ embankment, when resolutions were passed strongly condemning the hra measure, and a petition to the House of Commons to that efYagcorneefidnted. in the House of Correction, auraea an ti mo presentu s l feeTtlrelires Clerkenwell, 857 males, 253 females a total of 1,121. The labour of the prisoners children—making during the last year 5251. Bs. 9Ad. prisoners had realised In the New Prison there are 143 • males, and 44 females. Several prisoners, of whom 99 are ffortheat lteatmteprtinarge undergoing various es Ge". various terms of imprisonment suicide.
The Sun. — 1844-04-19 (London, England)

THE RECENT CAPITAL CONVICTION.  Mr. BRIGHT said, seeing the Right Hon. secretary fix the Home Department in his place, he wished to call his attention to the recent conviction of a female under very peculiar circumstances at the Central Criminal Court. Ile had no wish whatever to extract any pledge or even a distinct answer from the Right Hon.'Gentleman, but merely to call his attention to what struck his (Mr. Bright's) mind as one of the most extraordinary cases that had ever occurred. It appeared that this poor creature had thrown herself an 4 her baby into the water, being at the time in circumstances of the utmost destitution. Apparently her intention was to commit suicide, and not to leave her child alive in the world behind her. Her life was preserved but her child perished. The unhappy woman had for her crime been sentenced to death, and one of the newspaper reports stated that the judge gave her no hope whatever that mercy might be extended to her. Such a statement required no cornruent.—(Hear, hear.) He repeated, he wished no positive answer from the Right Hon. Gentleman—he merely wished to he satisfied that his atten:ion had been called to so distres-ing a case.  Sir J. GRAHAM said the House would feel that it was not consistent with his duty to enter into a discussion upon this subject.—(Hear, hear.) In pint of fact, however, his attention had not been called to the matter until the present moment. In the very delicate duty which would devolve upon him (Sir J. Graham), the Hon. Gentleman might rest assured he would do his best to exercise a eoand and dispassionate judgment ; but beyond this he could not then say anything, as the 1-louse must be aware of the inconvenience attending such discussions.—(Hear, hear.)
The Sun. — 1844-04-19 (London, England)

MISCELLANEOUS.  The total naval force on the Irish coast consists of 2 frigates, 1 brigantine, 1 cutter, 1 steam-frigate, 11 steam vessels, and 2 steam transports—force, 1,600 men. The Vernon, 50, Captain Walpole, is on her way to Cork from Portsmouth, and the Malabar, 72, Captain Sir E. Sartorius, was ordered there from Lisbon.  A general court-martial is ordered to assemble at Chatham, on Monday next, for the trial of a private of the 13th Light Dragoons, for striking a non-commissioned officer. The Benevolent Society of Blues held their twentieth anniversary festival on Thursday, at the London Tavern, where an excellent dinner had been provided by the proprietors of the establishment. Upwards of one hundred and forty gentlemen were assembled, the greater majority of whom had received their education at Christ's Hospital. The donations amounted to upwards of 9001. Among the contributors were the names of Mr. Charles Few, the Chairman, for twenty guineas; Mr. G. Thackera_y, twenty guineas ; Lord Arundel and Surrey, ten guineas ; r. B. B. Cabbell, ten ; Mr. Baring Wall, ten ; Mr. S. B. Brooke, ten; Mr. R. Pigeon, the Treasurer, ten; Mr. Barnard, the Hon. Secretary, ten ; Sir Adolphus Dalrymple, ten ; Mr. Bellassis, ten; Mr. J. Curteis, twelve; Messrs. Bathe and Breach, fifteen guineas ; Alderman Farebrother, five, &c. the seventh anniversary of nu.vthelet l' Westminsterest e r'i a y evening ,ite ry b andeing Scientific Institution, aavnedrych merous and respectable company assembled in thee members,n ew Lecture Theatre, Great Smith-street, Westminster, to hear the customary laadtdiring. falcttwoafsthreeagrd great tinhcereSasecereotarKf t upon the g and the general prosperity of the Society. The library, it appeared, now contains no less than 4,000 volumes on the subjects of science and of general literature. A meeting was held at the Queen's Head Tavern, George_ street, Bethnal-green-road, on Thursday evening, to consider the propriety of petitioning Parliament against the proposed tax upon coal, for the purposes of the Thames embankment, when resolutions were passed strongly condemning the measure, and a petition to the House of Commons to that effectT iliveares aurueanatimporuessleynt nedagreoenefidto. in the House of Correction, Clerkenwell, 857 males, 253 females, and 11 children—making a total of 1,121. The labour of the prisoners had realised during the.last year 5251.85, gad. In the New Prison there are 143 prisoners, of whom 99 are •males; teams s ofSeveraldtfemales -of the latter are undergoing various suicide. imprisonment for attempting to commit
The Sun. — 1844-11-09 (London, England)

LORD ADVOCATE—Yes, my Lord, 64 prisoner's feelings of remorse were so strong that he made an attempt to take away his own life,:,and it was only by the greatest exertions on the part of the medical gentlemen that he had been able to appear at the bar. Lord MACKENZIE, after shortly commenting on the serious nature of the crime to which the prisoner had pleaded guilty, proposed a sentence .of _foirtiwn years' transportation. a 2:: t  SUICIDE FROM DISTgEO...Last evening a protracted inquiry took pMel?.efore Mr. Wakley, on the body of Mary Allow; aged 63, a poor needle-woman. The jury,- having viewed the body, expressed their horror at its wretchedly emaciated appearance. Ann Jones the landlady of the house in which the deceased lodged, said she last saw her alive on Tuesday evening. She fancied there was something strange in her manner, for, as she went up stairs to bed, the deceased broke a piece from a loaf she had with her, and in a very singular manner said, " Only taste it ;itis so very sweet." On Wednesday, a friend of deceased found her lying on the bed quite dead. There was a cup, which had contained some liquid, lying upon a box by the window. On the table was a letter (read to the Court), which stated that she was very much troubled in her mind in consepence of not being able to procure work, and owing witness, as she said, seven weeks' rent. It further stated, that the only thing in the world she possessed was a watch, which she imagined to be worth 101. She bequeathed the proceeds of its sale to liquidate her debts, and the remainder to go towards her funeral ; but if it did not raise sufficient for the latter purpose, her body was to be sent to the workhouse for interment by the parish. It then added her earnest wish that she should have one friend to follow her to the grave, and a hope that her poverty would not be made known ; concluding with the words, " God bless you all—l am very much excited, and my pen ,is very bad." Deceased was an extremely well-behaved woman, and had been highly educated. They always imagined she had some trifling income that helped to support her, but since her death they had found such was not the case, and that she supported herself by her needle. She had latterly appeared very desponding, which she stated arose from her inability to procure work and the poor wages she received for it. She had once or twice adverted lately to the double suicide at Kilmarnock, and said she would rather follow their example than apply for relief. She had some friends, who occasionally gave her food, but she seldom had any other meals but breakfast and tea. The surgeon said, the body was wretchedly emaciated, and the deceased had all the appearance of having been completely starved. 'Fhe jary returned a verdict " That the deceased destroyed herself by taking oxalic acid, but in what state of mind she was at the time there was no evidence to show."