The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1871-08-26 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

THE CHILD MURDER AND SUICIDE  BY A LADY.  The most profound sensation has bun produced throughout the county of Hereford by Miss Fanny Goss, the sister of the Rector of Kingsland, in that county, having committed anieide on being amused of murdering a child to which she had given birth.  It appears that on the 11th inst. James Meyrick, the gardener of the Rectory, discovered the dead body of a full-grown infant child in a drain connected with a water-closet which he had a few days before been requested by Miss Goss to "lime," but which he had declined to do. as the closet drain debouehed into the river, and the limo would kill the fi.,11. Merick'eomnotnic.ited the flrf of fi'aiing the body to the rector, the Rev. W. G .sq. and al-o the police, and on the following (Iv an inquest was held upon thP body by Mr. 11. Moore, the coroner for that part of the county of Hereford. The evidence went to show that the child had been murdered, a string being tied tightly round its throat. The inquest was then adjourned to the '2Bth inst., to give the police time to make inquiries, with a view of fixing the maternity of the child, and the consequence was that a strict watch was kept on the inmates of the house. and the coroner, from what had come to his knowledge, thought proper to direct that the women connected witlithe establishment should undergo a medical examination to satisfy the the demand of justice. The medical gentlemen who received the coroner's precept to perform the duty were Mr. Barnett, of Leominster, and Mr. Chattawry, of Kingsland, and on Saturday last these gentlemen visited the rectory just in time to prevent Miss Goss taking her leave for Rirmw-in-Furness. whither she was going for change of air. Miss Goss was apprised by the police as she was going to the railway station with her brother that she must return and sub- , mit herself to the examination of Drs. Barnett and Chattaway. She returned to the Rectory (her brother proceeding on by rail V) Hereford I to see the Bishop of the Diocese), but she declined to allow herself to be communicated with until her brother's return from Hereford in the evening, and she, therefore locked herself up in her bedroom. Messrs. Barnett and Chattaway first communicated with Miss Goss through the medium of Mary Price, the maid, but Miss Goss refused to see them. After waiting for a time, Mr. Chattaway proceeded to Miss Goss's bedroom door and begged her to loose no time in removing this foul blot from her name, but she declined to see them until the return of her brother, which she said would be by the three o'clock train. They, therefore, proceeded to the garden, about which they walked for some time, awaiting the return of the rector. While doing so they heard Miss GOSS crying in her bedroom, "Oh, dear, what shall Ido ?" They became alarmed and returned to the house, and asked the servant if she knew whether any poison was kept in the house, and the reply they got was that Miss Goss was in hysterics. They then tried to get a ladder to obtain admission through Miss Goss's bedroom window, but while they were doing so Mr. Chattaway discovered a way through the rector's bedroom which enabled him to go into the room occupied by Miss Goss. He had no sooner done so than he cried out for Mr. Barnett to go up, as suicide had been committed. They entered the room and found Miss Goss lying across the bed with her left arm awfully severed in four places, and a basin containing the enormous quantity of On ounces of blood, besides what saturated the bed. She had inflicted the wounds with one of her brother's razors, and the determined nature of the act may be inferred from the fact that in one instance, not only the flesh and blood vessels, but the muscles above the elbow of the left arm, were completely severed, and death must have followed in the course of seven or eight minutes. An examination of the body left no doubt whatever that Miss Goss had given birth to the child found on the 11th inst. in the drain.  The inquest on the body commenced at ten o'clock on Tuesday morning, and did not terminate before seven o'clock the same evening. The girl Price and a widow named Bray, who attended Miss Goss while ill in bed after the confinement, both protested that they had no suspicion whatever that Miss Goss had given birth to a child.  _ In reply to Mr. Gwelline, of Hereford, who watched the inquiry on the part of the relatives of the deceased, Messrs. Barnett and Chattaway said that from the dreadful state of distress in which she appeared while they were waiting in the garden for the return of the rector, they were of opinion that her reason had become so upset that she was scarcely answerable for her own actions. They did not think that any woman in a sound state of mind could have done as deceased had.  In the first instance, the jury, after some considerable deliberation, returned a verdict of "Concealment of birth ;" and in the second, that Miss Goss "committed suicide while labouring under temporary insanity.' They also added that they absolved the rector from any knowledge that his sister had given birth to the child, and desired to sympathise with him in his deep distress of mind.