Widnes Examiner. — 1885-05-02 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

THE ALLEGED MURDER AND SUICIDE AT ST. HELENS. On Friday evening, Mr S Brighouse, coroner, held an inquest on the bodies of Jane Hamilton, forty-three years of age, and Thomas Hamilton, four years of age, wife and son of James Hamilton, a labourer, 23, nightield-st., Sutton. Having given evidence of identification, Hamilton was questioned by the coroner. In reply, he said he last saw the deceased alive about half-past five on Thursday morning. His wife was awake, and his son was asleep when he went to work. Early in the afternoon they were brought home dead. He had not noticed anything peculiar about his wife recently, nor had she done anything that would lead him to think she would take away her own life. Some things had troubled her a little. She had not had too much money to buy things she would have liked, and she had grumbled. Witness used to get better wages than he did now. Mrs. Alice Marsh, who lives at Sutton Leach, said that about eleven o'clock on Thursday morning she saw the deceased and her son in Mill-lane going in the direction of the dam in which she was found. She was then 200 yards off. Witness went to a shop, and on returning saw an object leaning over the bridge, but did net then know it was Mrs. Hamilton. All at once the object disappeared, and a Mrs. Smith beckoned to witness to come back, saying she heard a child scream. She looked over the bridge and saw a body in, and then raised an alarm. She noticed nothing strange In deceased when she met her. Mrs. Smith, whose residence is in close proximity to the bridge in question, said she was sitting in her front room upstairs and heard a child scream. She looked through the window, but could not see anyone, and the thought struck her that perhaps a child might be in the water. She ran out and looked over the railing of the bridge, and saw a little hat on the water, and what she thought was the form of a child drifting under the bridge. Mrs. Hamilton mnst also have been under the bridge, as she saw her nowhere about. Mr. Barlow and Mr. Redmond came and got the bodies oat. An Irishman came down the lane, and got into the water up to his knee. He then screamed, and they bad to drag him out.—The Coroner: In the absence of any direct proof we want to get at the most feasible theory. Possibly the child might have gone through and the woman gone after it.—Witness: I did not see the child go in. I could not see how it occurred. Jane Norman, an elderly person who lives two doors away from the Hamiltms, said she saw the deceased go out about half-past ten o'clock that morning holding the little boy's hand. She had no conversation with her then. Deceased bad three more children. She wae a very high-minded woman, and wanted to get on faster than she could. Witness had heard her say she could not face her debts, and on one occasion she named a place in St. Helens that she did not like to pass She said she was frightmed of Friday coming. Th,mas Michael Barlow 'gave corroborative eviderve.— In reply to a juryman, Inspector Keighley said the water was three feet deep. rolice Constable Mather said the child was a cripple, and when the maker went out she always took it by the hand The Coroner said the evidence waolrefere the jury. Lie could only say that upon the evidence before them he considered their best course was to find an open verdict. It had been suggested that this woman, whilst in an unsound state of mind, had murdered her child and committed suicide The bridge, it had been stated, was of a dangerous construction, and it was quite as feasible to pat forward the theory that the child had fallen in, and the mother, in her anxiety to save it, had also got into the water, as to say it was murder and suicide. His (the coroner's) own opinion was that it woold be very cruel indeed to the relatives of the deceased on that evidence to say that she had murdered her child and then committed suicide. The jury returned an open verdict, adding a rider that they considered the bridge was in a dangerous state.  Lord Whamsliffe presided on Wednesday evening over tbs, dinner to Mr. Henry Irving, at the Criterion, and which was attended by a numerous alid representative gathering. There were 15 runners on Wednesday for the City and Suburban Handicap, Mr. H. T. Tkly's Bird of Freedom being first, Mr. Abington's MacMahon second, and Mr. Star. key's Woodlark third. Snocittmt