The Sun. — 1841-06-14 (London, England)

SUICIDE BY A LADY OF FORTUNE.  On Friday evening a Jury composed of the principal inhabitants of the town was impannelled before Mr. W. Carter,. the Coroner for the eastern division of Surrey, at the Greyhound Inn, Croydon, for the purpose of inquiring into the circumstances connected with the death of Mrs. Mary Russell, residing at Croydon, who destroyed herself by taking a quantity of arsenic and laudanum. _ _ _  The Jury, having been sworn, proceeded to the mansion of the deceased, to view her remains. The deceased lady appeared to have been a fine handsome woman, apparently about fifty years of age. This part of their duty having been performed, they returned to the inn, where the following evidence was adduced, Messrs. , J. and W. Drummond, the Solicitors, being present to watcl the proceedings on the part of the family of the deceased lady:— Harriet Giles, the ladies' maid to the family, deposed that she had been in the service of the deceased for some time On Monday morning last•the deceased lady went out, about eleven o'clock in the morning, which was rather an unusual occurance, and returned in about half an hour. • On the Tuesday- morning witness took up some water to her mistress's bed-room, and she told her that she felt unwell, and that she should not get up, but wished to have her breakfast sent up to her. Witness, accordingly, shortly afterwards, took the deceased some chocolate, and she observed that she drank it rather hastily, and in a short time after witness had left the room the bell was. rung, and she went up stairs to her mistress, and she orderal her to send her daughter upstairs immediately, and witness then observed that her mistress had been vomiting in a basin that was by the bed-side. Miss Russell went up to her mother's bed-room end immediately afterwards the bell was rung violently, and a footman was ordered to be despatched for a surgeon, and Mr. Neville, of Croydon, arrived soon afterwards. The witness then proceeded to detail various incoherent acts committed by the•deccased fer some time prior to the melancholy occurrence, and her evidence left very little doubt as to the state of mind of the unhappy lady. Mr. Neville, surgeon, of Croydon, deposed, that on Tuesday morning, in consequence of information he received he went to the house of the- deceased and found her in bed, and apparently in an almost exhausted condition. Miss Russell, the deceased's daughter, then informed him that her mother had taken poison. He then addressed the deceased, and said he hoped that what her daughter had said was not true ; and she replied " Yes, it is true." Witness asked her what she had taken, and she replied "arsenic." The deceased at this time did not appear to be in any pain, and witness knowing that the character of arsenic was to occasion excruciating pain, doubted, at first, whether she had really taken poison of that description. He administered some stimulants to the deceased, and did all that he could for her, but she gradually sank, and died on the following morning. A paper with the word "poison" on it was afterwards shown to him. Witness, assisted by another medical gentleman, made a post-mortem examination of the body, and then discovered traces of both arsenic and laudanum, and the death of the deceased was no doubt occasioned by those poisons. The Jury returned a verdict that the deceased destroyed herself by taking poison while in a state of temporary derangement.  On Saturday, at the Kensington Police-court, William Buckmaster, a boy twelve years of age, was reexamined on a charge of having stolen 621. from his master, Mr. Todd, a cheesemonger, in the High-street. Mr. Todd missed from his cash-box a bank-note and twelve sovereigns. He suspected the prisoner at the time of being the guilty party, and on afterwards ascertaining that he had been treating other boys and been drunk himself, he informed the police, who took him into custody. He said he had picked up a purse in Portobellolane, Notting-hill, containing a 501. note and twelve sovereigns, which he had given to his father, but when locked up at the station-house he acknowledged he had stolen the money from Mr. Todd's cash-box. On going to the father's house the note and eleven sovereigns were found locked up in a bureau. His father declared the prisoner had told him he had found the money, and he locked it up expecting it would be advertised. Mr. Todd expressed great reluctance to prosecute the prisoner, who was remanded till Monday.