Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1871-08-26 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

TETE HEREFORDSHIRE TRACEDY.  We publish the following more detailed aecollnt of this distressirg occurrence. It appears that on the 11th inat., James Merrick, the gardener at the rector of Kingsland, near Leominster, discovered the 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, the rector's sister, to "lime." This he had declined to do, as the closet drain debouched into the river, and the lime would kill the fish. Merrick communicated the fact of finding the body to the rector, the Rev. W. Goes, and also to the police ; ' and on the following day an inquest was held upon the body by Mr H. Moore, the coroner for that part of the county of Hertford. The evidence went to I slinw that the child had been murdered, a string being tied tightly round its throat. The inquest was then adjourned to the 28th inst., to give the police time to make inquiries with the view of fixrug 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 females connected with the establishment should all undergo a medical 'examination, to ascertain whether any one of them had recently given birth to a child. The medical gentlemen who received the coroner's precepts to perform this duty were Mr Barnett, of Leominster, and Mr Chattaway, of Kingsland, and on Saturday these gentlemen visited the rectory, just is time to prevent Miss Goss taking her leave for Barrow•in-Furness, whither she was going for the benefit of 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 submit herself to the examination of Drs Barnett and Chattaway. She returned to the rectory, but she declined to allow herself to be communicated with until her brother's return from Hereford in the evening, and she thereupon locked hereself 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 (loss's bedroom door, and begged her to lose 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, when they 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 befiroom' 'which enable, him to go into the room occupied by Miss Goss. He had no sooner done so than he cried out to Mr Barnett, "For God's sake come up here. Suicide has 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 90 ounces of blood, besides what saturated the bed. She had inflicted the wound 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 g;ven birth to the child found on the 11th in the drain, and that she had delivered herself without any assistance whatever. 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 evidence was voluminous, and that of the girl Price and a widow named Bray, who attended Miss Goss while she was ill in bell after the confinement, was of such a character that a person of ordinary information must have suspected that something wrong hail been done. Still they both protested that they hail no suspicion whatever that Miss Goss had given birth to a child. The testimoay of Mr Chattaway went also to show that some days after the birth must have occurred Miss Goss consulted him, and complained to him of some uterine derangement, for which he recommended the bracing air of Barrow-in-Furness. In reply to Mr Gwillim, 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 acted as deceased had. In the first instance thejury, after some considerable deliberation, returned a verdict of "Concealment of birth," and in the second "That Miss Goss committed suicide while labouring under temporary insanPy." They also added that they absolved the rector from any knowledge thsi his sister had given birth to the child, and desired to sympathise with him in his deep distress of mind.