By Edgar W. Parry, Awelfryn, 16 Thomas Street, Caernarfon, Gwynedd LL55 1PB It goes without saying that anyone who has any interest in history, or in family history, must have an element of inquisitiveness about him, and I must confess to such a trait. When I was researching my wife’s
family history I came across the following inscription on a grave in the churchyard at
Llanfair-is-Gaer, Caernarfonshire. Sacred To the memory of Mary Jane Aged 1 year & 7 months and Ellin Emily, Aged 9 weeks children of John and Ann Rogers of Bangor Street, Caernarfon who died October 1st, 1843. Beneath this stone are lowly laid Two lovely babes as ever breathed, They poisoned were and from their mother torn, Both liv’d and died the very same morn.
I knew that both they and my wife were direct descendants of Elizabeth Bold (xd 4 apr.1675) and her husband Cadwaladr Williams (xd 2 Apr. 1672 ob.12 Sept.1728)Cadwaladr Williams was Lord Bulkeley’s Agent. Having read the inscription it was inevitable that I would have to try and find out what had happened in 1843 to cause the deaths of the two young babies. Had they actually been poisoned or was that some form of "poetic licence" adopted to underline the gravity of the deaths?
The Inquest As luck would have it, it did not take long to find an account of their deaths in the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald for 7th October, 1843. Mary Jane had died at 6.30a.m. on Sunday morning 1st October 1843 and her sister Ellin Emily had died three hours later, and they had actually been poisoned. An Inquest was held at 11.00 a.m. the following day, and the Jury, as was the practice and accompanied by the Reporter, proceeded to the house of Mr. Rogers to inspect the bodies of the children, and in the verbose and flowery language of the period this is what they saw "……..they lay as in sleep, save that the features of the elder child bore manifest tokens of the convulsive death throes, whilst those of the younger were so calmly, so softly sweet, so severly tranquil, as almost to induce the hope that she yet slumbered. Death however had too surely done his work, and scarce an eye could refrain from the tribute of tears."
The Evidence What had happened was that the mother had given money to one of her servants to buy "three pennyworth" of gin to make a punch for the babies. (This was, of course, a very common practice and it so remained long after 1843). The servant, however, gave a penny to a younger servant and told her to go to the Druggist and buy one pennyworth of laudanum. This was at 8.30 p.m. on a Saturday night. The Druggist did not label the bottle, as it was a very busy period for him. The laudanum was then administered in its undiluted form to both babies by the servant because "they were cross". By ten o’clock Ellin Emily was unwell and her mother sent for her doctor. He came almost immediately and stayed for three quarters of an hour. At that time it wasn’t known that Mary Jane, her elder sister was ill and, therefore, the doctor did not see her. The doctor (together with another doctor) was called again at about 7.00 a.m. on the Sunday morning, and in his evidence he confirmed he was "……not again sent for until seven the next morning when I called to see the elder child. She died however before I could get to her. The younger sister was in a dying state and died in my presence. The servants said that they had not given either the syrup of poppies or laudanum to the children, in fact nothing but gin and water. From the symptoms observed on the younger child I infer the cause of death to have been the administration of some preparation of opium or other narcotic." The jury, without retiring, brought a verdict of manslaughter against the servant on both counts.
The Trial The servant was immediately arrested but "went into such strong hysterics that she could not be taken t the County Gaol until dusk". The Assizes were not in Caernarfon until Saturday, 23rd arch, 1844, when The Honourable sir John Williams Knight, one f the Judges of Her Majesty’s Curt of Queens Bench presided. After the Court had heard all the evidence – which had been translated into Welsh, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on both counts. The comments of the judge were that "although he had no doubt of her innocency so far as motive was concerned, yet the verdict of the jury was a correct one, for that servants and nurses were not permitted ignorantly to trifle with the lives of those children who might be committed to their care. He was willing to give full credit to her previous good character, and trusted that the sad results of her folly would be a warning to her in future. It was necessary that such conduct as hers should be severly punished, but as she had been already kept in confinement for a long time, the Court would only further detain her until the conclusion of the Assizes.
Conclusion The case attracted considerable public attention at the time, and in an Editorial in the ‘Caernarvon and Denbigh’ following the Inquest it was stated, "the verdict of the jury was a righteous one. Had they annexed to that verdict a reprobation of the practice referred to (the giving of gin to babies so as to induce sleep) we should have liked it better. Should a true bill be preferred and an Assize jury affirm the present verdict, we trust a mil and considerate sentence will speedily release the servant from restraint. The evil is of too wide and general a character to be punished in the person of one offender. We are not friendly to the system of visiting the sin of many upon one." It leaves one to wonder how many such instances as this went undetected, but that in the particular case, the fact that two deaths were occasioned by a pennyworth of laudanum was looked upon as too much of an accident. |