Macdonald's District: North East Middlesex

[Dave O]

Manslaughter

Here's one of several manslaughter cases from the district that I came across, which all led to trials. The second, involving the death of a newborn baby, is very similar to this one, and the third was a woman's death from peritonitis, which the jury found was caused by her husband kneeling on her stomach as he beat her.

This is an inquest on the newborn son of a Welsh girl named Catherine Morgans, from Lampeter (LMA/MJ/SPC/NE, Box 1 Case No. 55).

This is the cover of the folder. The verdict was: THAT on the 1st day of July in the year aforesaid, at the No. 212 Lordship Road in the Parish of Stoke Newington aforesaid, the said newly born Male child was found dead and the jury that death was due to the want of proper attention at its birth due to the ignorance or excited state of mind of the mother.

[Dave O]

Inside cover.

[Dave O]

So this is all in Macdonald's handwriting, which wasn't very good. When I'm not sure of a word, or have inserted a note, I've put it in brackets.


Newly born male child
Vestry Hall Stoke Newington
4/7/88
Ellen Church wife of Alfred Church [illegible] buyer of 212 Lordship Rd. Stoke Newington. The [supposed] mother of this child Catherine Morgans has been in my service for seven months. She was a very respectable girl. I did not suspect she was in the family way till a week ago last Sunday [illegible] June 24th when I [taxed] her as to her condition which she indignantly denied. I said no more to her till last Sunday morning about 9 A.M. when she seemed to be ill. She said that she had pains in her chest. I was not satisfied with her answer. I went to her bedroom found it very disordered. [taxed] her with having born a child which she still denied. I sent for Dr. Fox and he searched the room in presence of her cousin and could not find anything. In the meantime she left the house. She told me she was going which I objected to about 5 P.M. I found the child in a barrell [sic] in the cellar.
[Signatures] Mrs. Ellen Church
R. Macdonald

[Dave O]

Thomas Jackman L.R.C.P. Regd. Of 11 Stoke Newington Rd. I am the divisional surgeon. I was called after midnight Monday to the Police Station Stoke Newington. I found a girl there who was said to be suspected of having given birth to a child. I examined her with her permission. She did not deny having given birth to a child. On examination I found her underclothing saturated with blood and slight haemorhage still going on. I have no doubt she had been confined within the previous 24 hours or so.
[Signatures] Tho. Jackman
R. Macdonald

[Dave O]

Thomas Glass Inspector of Police N. Division On July 1st I received a communication from Dr. Fox. I went to 212 Lordship Rd. A bedroom was pointed out to me which I was told was occupied by Cath. Morgans. I examined the room found a [wilton drip]. [Illegible word followed by “apron”], a sheet and a piece of carpet all saturated with blood. In the I examined a box I saw there. I found no clothing for an infant in it. In the cellar I found a tub containing a quantity of hay also with bloodstains around it, and some matting and a [mat] by the side of the tub all stained with blood. The tub was underneath the cellar staircase and difficult [illegible] access. I sent out men to look after the girl and was told about midnight she was in custody.
[Signatures] Thos Glass
R. Macdonald

[Dave O]

Hugh Courtenay Fox of 1 Lordship Terrace Lordship Terr. M.R.C.S. Regd. I was sent for to visit 212 Lordship Rd. on Sunday last about 11.15 A.M. I went there. I found the girl’s bedroom had several blood stains on the carpet. There was a large quantity of soiled linen about the bed and the room. I searched the house trying to find a child and failed to find it and returned home. About 6 P.M. I was sent for again proceeded there and I found the body of a full grown and full term male child in a cask in the cellar dead. There were no external marks of violence. The cord was about 8 inches long not—not clean cut—was torn or partly cut with something blunt was not tied. There was no blood in the barrel. The after birth was lying under it loose. I made a P.M. Both lungs were distended throughout with air and from the colour and [consistence] of them and from their buoyancy when placed in water . . . I have no doubt the child was born alive. The cause of death in my opinion is consistent with death from 2 or 3 causes combined viz want of proper attendance at birth, bleeding from navel, or exposure to cold. The want of nourishment was not the cause of death.
[Signatures] Hugh Courtenay Fox
Roderick Macdonald

[Dave O]

Robert Day Sergeant N. Division. On Sunday the 1st inst. I received instructions from Inspector Glass. I made enquiries about midnight I arrested Cath. Morgans at 187 Blackstock Rd. Highbury. I found her locked in in the bedroom. She opened the door. She was half dressed. I told her I was a police officer and cautioned her. I told her I [illegible] [take] her into custody for concealment of the birth of her child that day at 212 Lordship Rd. She replied I have had no child. I told her it had been found in the house. She still denied it. She refused a cab to go to the station. She said she could walk. She dressed. I got a cab and conveyed her to the Newington Police Station. From there I took her to Homerton Infirmary by Dr. Jackman’s direction. She is there now.
[Signatures] Robert Day
R. Macdonald

[Dave O]

Here's an incomplete version of the inquisition. It reveals that all the evidence was heard on the 4th and then the case went to the jury. But the jury struggles with the verdict. Macdonald adjourned--I assume the date is unspecified because there's no way to tell how long it's going to take.

[Dave O]

The jury apparently found their nuanced verdict of manslaughter two days later on the 6th. So Macdonald issues a warrant for the arrest of Catherine Morgans.

[Dave O]

Pinned to an earlier record in Box 1 is this related note. In a later case, I have found Waterman serving as coroner's officer in Stoke Newington, and here he is obviously the officer involved in this inquest, too. At first glance, I thought "Mr. Baxter" was Wynne Baxter, but I believe he really must be someone related to one of the later courts involved, a clerk perhaps. There's impending legal action against Morgans, so this note must be an illustration of the coroner supplying the records of a manslaughter case to the criminal court, which he was required to do by law, via Waterman, his officer.

[Dave O]

This is how things turned out:


Western Mail July 28 1888
A LAMPETER GIRL CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER.
Catherine Morgan, aged 19 years, a domestic servant (before Mr. R.W. Bros) at Dalston Police-court, London, on Friday with causing the death and concealing the birth of her illegitimate child. Prisoner was brought from the workhouse, where she had been since the 1st inst., when she was taken into custody.—From the evidence of Mrs. Ellen Church of 212, Lordship-road, Stoke Newington, it appeared that seven months ago prisoner came from Lampeter, in Wales, to act as domestic servant. On June 30 there were indications that prisoner had had a child, and an examination of the cellar disclosed the body in an old barrel. She at first denied it, and then admitted that she had been delivered in the cellar, and, thinking the child dead, put it in the barrel.—Detective Inspector Glass and Detective Day gave similar evidence, and Doctors Jackman and Fox were called by Mr. Sims (from the Treasury) to depose medically.—Dr. Fox would not state positively that the child had had a separate existence, as defined by law.—Mr. W.V. Young, who defended the accused, said an inquest had been held on the body, and the verdict of the jury was not adverse to the prisoner.—Mr. Bros said there was evidence to justify him in committing for manslaughter, and the girl would accordingly go for trial at the Central Criminal Court.

And:


Lloyd’s Weekly August 5 1888, “Old Bailey Trials.”
POLICE CRUELTY TO A GIRL.—A Welsh girl named Catherine Morgans was charged with concealment of birth. She was in service in Lordship-road, Stoke Newington. Owing to the questions of her mistress she left her place on the morning of June 30 and went to her uncle’s house in Blackstock-road. At midnight Detective-serjeant Day, of the N division, went to the house, entered the room where she was in bed, arrested her, and took her to the police station in a cab. Dr. Jenkinson, N division, said he examined Morgans at one o’clock in the morning, and she was then taken to Homerton infirmary. Her child had been born and secretly disposed of the same day she was arrested.—Mr. Justice Hawkins strongly commented on the inhumanity of taking a girl in that condition out of her bed at midnight and subjecting her to examination at one o’clock in the morning, when none of her friends were present. Surely the arrest and examination might have been postponed until next morning. He added, “I consider that the treatment this poor girl has received amounts even to positive cruelty, and I trust that this is the last time I shall ever hear of such conduct.”—The jury returned a verdict of “Not guilty.”—Mr. Justice Hawkins informed them that even if their duty had compelled them to find a different verdict, he would have considered the treatment she had received a sufficient punishment. The foreman of the jury said the jury took the treatment into consideration in their verdict.—Morgans was discharged.

[Dave O]

Here are some basic statistics for any who are interested.

On June 13 1888 Macdonald was elected. He held 384 inquests June 14-November 15 1888 (Mary Kelly's is the 376th inquest). One record, No. 114 from Box 1, is missing, leaving records for the remaining 383.

November 15 is an arbitrary cut-off point I set for myself as I just ran out of time at the LMA, and so I settled for a narrow but complete picture of Macdonald's inquests held up to and just after Mary Kelly's death. After that point I just focused on violent deaths such as suicides up through March 1889. I haven't included them here.

Here's a breakdown of the 383 inquests, June 14-November 15 1888, according to area. Adjournments aren't counted as separate proceedings:

99 inquests in Hackney.
89 in Shoreditch.
81 in Bethnal Green.
44 in Tottenham.
25 in Saint Luke.
21 in Bow.
15 in Spitalfields. This includes 2 inquests held for infants in the Liberty of Norton Folgate and then 1 whose inquest was held in Shoreditch (Mary Kelly, of course). I've put them here because Spitalfields was where the deaths for all 3 occurred. It was otherwise usual for the inquest to be held in the same parish as the death.
9 in Stoke Newington.

So, I was very surprised by the low number of inquests associated with Spitalfields. I thought there would be many more that originated in some of the black areas of the map. I once wrote of "inquest-rich" Spitalfields--obviously I was wrong and am glad to be able to correct myself.

As time allows, I hope to break these 383 inquests down further according to age, causes of death and verdicts, occupations of the deceased, number of post mortems held, etc.

Best,
Dave

[Cogidubnus]

A right scholarly piece of work Dave

Thanks

Another Dave

[Dave O]

Thanks Dave, appreciate that.

[Hunter]

Indeed, interesting. Thanks Dave for researching this and posting the information.

It seems that as a result of the Local Government Act and the division of the Eastern District into two coroners' jurisdictions, Spitafields became a sort of 'no man's land' for some time. It had no mortuary of its own and few desirable facilities to hold inquests. Many bodies probably ended up at the Whitechapel Union Workhouse 'mortuary' in Eagles Place because of proximity and at the London Hospital, which put them in Baxter's jurisdiction by default.

Its a shame that the files for the Southeastern District no longer exist. But a perusal of the papers of the times may elucidate some clues...when time permits. Many of us have access to these newspaper archives.