An early Bobbitt

Martha Milns, aged 31, was charged with maliciously cutting and maiming her husband George Milns, with intent to murder or to disfigure and disable him, at Oldham.

George Milns - I have been married to the prisoner 15 years, and have had eight children. There had been no quarrel between us for several days before. She thought that I had been with another woman, nine or ten days before. I came home on the afternoon of the 14th of June. I wanted supper. She said there was no water. I went for water to make tea. She made none, so I went to bed. The bed had not been made, and I made it myself. She was not in liquor. She had had a glass of rum and water. I awoke three o'clock with a violent pain which struck to my heart. She stood at the bed with a razor in her hand. I said, “O dear, what hast thou been doing now?. Thou hast killed me, thou hast killed me.” She said she had not done it. I turned the clothes down, and found that a part was cut off. Much blood issued from the wound. I did not observe whether there was any blood on the razor. She had gone down stairs. I could not wake my eldest son. I went down and found the door open. I went to the surgeon in my shirt. I saw my wife in the street, with the youngest child in her arms. I went home then to bed. The surgeon, Mr. Bellott, came at half-past four. I was taken to the infirmary at Manchester.

By the Court.- I thought she was not in her right mind. I believe she was not. I thought she was often not in her right mind, since her last child.

Robert Chadwick - I went to the house about half-past five; met the prisoner, having the youngest child in her arms. I took her into custody. I asked what she had done; she said, she had done nothing, that he came home in that state. I told her not to deny doing it, for there would have been blood upon him when he came home, if it had been done then. She said “I have done it, I have done it.” She pointed out the garden, into which she had thrown what she had cut off.

 By the Court. - She discoursed as in her senses.

Mr. Bellott, the surgeon, said the wound was a dangerous wound.

She repeatedly said, “It was not me. He came home in that state.”

She cried.

Her declaration before the magistrate was proved, and read. It charged acts of the most barbarous cruelty on the part of the husband.

Her husband was recalled, and denied the facts stated.

The prisoner said, she had never been well since her last child, and did not know what she had done.
She hoped they would forgive her this time, for the sake of her dear little infant. She wept most bitterly, and while his lordship was summing up, she dropped off the place where she stood, apparently in a swoon.

Verdict Guilty - but insane.