Poisoning of a Grandfather

William Newton Allnutt, a boy 12 years of age, was charged, at the Worship Street Police Office, with having stolen a gold watch and appendages, a gold eye-glass, and other articles of jewellery, of the value of 70 guineas, the property of his grandmother, Mrs. Sarah Nelme, widow of the late Mr. Nelme, of Grove-place, Hackney. This, however, was the least charge against the prisoner; for an inquiry before a coroner's jury into the mysterious circumstances attending the death of Mr. Nelme resulted in the committal of this depraved youth for the murder of his unfortunate grandfather.

Mr. Nelme was a retired City merchant, in his seventy-fourth year; with him and his wife resided Mrs. Allnutt, who was a daughter by a former wife, and the boy, Mrs. Allnutt's other children being at school or in the country. This lady is a widow. Some time since, ten sovereigns were missed; inquiry was made, and eventually William Allnutt confessed that he had taken them, to buy a watch; but he said that they had been stolen from him. This offence was overlooked. More recently, while the old gentleman and his grandson were walking in the gardon, a pistol was fired close to Mr. Nelme's head. The boy called out that he saw a man, who had fired it, escaping over the wall; but for some days the affair was a mystery. A pistol was found, however, in the next garden; and this weapon has been traced to the grandson, who had bought it in the Minories. Shortly after this, Mr. Nelme was taken ill, and soon died in great agony. Mrs. Nelme and Mrs. Allnutt were also attacked by sickness. Suspicion was excited; and it was found that a large quantity of arsenic had been mixed with some pounded sugar that was kept in a vase. It was surmised that William Allnutt had placed the poison there; having obtained it from a bureau in which his grandfather kept it for the purpose of poisoning rats. In consequence of these suspicious circumstances, a coroner's inquest was held on the body. A post mortem examination showed the organs in a state denoting the presence of poison; and Dr. Letheby found by chemical analysis that the poison was arsenic: there were traces of the poison in the brain, which led the doctor to believe that the victim had been swallowing it for a week or longer; while its presence in the intestines showed that a dose had been taken recently. A key of the bureau was found in a hiding-place, and the boy confessed that he had hidden it. It appears that Mr. Nelme used to eat the pounded sugar with baked apples. Mrs. Nelme stated that William was hardly twelve years old; he is a clever boy, but mischievously inclined. On the last occasion, he pounded the sugar and placed it in the vase; but the old lady stood by. He had ample opportunities of being alone in the dining-room, where the vase was kept. Mrs. Nelme's suspicion rested entirely on the boy.

Mrs. Allnutt said that when her son was very young he had fallen on a ploughshare and cut his nose severely, so that his recovery was deemed hopeless, and his health had been delicate since. She thought the boy was aware of the deadly properties of arsenic: he had asked her about it. The day before her father died, she had sweetened his gruel with sugar from the vase. She herself had some of the gruel, and was very sick in consequence. Mrs. Nelme was ill after taking arrowroot sweetened with the sugar. Her son was subject to walking and talking in his sleep; and he had complained of “hearing voices in his head.” Her husband was decidedly insane when he died, two years since. Superintendent Waller stated, that when the boy was taken into custody for theft, he said that he had been tempted to do it - a voice had said to him, “Do it, do it! you will never be found out." The Jury returned a verdict of “Wilful murder" against William Newton Allmutt, and he was committed for trial.

While in prison, the boy confessed his guilt, and was found guilty on his trial. The learned Judge said he would make a representation which would have the effect of sparing the prisoner's life; but it would only be that he might pass the rest of his days in ignominy.

Old Bailey Online.

A cautionary tale about gunpowder

An awful and almost unprecedented occurrence took place at Lissanoure Castle, near Ballymoney, county of Antrim. Mr. George Macartney, the proprietor of Lissanoure, previous to the reduction of the yeomanry force, was captain in that body, and was in the habit of storing large quantities of gunpowder in the castle, for the use of the small staff when called out to practice. Several barrels of gunpowder had been lying in the manse being most out of the way of danger, in a dark and narrow passage, leading from one wing of the castle to the other. In this passage (very little traversed at any time) some of the gunpowder had become damp, and was ordered by Mr. Macartney to be laid out to dry. Mr. Macartney, his child, and servant had quitted the room, leaving Mrs. Macartney alone therein. They had been absent but a few minutes, when they heard a dreadful explosion, -the powder had ignited, and had thrown down that portion of the building exposed to its destructive effects, burying Mrs. Macartney in the ruins. When she was extricated, life was found to be extinct. It is impossible to say how the accident originated; but it is supposed that the unfortunate lady had been sweeping about the fire, and that a spark from it had communicated with the powder. The ceilings of the rooms above, and the corresponding part of the roof, were up raised by the explosion, and the fragments scattered to a considerable distance. The walls of the old building have also been shaken, and the glass of almost every window was shattered to pieces by the violence of the concussion. Even the windows of the stables and offices, which are some perches distant from the castle, suffered equally from the effects of the explosion.

Accident at Cliffton

A dreadful accident happened at Clifton, a young lady having fallen over St. Vincent's Rocks, at the highest part. The consequence was instant death, and her body was dreadfully mangled. The young lady, Miss Martha Welsh, was, it appears, on a visit to a lady who resides at Cotham Hill Villa, West Park, and was in the habit of resorting to the Downs for air and exercise. Yesterday morning she strolled to Clifton Down, and was observed by several persons who were walking in the same direction sitting on a dangerous projection of the rocks at a short distance from the cavern known as the Giant's Cave.

An officer, named Black, was so struck with the danger of her position, that he approached her, and remonstrated with her on the subject. She thanked him, but seemed not to participate in his apprehensions, and contented her self by sitting back a little without moving from the spot. After this she was seen standing at a greater distance from the edge of the precipice, to which, however, she must have speedily returned. The mode in which the accident occurred must remain matter of conjecture, but it is probable, the grass being short, and in dry weather very slippery, that in walking she missed her footing, and slipped over from an altitude of more than 300 feet. Some men who were at work at the bottom of the rocks saw her in the act of falling, and a youth, who was playing in the Zigzag, a serpentine walk, leading from the Hotwells to the Down, states, that as she fell she stretched out her hands, and tried to grasp some ivy bushes which grow from the cliff. The effort was, however, a futile one; in another moment she struck against the rock, and in a few more she lay at the bottom of the precipice a shapeless and inanimate mass. Her remains presented a truly fearful spectacle, her skull being driven in from the front to the base, and there was scarcely a bone in her body that was not fractured. An inquest was held on the body, and an inquiry instituted as to whether there was any reason for believing that she had purposely destroyed herself. The evidence, however, negatived such a supposition, and a verdict of "Accidental Death" was returned.

Railway accidents

A return of the number and nature of the accidents, and of the injuries to life and limb, which occurred on the various railways in the United Kingdom from the first of January to the 30th of June, 1847, has been presented to the new Parliament by Her Majesty's command. It shows, in brief, that of a grand total number of 23,119,412 passengers conveyed during the said half-year on railroads in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 101 were killed and 100 more or less injured, . . Moreover, it appears, from a careful analysis of the returns, that of the 101 persons killed and 100 injured, there were 14 passengers killed and 48 wounded from causes beyond their own control; 8 killed and 3 injured owing to their own folly or incautiousness; 8 servants of companies killed and 17 injured from causes beyond their own control; 51 servants killed and 24 injured owing to want of caution or recklessness (such as leaping from engines or carriages in rapid motion, and other similar acts of temerity); 19 trespassers killed and 7 injured; and 1 person killed and another injured while crossing the railways at level crossings.

Poisionings in the Isle of Ely

Ann Barnes, an elderly woman, recently residing with her married son at Purl's Bridge, a village near Ely, has been arrested on suspicion of a wholesale poisoning of children. Barnes had been in the habit of nursing infants while their parents were engaged in field-labour. A number of these children were taken ill while in the woman's charge, and four died after great suffering.

The parents of the children exhibited the most brutal indifference, and attended the inquest in a state of intoxication.

The bodies were disinterred, and, upon examination, the fact of their deaths having been caused by arsenic was placed beyond doubt.

Frozen to death

Two GENTI.EMEN FROZEN TO DEATH.- Two gentlemen on a pedestrian excursion in Scotland were found frozen to death on the road leading from Fort William to Kinlochbeg. Mr. Milner, of the 69th regiment, made the following statement to the sheriff. substitute :-

“About eight o'clock this morning (the 2nd of September) one of the servants told me that a drover said he had seen a dead man by the road side about two miles from Kinlochbeg. I immediately walked to the spot, and found two men lying close to one another, about three yards from the road on the low side, quite dead. There was not the slightest sign of struggling or of violence, and their appearance gave me the impression that, having sat down to rest, they became benumbed with the cold and expired. Both were dressed as if travellers, each with a small knap sack on his back. There was a small whisky pocket-flask, quite empty, lying near them. A water proof cape was lying about 400 yards from them, as if the wind had blown it from them. Last night was very stormy, very much so - wind and rain in great abundance, probably the most stormy night we have had this year.”

It appears that the two gentlemen, Mr. William Stericker, of 49, Fenchurch Street, and Mr. W. H. Whitburn, of Esher, Surrey, were strangers to each other, and had journeyed together accidentally. Each had left his home for the purpose of enjoying a pleasure excursion through the romantic scenery of Scotland, and they had been seen on the preceding night laughing with a milk girl, at no great distance from the spot at which their corpses were found. Mr. Stericker had written home on the 31st of August, to inform his friends that he felt perfect happiness in the enjoyment of the most romantic country in the world.

Dreadful Incident

DREADFUL INCIDENT.-A very painful circumstance is said to have occurred at Glasgow. On Saturday afternoon three boys - two sons of Mr. James Wilson, a builder, in Gallowgate Street, and a nephew - were missed. The family being at Helensburgh, the boys were supposed to have gone off to see them; but, not being found there, search was made without effect. On Tuesday morning a carter, who takes charge of a horse belonging to Mr. Wilson, went to the stable, attached to the wood-yard, to get some food for his horse. The provender was kept in a corn chest - a box six feet long and about three deep, with three separate compartments, and secured on the outside with an iron hasp, which fits into a staple in the side of the chest. On opening the lid, the man was horror-stricken at finding the three young boys lying motionless at the bottom of the chest, each occupying one of the compartments. He immediately summoned assistance, and they were taken out; but it was found two of them were quite dead, and had been so apparently for a considerable length of time. The youngest, a boy between seven and eight years old, son of Mr. J. Wilson, showed some signs of life, and gradually revived, so as to be able, during the day, to state in a coherent manner what had led to the melancholy catastrophe. The brothers and cousin had gone into the chest in search of beans, and while so engaged the lid closed on them. In falling, the hasp fixed into the staple, and all the united strength of the poor captives was insufficient to enable them to burst the bands. On the side at which the youngest boy was found, the lid did not fit so close as the other parts; and from the limited supply of air which had been admitted through this crevice is to be attributed his preservation.

They had endeavoured to support each other's courage as well as they could in their dismal dungeon; and, before giving up hope, one of them broke the blade of a pen knife in the attempt to make an incision through the side of the chest. After they had exhausted themselves by unavailing shouts and cries, which were not heard on earth, they all joined in prayer. This is the last circumstance which the surviving sufferer recollects, as he soon after became insensible. The wood-yard in which the stable is situate is locked up early on the Saturday afternoon, and is not again entered till Monday morning.