Saturday 15 Feb 1845 (p. 3, col. 2-4) MOST HORRIBLE MURDER. ----- We have this week the painful duty of recording one of the most frightful and unnatural murders to be found in the annals of crime-perpetrated by a mother on her own daughter, in one of the most quiet and secluded villages in Cumberland. In our last we stated that a Coroner's inquest had been held, for two days, upon a child that had been burned to death at Lamonby: that the inquest had been adjourned until Monday last: and that in the meantime the mother of the child had been sent to prison on suspicion of having caused its death, to await the verdict. The details of the case which had then reached us were so horrible in their nature-so revolting to every feeling of humanity-that we did not think we should be justified in giving them publicity until fully confirmed by the Coroner's inquisition. That confirmation is now before us, in the evidence of the witnesses examined and the verdict of the jury, and we proceed to lay the terrible details before our readers. Before giving a summary of the evidence, however, it will be necessary to state a few particulars to enable the reader to understand the case clearly. The person accused of the crime is JANE CROSBY, the wife of a labouring man, who keeps a small public-house, and is engaged during the week by a small farmer a few miles off,-returning home on the Saturday evenings to stay over the Sundays with his family, consisting of his wife and two female children. The wife appears to be between 35 and 40 years of age, of most forbidding aspect, and of a most violent and ungovernable temper. Her conduct during the investigation before the Coroner was at times exceedingly violent-her temper breaking out in the most outrageous expressions against the witnesses-particularly those who spoke of her previous ill-usage of the deceased. She is a native of Bewcastle in this county, and her maiden name was TELFORD. The husband is a quiet, inoffensive man, and respected by his neighbours. The children were of the respective ages of 7 and 9 years; and it is the younger of these which has fallen a victim to its mother's fury. Lamonby is a small village, in the parish of Skelton, in the ancient Forest of Inglewood, a few miles from Greystoke Castle. The house in which the murder was perpetrated stands fronting the public highway. It consists of a kitchen, parlour, and cellar on the ground floor, and a garret or lumber-room above. A passage divides the parlour and kitchen. The parlour is used as a bedroom. In the front of the house, and about three yards distant from the door is a pump; and on the opposite side of the road, and about 14 yards distant from the door is a stile, called "Bainbridge's Stile," and to which frequent allusion is made by the witnesses. A four-posted bed stands in the parlour, and is hung with common cotton curtains, with a valance below of the same material. The bed is made up of a straw-platted mattress, without a cover, a bed, some quilts, and an old great coat with a cape thrown over all. The upper quilt, the great coat, a woollen petticoat and a shift belonging to the deceased child, and a gown belonging to the prisoner, bore marks of having been burned by a heated poker-several of the articles having burned holes in them which exactly fitted the end of a poker found on the premises; and the probability is that these burns were made by the prisoner after she had destroyed the child, in the hope that they would give an appearance of accident to it. The cape of the great coat, which must have been lying on the opposite side of the bed to that where the fire had been applied, was also burnt; but the mattress, the bed, the valance, and the curtains were all untouched by fire. The mode in which the dreadful crime had been perpetrated, was described by the elder child to the Coroner and Jury, and to her frightful description we refer the reader. The body of the deceased, when examined by the Jury, presented a most horrible spectacle. The mouth was wide open; the tongue and inside of the mouth were black; part of the nose burned off; one eye apparently destroyed, and the other very much burned; the whole of the face nearly burned black. From the breast, shoulders, and hams, the skin was entirely burned off: the thick skin of the palms of the hands was entirely shrivelled up, as if in her struggle for life she had grasped some hot substance-probably the grate bars. Part of the skin of one of her hands was afterwards found in the ash-heap. Indeed, the whole body, with the exception of the part of the legs below the knee, on which the stockings, partly singed, still remained, and the back of the head, the hair of which was only slightly singed, was burned less or more-the hands, arms, face, and breasts having suffered most. The Jury viewed the frightful mass with feelings of horror and dismay. The inquest lasted three days, and did not close until near eleven o'clock on Monday night last. We now proceed to give a summary of the evidence,-not exactly in the order which the witnesses were examined, but arranged so as to place the facts in the clearest light before the reader. THE INQUEST. Mary CROSBY, daughter of William CROSBY, and Jane, his wife, of Lamonby, in the parish of Skelton, labourer, and landlord of the Blue Miller public-house, says-Sarah Ann CROSBY was my youngest sister. She died on the morning of last Wednesday week. She was quite well until she received the burns. On the Tuesday night previous to her death my mother was not from home. My mother went into the parlour and laid down in bed on that evening a short time after dark. My mother drank a good deal of ale that night; then she said she was poorly, and went to bed. She bolted the door before that. In about half an hour, Sarah's clothes took fire when she was sitting on the fender. Sarah ran direct into the parlour. I ran after her. My mother jumped out of bed, and threw some of the bed clothes at her, and that put the fire out. The frock and slip were then burnt off her. My mother sent for a candle. I got one, lighted it, and took it in. Sarah was then naked, except her stockings. My mother then brought her into the kitchen, and a blanket about her. My mother took the blanket off her, and then held Sarah's face over the fire, close over it. She laid her face upon it, and held it there. Sarah did not scream, she could not scream, she was past that. I am quite sure that all the burning upon the face was caused by my mother holding her upon the fire. My mother bore her up while she held her to the fire, so that her feet were off the ground. I thought Sarah was dead then. She did not speak for some time. After some time my mother sent me for Jenny HUGGAN. My mother then had her upon her knee, folded in a blanket. Sarah had not then spoken. She could not stand, and looked as if she was going to die. I opened the door to go for Jenny HUGGAN. I went and told Jenny that Sarah's brat was burned. My mother told me to say that Sarah was nearly burnt to death. I next went to BAINBRIDGE's, and told them Sarah was nearly burnt to death. I returned to my mother, and she sent me for John WILSON, the blacksmith. Neither my mother nor I ever called out for assistance. My mother told me before I went for Jenny HUGGAN that I was not to tell how it happened, and that I was to say she had been at Skelton. My mother told me to say that Sarah was lying beside James BAINBRIDGE's with her clothes burnt off, and that she found her there when she returned from Skelton. On the day that Sarah was burned I was away at George HOPE's, of Woodend. I came back about four o'clock. Sarah was running up the road away from home. My mother was standing at the blackmith's corner, calling to the people to stop her. The wound upon my head was caused by my mother striking me with the poker. I saw my mother ram the great poker through father's coat slieve in the parlour. This was after Sarah was burnt. The bed was never on fire. The remains of the shift and petticoat now produced are those worn by Sarah that night. The small torn blanket is that which Sarah was folded in. The large blanket and quilt were upon the bed. It was before I went out that my mother put the poker through the coat. The gown produced is that which my mother wore that night. The pokers produced were in my mother's house that night. John WILSON, of Lamonby, blacksmith, says, I am nearest neighbour to CROSBY. My dwelling-house is above my shop. The door of my house looks upon CROSBY's front. The distance between the houses is about forty yards. On Tuesday, the day on which deceased was burnt, I saw deceased leave her mothers house, and run up street as if she was wishing to escape. Her mother was following her a short way behind, and calling her to come back. She did not come back. I looked out from time to time and saw the girl sitting behind the walls, and she gradually came nearer home. About five o'clock, I took her back to her mother's house. I saw her mother. Shen was not then sober. She was not very violent at that time. I told her she was not to ill-use her child, and she said she would not. I left home about six o'clock the same evening, and returned about nine. I went up the road, and stood between their house and our's a few minutes, listening whether there was any noise in CROSBY's house. It was a frosty calm evening, there was little or no wind: all was then silent in CROSBY's house. I was not in a position to see whether there was any light, or whether the door was shut or open. I then went into my own house and to bed, and about ten minutes before ten the same evening, I was called up by Mary CROSBY, who said her sister Sarah was burnt. I asked her what they had been doing, and where her mother was. She answered her mother had been at Skelton. I got up and dressed as quick as possible, and went direct to the house, where I found Jane CROSBY sitting by the kitchen fire, with Sarah upon her knee folded in a blanket. The child was quite naked except its stockings; to the best of my belief, it was rather crying. I said to the mother, what in all goodness have you been doing to the child. She said I might see the child, it was much burnt. She said she was coming up the road from Skelton, a village two miles distant, when she found the child near Bainbridge's Stile, and no one would put it out. I laid the blanket from off the child, and observed that its face, breast, and arms were very much burnt. The parts were then red. I asked her if she would wish to have a doctor, and she said she would. I then went for assistance. I did not then observe any smoke in the house; there might or might not. I was much agitated. I returned in about an hour; the appearance of the burns was then very much altered,-they had become black. The first time I was in the child did not speak, when I returned it spoke and asked for water. Some water was given it. Two or three women had arrived by this time. The mother asked deceased who had set it on fire and how. I saw the child was in great agony, and told her to desist, and she did so. When I first saw her with the child on her knee she certainly was not sober. I remained in the house until the child died, between two and three o'clock the following morning. During the night I heard her say to some of the people in the house, that when she was at the Mill-houses, on her return home, she smelled burning. Mill-house is distant from her house four fields, about 300 yards, and on the road from Skelton. She said she then ran home, and when she came to the house it was very smoky, and that she could not find the child until it spoke to her,-that it spoke from near Bainbridge's Stile, and said, "Mother, my clothes are nearly burnt off," and that she found it lying there. Another part of the evening, I heard her say she could not find it until she stramped upon it. On hearing this, some one asked her if she found it in the house, and she answered, "No, it was out of doors." She talked a great deal about the bed being on fire. About a month ago, on a Saturday night, in conquence of some information from Thomas ROPER, I went to CROSBY's house. The house was dark, the fire was darkish. The deceased and her mother were both crying. The child was screaming very much. I asked her what she was doing to the child to make it scream. She said she was doing nothing, it had been frightened the night before. She had the child lying across her knee upon its back, and was leaning over it. I raised the mother up, and said to the child, "Come with me, she shall not hurt you"-the child clung to its mother. When she asked the child who had set it on fire, she spoke in a loud and violent tone of voice. John WILSON re-examined, says, when I first went into CROSBY's house on Tuesday night, the fire in the kitchen grate was a good one. Ann WILSON, wife of John WILSON, blacksmith-On the night of the burning, I followed my husband to CROSBY's house in about ten minutes. Jane CROSBY was in her ordinary indoor dress. The first thing said to me was-"Oh, Ann, this is a bad job." I said "It is." She said she had gone to Skelton for some butter and provision for the house-they had had none for three days. In the course of the night she said she had got as far as the Limekilns when something came over her, she did not know what, she turned back and found the smell of burning. The Limekilns are about three quarters of a mile distant, and about half a mile beyond Millhouses. She said when she got back she could not find the child. That she then went out and shouted Sarah, and Sarah answered all her clothes were burnt off her. Jane said she found Sarah beside the Stile, with no clothing upon her, and quite naked. I then went into the parlour and found little Mary working on with the bed-clothes. She was putting fresh clothes upon the bed, and the burnt things were lying on the floor. A small piece of the child's petticoat was lying on the floor burnt. Jane said the bed-clothes had been on fire. There was a strong smell of burning. The burnt clothes were in the passage. Jane said these are the burnt things lying in the passage. I saw her during the afternoon. She was drunk. When in this state she was always in a crazy way with herself. I have often seen her beat the child. I have seen her lift it by the hair of the head and dash it down upon the ground. Jane said the burning took place about eight o'clock at night; but Mary would not go and tell the neighbours. On the same afternoon I saw the child running from her house and screaming. She followed it out at the door and wanted it to go in again. I was at home the whole of that evening. I was not out after seven until I went to CROSBY's house. Our outer door opens nto [sic] our sitting room. I heard no noise, neither did I feel the mell [sic] of burning. William SWINBURN, of Lamonby, innkeeper, says-I was called by John WILSON, on the Tuesday night, about ten o'clock. After I went into CROSBY's house, I asked Jane how it happened that it was burnt, and there was no alarm. She said she did not know. She was at Skelton, and when she got home the little lass shouted, "Mother, all my clothes is burnt off, and nobody would put her out." She said she found her lying beside Bainbridge's Stile. I left and went for Jane HUGGAN. A fall of snow had just fallen-it was then snowing. I went to examine the ground near the Stile, but could not find any traces of any person lying there, or of burning. She told me all the clothes were off it when she found it. On the following day I had a conversation with the mother. She said she was going down to Ellonby, and she got to the Limekilns and she found a smell of burning, or something struck her suddenly. She turned and came home and found the house full of smoke, and then she went out to the door and trampled on the child.