Saturday 15 Feb 1845 (p. 3, col. 2-4) MOST HORRIBLE MURDER. ----- [continued] Jane HUGGAN, wife of James HUGGAN, of Lamonby, labourer, says-Between eight and nine o'clock on the Tuesday evening Mary CROSBY came and said to me, "Sarah's brat and frock were on fire, and her mother could not put it out." I did not go then. I got another message between ten and eleven, and went. I found some clothes lying upon the floor in the passage. At the time, I thought they were scouring cloths, and took them up and threw them into a hole in the wall, behind the passage door. They were wet. I believe they were made so by us walking over them with our wet feet. There was snow. There was smoke in the house, and a smell as if clothes had been burnt. The smoke and smell were in both kitchen and parlour. When I went in, Jane CROSBY said,-"I have been at Ellonby, and when I got to Millhouse I found the smell of burning, and the nearer I got home the stronger the smell became. When I got home I found the house full of smoke. I went into the house, and out of the house into the parlour, and shouted of Mary, and Mary said 'she was there.' I asked where Sarah was? and Mary said she did not know." She said she then went out and shouted "Sarah," and Sarah answered she was lying beside James Bainbridge's Stile, and her clothes all burnt off her. Jane also said she went to deceased, lifted her, and found her quite naked, as I then saw her. Sarah had no clothes upon her whatever at the time when I saw her, except her stockings. The smell in the house when I entered was like to suffocate one, it was so offensive. The smell was like the burning of clothes and flesh. The hair on deceased's head was very little burned. Her face and neck, both back and front, were very much burned. I do not think Jane CROSBY was sober that night. I live about three hundred yards distant from CROSBY's house. I was out at my door several times that evening, between seven and nine. I did not smell burning. I gave the burnt clothes which I threw behind the door to the constable. Elizabeth SCOTT, wife of John SCOTT, of Lamonby, stonemason-I live about three hundred yards distant from CROSBY's house. At half-past eight o'clock on the Tuesday evening, I learnt from Mrs. HUGGAN that Mary CROSBY had been up to say that Sarah's brat and frock were on fire, and that her mother could not put them out. Between ten and eleven I was called. I found the deceased sensible and able to speak. She asked for some water. I proposed giving her some milk and water; and she then asked for milk and water. She spoke with much difficulty. I asked the mother how it happened. She answered, "Elizabeth, I do not not know: I was not at home. I was gone to Ellonby and Skelton for to seek some kitchen, (provisions,) and when I came to the door the house was full of smoke, and I called Mary, and Mary answered I am here, mother. I said where have you Sarah? Mary said I do not know, mother; but I believe she is all burnt." The mother further said-"I went to the door and called Sarah, and Sarah answered I am here, mother. I am all burnt off. I went forward and lifted her at Bainbridge's Stile." I left before the child died. I assisted to clean the house the next morning. There were pieces of tinder lying upon the parlour floor. Jane showed me the quilt and blanket. She told me the blanket was burnt by endeavouring to put out the fire, and the quilt was burnt by the child running against it when she was on fire. William MASON, the younger, of Lamonby, farmer, says, on the Tuesday night in question, my wife and I went down to CROSBY's house at a quarter before eleven. I heard Jane CROSBY say how the burning happened. She said she had gone to Ellonby: she had not got that far,-that she had got down below George DODD's close to Ellonby. This is considerably beyond the Limekilns, and about a mile from Lamonby. Afterwards she said she only got as far as the Limekilns, and she found a smell of burning, which made her turn back, and she came direct back as fast as she could, and went into the house and found it full of smoke. She shouted to Mary where was Sarah. She could not find Mary. She ran out of the parlour into the house and trode upon her. I understood her to say that she had trampled on her in the house. She afterwards told me she found the child beside Bainbridge's Stile. I then said to her she was contradicting herself. She said she had trampled on her in the house. Mary Ann MASON, wife of William MASON, the younger, farmer, says I was at CROSBY's house on Tuesday night. My husband told her she would have to give an account of where she had been; she then said she had been at Skelton; she afterwards said she had only been at Ellonby; she next said she had only been as far as the Limekilns, and smelled a burning: she at another time said she had been as low down as George DODD's. At one time she said she found the child at Bainbridge's Stile with all the clothes burned off; she at another time said she found the child at the door or near the passage. Mary was asked by some one how it happened, and the mother said to her "Was not she sitting on the fender, Mary?" I saw some burnt clothes in the passage. I think Jane was intoxicated at that time. Thomas ROPER, the younger, of Lamonby, stonemason, says-On the Tuesday night in question I went into my own house about five minutes to nine. I came direct from Joseph SALKELD's. When I got near my own house, which is about one hundred and fifty yards from CROSBY's, I heard cries which I thought to be those of a child. I stopped a short time and came forward opposite CROSBY's house. I was then in our garth. I stood about a minute. When I heard the cries, I saw a light in CROSBY's parlour window. I thought it was light more than an ordinary candle would produce. When I was looking the light went out. I cannot tell whether it was extinguished or passed into another room. The cries were the cries of a person receiving punishment. Alice PATTINSON, of Lamonby, widow, says-On the day the child was burnt, about five o'clock in the afternoon, I was standing at William SWINBURN's door; I saw Jane CROSBY standing at the smiddy corner. She appeared tipsy. Sarah was going up the road. The mother called to her to come back. The child appeared frightened of her mother. John WILSON brought her back by the hand. She cried when she went nearer her mother. On the same evening, about nine o'clock, I was at Thomas LING's grocer's shop. On returning home I went past the blacksmith's shop to the front of CROSBY's house. Just as I shut the grocer's shop door I heard several cries in the direction of CROSBY's house. On going up to CROSBY's house I saw a light in the parlour window. When I reached within forty yards of CROSBY's house, the light passed from the parlour into the kitchen. I then saw the outer door was open. I went within two yards of the house. I stopped a short time and listened. I heard Jane CROSBY in her own house. I heard her say, "Oh my honey Sarah, oh my darling Sarah;" and something like, "Oh thy mother is done now." I heard a child in clogs walking in the house at the same time. I immediately left, as I thought they were taking no harm. I heard no cries or moans after I went to the door. William GRAHAM, servant with Mr. William HORSLEY, farmer, says-Last harvest, one Sunday evening, I was standing near the smiddy corner, when I saw Jane CROSBY, who had fallen down the blacksmith's stairs. I thought she was drunk. Just as she rose, her children were there; she took up first one and then the other by the hair of their head and threw them across the road. She called them to her again, and again threw one of them away by the hair of the head, and swung the other one round by the hair of the head two or three times, and they both fell to the ground, the mother uppermost. She then grasped her hands round its neck and appeared to be suffocating it. I went up and pushed her off it, and she again tried to get to it, and the father came up and took it away. I think it was the younger child she attacked last. William MASON, the elder, Lamonby, labourer, says I am the owner of CROSBY's house; they have been my tenants four years gone last Martinmas. I have seen Jane CROSBY punch deceased at times. I have seen her use Sarah very badly; she would have kicked her with her foot. I have seen her kick the child, both when she was drunk and sober. I remember being in CROSBY's house about six weeks ago, CROSBY was at home poorly, she struck at him with a poker, she said he was bad of his back, and she would straight it with the poker, she said she would poison the bairns, and then she would poison herself. John SCOTT, of Lamonby, stonemason, says, on Tuesday the 21st January, deceased slept out all night. I assisted to look for her from half-past eight till past one o'clock in the morning. Deceased's mother was drunk. She desired me to go to Mr. BELL's of Blencowe, and tell him she insisted upon him finding her child for her. Hannah THOMPSON of Lamonby, single woman.-On the Tuesday of the burning I saw deceased sitting behind a wall in the village. I asked her what she was sitting there for, she said her mother was going to bray her. I asked her what she was going to bray her for, she said nothing at all. I told her to go to Jenny HUGGAN's, she said she durst not, her mother would come there and bray her. Frances THOMPSON of Lamonby, widow, says, on the Tuesday of the burning, in the afternoon, I was passing William SWINBURN's house, I came up to deceased, she was crying and going from home. Her mother was standing on the road and calling out to people to stop her. After I passed deceased, she sat down under the wall. Richard WILSON of Ellonby, township constable, says, I received the child's shift and remains of the petticoat from Jane HUGGAN. I and an assistant were searching the house and were in the act of shutting the passage door to see if there was any thing behind it, when Jane HUGGAN went and brought these clothes out of a hole in the wall, there were also a pair of stockings. I also found some pieces of burnt cloth on the ash heap, also some burnt skin. I also got from the parlour a woollen great coat, a quilt, and a blanket, all partly burnt, also a cotton sheet a little burnt, also from the kitchen, two pokers, all of which I now produce. The cape of the coat is burned in three places, the fire having been applied on the outside-In one part, a hole is through the cloth. The left sleeve is burnt in several places. There are about thirteen holes through it, they are separate from each other, one of the holes passes through both sides of the sleeve, and altogether they have the appearance of having been made by the application of heated iron on the different parts; the hole through the sleeve is exactly fitted by the square end of the large poker. There is no continuity between any of the burns. The left skirt is also burnt on several places (three) they are holes slightly burnt. The blanket is burnt on the edge, and in the middle there is one square hole and an oblong hole, all bearing the appearance of having been made in the same way as the burns upon the coat. The side of the quilt has been burnt about ten inches from the side towards the middle. The length of the burn at the side is about twelve inches, and tapers away to a point; it appears to have been burnt from the outside; part of the edges show that it has also been torn; a little further up is a hole apparently made from the outside; it is a square hole. The shift contains several holes; one of which, high up, exactly corresponds with the large poker; the others appear to be made in the same way. The petticoat, only a small portion of it remains, part of which has been separated from that part that is missing, by having been torn away, and not by burning, the other part appears to have been burnt in the same way as the coat, the whole of the inside is untouched by fire; the mother's gown has also several similar holes in it at the bottom. The pieces of skin were much softer than they now are; one of the pieces appeared to be the skin of a palm of a hand and of one of the fingers. The stockings are a little singed. William CARRICK, of Unthank, surgeon, says,-I received a call between ten and eleven o'clock on the night of Tuesday the 28th January last. I found deceased very much burned on the face, and all the other parts of the body, except the breadth of a hand between the shoulders, running to a point on the right shoulder, and narrowing to a point on the left haunch, and also except the legs and feet, and also except the head, the hair upon which was only partially singed the hands, arms, face and breast, were much more burned than the other parts of the body; the face, hands, and arms, were most burned, the skin upon the inside of the hands, which is thicker than other parts, was peeled off and curled up in the palms of the hands. To have caused this appearance, considerable heat must have been applied. I do not think the burning of the frock and slip would have caused the injuries that I found upon the body. The greater part of the petticoat is burned, but the waistband round the back is not destroyed; nearly the whole of the back of the shift is uninjured, and does not appear to have been under the influence of fire; there are holes burned in it in different places; the shift tail is singed, and the sewing of the shift in several places has been torn; the injuries upon the back parts of the body of the deceased did not correspond with the burnt part of the shift, on the contrary, those parts of the shift which had not been under the influence of the fire covered to a large extent parts of the body which were very much burned. I do not think that the injuries of the back part of the body could have been received while the shift was on the child's body. I may here state that when I was first called, I was told by the mother that the whole of the child's clothes had been burnt off her body, which accounted to me for the body being so much burned. I fitted the shift upon the body. I examined the whole of the body very carefully. I found no external marks of injury except those from burning. When I first saw her I considered her in a dying state; she was labouring under all the symptoms of a person suffering from severe burns; these burns I have no doubt were the cause of death; there were no bruises or fractures upon the head. While I was in CROSBY's house on the Tuesday night, the mother looked round in a menacing manner and said, "Do you blame me for the child? if you do, I will put end to myself," or something to that effect. This concluded the evidence, and the Corner [sic] informed the prisener [sic] that she was at liberty to make any statement she pleased; but cautioned her it would be taken down, and might afterwards be used against her. The Prisoner then said - As to, any thing I have to say either one way or the other, certainly she was an obstinate girl; the two girls agreed very badly, the greater was the master of the little one. Sarah sometimes ran away, and I was harder on her on that account. I never knew or saw her burning until I found her. I have taken my foot and kicked them when I was in my passion. I was quite innocent of her. I was on the road when the child burnt. I left her sitting and found her burnt. When I returned I found the lower part of the bed burning; it was smouldering, the coat was worst to put out. I found the child besideways of the pump. I cannot say there was any thing upon her except her stockings when I lifted her; if there was, it fell off before I took her into the house. I cannot say how the coat was lying on the bed that night, but I generally threw the upper part of the coat to the far side of the bed, and the coat tails hung over the outside of the bed. I have nothing more to say, but I am quite innocent of the child. The Coroner then proceeded to sum up the whole facts to the Jury, pointing out with great clearness the bearing of each circumstance for and against the prisoner, and leaving them to say, after a calm and impartial consideration of all the facts, whether or not the prisoner had been guilty of the child's death. The Jury retired for about ten minutes, and on their return, gave a verdict of WILFUL MURDER against Jane CROSBY, "by forcibly holding and keeping deceased to, upon, and against a fire, whereby the deceased received divers mortal burns of which she died." The wretched woman was then committed to Carlisle Gaol for trial at the ensuing Assizes.