The GLIO Site

PETERSFIELD.
Agent—Miss DUPLOCK.

     INQUEST.—A coroner’s inquest was held before E. Hoskins, Esq., at the Petersfield Union Workhouse, on Wednesday last, touching the death of an infant which was found dead on Monday morning last by the side of its mother, Ann Soal, an inmate of the house. The following were the jury:—Mr. G. Duplock (foreman), Messrs. J. White, W. Carter, W. Bailey, T. James, H. Charge, G. Johnson, T. Sturt, F. Henson, G. Finley, C. Knight, J.  Powell, J. Pook, T. Summers, and C. Chatfield. The jury having been sworn, proceeded to view the body, after which Ann Soal, the mother, deposed as follows:— I am the wife of Edward Soal, of Buriton, laborer; have not  been living with my husband since February, 1859. We have five children; four are with my husband, and one is with me here; the latter is a year and a half old, and was born five weeks after we separated. I came here last April; had been cohabiting with Henry Harding from the  time I left my husband up to the day l came here. I had my child with me all the time. Harding and I agreed to separate. I was in the family way. I applied to Mr. Durman, the relieving officer, for an order of admission to the house for myself and child. I told the matron on the evening of my admission that I was in the family way, and expected to be confined at the end of May or beginning of June; did not tell her that the child was illegitimate. I was confined on the 8th of June, about eleven o’clock at night. I had worked at picking oakum up to six o’clock that evening. Witness here gave a detailed account of the circumstances attending the birth of the child, and then went on to state that on Sunday evening last she gave the child the breast about eight o’clock, and she knew it was alive about nine, as she remembered putting it farther from her because she felt so hot. She soon after went to sleep, and just as it was getting light next morning she awoke and got out of bed, and on getting in again she took hold of the child to put it further into the bed and found it cold. She called Matilda Hoar, who slept in another bed in the same room, and asked her to get a light, and while she was doing so witness took the child into her arms, and when the light came they found she was quite dead. The bed stood  close to the wall.—A juror here enquired what was the width of the bed. The master of the house was called and requested to measure it, and having done so, he reported it to be 32 inches,—Matilda Hoar deposed: I slept in the lying-in room with Ann Soal after her confinement. On Sunday evening last when I went to bed she was in bed. I did not see the child. I never saw it alive after Saturday evening when I went to bed, about eight o’clock. On Sunday night as I was going to bed a child belonging to one of the women in the house came into the room and wanted to see the baby. Ann Soal said she could not have it disturbed, by any one. She said it was asleep behind her. She was lying with her face towards my bed. About half-past two next morning Ann Soal called me to get a light, and I did so. The words she used when she called me were ‟Matilda, get a light, for there is something the matter with my child, I think it is dead.” She did not seem very much agitated. I was surprised, and called the cook (Harriet Blanchard), and then got a light. Ann Soal was then sitting up in the bed, with the child in her arms; its right arm was lying across its breast, its legs were not quite straight, its face and the inside of its lips were very dark, and it was quite dead.—By the Foreman:I am quite sure Ann Soal was sitting up in the bed, with the child in her arms, when I brought the light. I did not see her out of the bed at all.—Sarah Pennicot deposed: I am nurse and an inmate of this house. I attended Ann Soal during her confinement. On Sunday evening last, about six o’clock, I undressed the child; it was then quite well, and the mother was in bed. I put the child in bed to her on the side next the wall. I saw her give it to the breast about eight o’clock; it then seemed to be doing well. The mother always appeared to treat the child well in my presence. I was very much surprised to find it dead next morning.—William Albert Huntley deposed: I am a medical practitioner at Petersfield, assistant to Messrs. Whicher and Cross. On Monday morning last, about three o’clock, I was called to see deceased, and it appeared to have been a healthy robust child. There were no particular marks upon the body. The surface of the face and backs of the hands presented an unusual discolouration. It was quite dead and cold. Both hands were clenched by its side; the legs were in a natural position, but rather dark, and the mouth was open. Death must have taken place some hours before. Judging from the appearances, my opinion is that death was caused by suffocation.—The Coroner briefly addressed the jury, calling their attention to some of the more prominent points in the evidence, and left it to them to say, by their verdict, whether there was anything to criminate the mother of the child. There could be no doubt as to the cause of death; that, clearly, was suffocation; but whether this arose from culpable negligence on the part of the mother, or whether it was purely accidental, it was for them to determine.—Verdict, ‟accidentally suffocated.”—The jury appended to their verdict a request that the Coroner would intimate to the Board of Guardians the desirableness of providing wider beds for the lying-in room, as they considered 32 inches for a mother and child insufficient.