Newton Abbot: Petty Sessions: Monday: Before Admiral Wise (chairman) G. B. Ellicombe, Esq., and Dr. Atkinson: Mary Ann Parkyn, a married woman, of Bovey Tracey, who appeared in Court with an infant in her arms, was brought up in custody charged with wilfully and inhumanly neglecting to provide William Henry Clampit, a child 15 weeks and one day old, who was under her care, with sufficient food and nourishment, by reason whereof he died on the 21st December. Mr. Creed defended the prisoner: Elizabeth Clampitt, the mother of the child, said she was now residing at St. Mary Church. After her confinement in September, she went to the prisoner’s house and asked her if she would take charge of her child. She replied that she would, adding that she had previously kept one at Exeter. She agreed to pay her 2s. 6d a week, and she left the child — a fine baby and quite healthy. She then went to her place, and about six weeks afterwards she returned home. The prisoner brought the baby and said she could not keep it for the money, but the witness replied she would rather go into the Workhouse than pay any more. The prisoner then consented to keep the child until she saw her again. The child was then looking very well and healthy, and it ate its meat, bread, sugar, and milk, heartily. Six weeks and two days subsequently she was sent for. She came away from her place directly, and going to the prisoner’s house found the baby lying on two chairs, with something under the child, but she could not say what it was. A shawl was placed over it. She took the baby in her arms and said, “This is never my baby.” The prisoner’s husband replied that it was. When the prisoner came, the witness wanted to take the child away, but the prisoner said she ought not to take it out, and afterwards the prisoner gave it some sugar, milk, and tea. The child drank several spoonfuls. Later in the afternoon she took the child to her mother’s house and gave it a little weak brandy and water. Dr. Haydon afterwards attended it at her request, and she nourished it as directed by the doctor, but it died about five o’clock the following morning. Dr. Haydon, Bovey Tracey, deposed the child being brought to his surgery on the 19th December. He observed that its eyes were very thin, and the feet swollen, the face was pale and shrunken, the arms were also thin. He told the mother to take the child home and give it some warm milk and water, and to keep it warm. He saw the child again on the following evening at the house of the child’s grandmother, and then saw it was dying, and told the mother so. He still ordered warm milk and the child to be kept warm. He did not see the child alive again. At the request of the coroner, he made a post-mortem examination of the body. He found the body extremely emaciated and very little fat over the chest, fat on the abdomen, about the heart. The lungs and brain were healthy. The stomach contained a little food. He came to the opinion that the child died from want of nourishment, and that the state of the child had been coming on for some time and was not the result of a few days’ illness. Dr. Gaye deposed to having heard the evidence of the post-mortem examination and was of opinion that the child certainly had not received proper treatment or proper care. Sarah Coles deposed to living next door to the prisoner, and on Sunday week, before the death of the child, she heard it cry very much, and went into the prisoner’s house and saw both her and her husband. She asked to see the child but was refused; however, after persisting she saw the child and told them that she thought it was for want of food that it was crying, but the prisoner denied it. She asked the prisoner to take the child up and feed it, when she replied “that she should do that when she thought it proper, and that she should not keep the child long. Elizabeth Pinsent went to see the child on the 19th December, and found it lying on two chairs apparently dying. She asked the prisoner if she had sent for a doctor and was told she had not. She saw it again the evening before its death, remaining with it until it died. She gave it a little brandy and water, and also a little clear arrowroot. Mr. Creed submitted in the course of lengthy speech that there was no evidence of ill-treatment, and the most that could be made of it was neglect, and as the prisoner was a married woman the husband, if anyone, was the only person liable. They had agreed to keep the child for 2s. 6d a week, and they, therefore, could not afford to keep it so well if they had 10s. a week. Beyond their liability to maintain the child, they were not bound to obtain medical assistance. This was a very different case from those which excited so much attention in London, as in this case there was no motive to get rid of the child. The Bench committed the prisoner for trial at the next Assizes.
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
Referenced
[GRO0511 Bristol] (?)