TRIPLE MURDER AND SUICIDE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2794, 8 March 1882, Page 2

TRIPLE MURDER AND SUICIDE.

A distressing tale of triple murder and suicide is reported frbm Fulstohe, near Shepley, Huddersfield. On : Tuesday morning, December 20,. Henry Battye, landlord of the Junction Inn, finding that his daughter Hannah Moorhouse, aged 27, who bad already had three illegitimate children, aged 10, 6,. and 2, appeared to be again pregnant,told her he could not do with any more children, addingthat they must seek-a fresh shop.' He refused to allow her to keep a boy, which she said a deceased brother had given her. On Tuesday afternoon Mr Battye went to Huddersfield, and Mrs Battle, Hannah Moorhouse, her three children, Ada, John, and ; Emma; and Henry Battye, her brother, had tea together. When Mr Battye returned in the evening only Mrs Batty e was at home but the absence of the others excited no - surprise. Shortly after, Henry. Batte, aged eight, -came in, and said, “ Mother, our Handah has gone into the dam, with Ada and, Johnny.” He added that Hannah went out of the house to the,cowshed,: and asked-him to hold the candle while the lad named Ecclessly milked the cows. She then asked Henry to go with her over the field to the pond, and said, “ Ada and Emma have gone in there,, and we ( . are going. You can go : home and tell your father and mother that they may know where we are. On’searching the dam which is ten feet deep, about 100 yards from the inn, and 50 from the road, the bodies ,of the pother and her eldest daughter Ada were found, and. half an hour afterwards those of the two younger children, She had .been seen in the road near the pond with her two eldest in her arms. She had laid out a quantity of ~ linen, apparently to serve as shrouds for them. At the inquest, the evidence revealed the fact that the children must have been drowned separately, beginning with the eldest and finishing with the youngest. Ada, 10 years old was first missed, and then the mother came to the kitchen where Emma, 9, was, and said she wanted her to go out with her. The child said she did not want to go, whereupon the mother said she was going to a better home, and later on she was seen going down the road leading by the hand this child and the youngest. The night was rough and rainy, but none of them had anything on their heads. When on the last journey with the youngest (aged 20 months) the mother took her brother Henry, aged 8 years, and giving him a wet jacket which she found on the reservoir embankment, and which proved to be Ada’s, she bade him tell his mother and father that Ada and Emma were in the pond, and that she and Simeon were going in also. He had had to climb two fence walls and help her with the child. He ran back to the house screaming. There was not the slightest particle of evidence to show that the deceased woman was of unsound mind. All the day she had been in a cheerful mood, singing over her work, and otherwise going about her household duties pleasantly.! Her father had told her that he could not do with any more children there (he suspecting that she was enceinte) but it did not discomfort her. Before the second child came she bad threatened to make a\yay with herself, but.no thought was’entertained that she would do so. She was ever wilful, liking to have her own way. She used to beat the children severely if they disobeyed her, hut otherwise she was very fond of them. The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against the mother of the three children, and of suicide as regarded herself, adding that there wps not sufficient evidence to show the state of her mind at the time. Subsequently the mother and children were interred in one grave at Shepley Church, the vicar, the Rev. T- Newton, officiating.