DEAD WOMAN’S SECRET.

Shannon News, 9 November 1926, Page 3

DEAD WOMAN’S SECRET.

An open verdict was returned by Mr. G. W. W. Surridge, the' Manchester City Coroner, at the inquest of the skeletons of two' children found in a black tin box in a house in Deramore Street, Moss Side, Manchester, after the occupier, Mrs. Jane Shaw, aged 84, died from shock following a fall down stairs. .

.On the outside of the box was a copy of the song, "The Last Rose of Summer,” and Police Sergeant Crabtree, who found the skeletons, said they ivere wrapped in old clothes and mummified. He thought they "were about 60 years old. . Mr. John Sutton, of Fallowfield, Manchester, said he had known Mrs. Shaw for 60 years. He first knew her as a servant at Heald Green, Manchester, and later she lived with her uncle at Ramsden as his housekeeper. In 1868 she was supposed to have had a child, and another in the following year. She was not married at the time. Mr. Sutton added: "She told my mother that those children were put out to nurse, and later were sent to a boarding-school. Whether this was true or not I do not know. Prom what she used to tell my mother. they lived to grow up. ' ’ Mr. Sutton said that Mrs. Shaw was married in 1874 or 1875. Her husband died 21 years ago. Mr. Sutton handed in a letter he had received from a former servant of Mrs. Shaw, who signed herself " Maggie.-’ ’ and who now lived in Manchester. It read: "About the bbx. She had a box with her that, was carefully guarded. One day, when she was away, I was curious to see what she had got. I tried to open it, but failed." Dr. E. Hughes said the children, had died at or shortly after birth. . Mr. G. W. W. Surridge, in returning his verdict, said that the children might have been those of Mrs. Shaw, which she said had been put out to nurse. They might'have died perfectly natural deaths, and he was going to suggest that they did not.