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Baby

Age: newborn

Sex: male

Date: 11 Nov 1905

Place: Torrisholme, Morecambe

A newly-born baby was found dead in a ditch. A woman was tried but acquitted.

The baby was found drowned in a ditch on a farm at Torrisholme.

The woman charged had gone to Bristol where she was arrested but it was said that she had been working at a Morecambe theatre as a theatrical dresser at that time and had given birth to a child there but was supposed to have had it adopted by some people in Lancaster.

When arrested she said that she had never touched the child while it was alive.

The court heard that the woman had taken every means to conceal the birth and had continued her duties at the Compton Comedy Company without interruption. On the morning following the birth a midwife had declared that the woman must have been mad to go to work but the woman said that she was travelling as a single woman and would lose her place if it were known.

The court heard that she took no notice of the child and under the pretence of taking it to Lancaster to board out on the Saturday, the day the theatrical company was leaving for Scarborough, she was alleged to have drowned the infant in the ditch. Its clothes were found in the woman's box among other theatre effects.

However, the defence said that the identification of the child was incomplete and not a soul had been called for the prosecution to show that the woman was ever near the ditch where the child was found.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Saturday 11 November 1905

see Dundee Evening Telegraph - Friday 13 October 1905

see Dundee Evening Telegraph - Tuesday 17 October 1905

see Yorkshire Evening Post - Tuesday 07 November 1905

see National Archives - ASSI 52/104