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Old 18-02-2012, 04:41 PM
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Default Unpleasantness at Acklington 1839

COMMITTAL OF A GIRL FOR PARRICIDE.--- On the 3rd instant, Jane Mordue, aged sixteen, was committed to Morpeth gaol, on a charge of poisoning her father, Thomas Mordue, of Acklington, labourer ; and Susan Stephenson; an inmate of the poor house in the latter place, was committed as an accessory before the fact. The case, we understand has excited intense interest in and around the village wherein the parties resided. The deceased had been buried without suspicion, but circumstances transpired which led to the disinterment of the body and an examination of the stomach by Drs. Leithead and Elliot, of Warkworth; and Dr. Hedley, of Felton, who came to the unhesitating conclusion that the death was the result of poison. An inquest was held at the Hermitage Inn, Warkworth, before J. A, Russell, Esq., of Alnwick, solicitor and coroner, on Monday the 29th ult; and it appeared in evidence the daughter of the deceased had purchased arsenic at the shop of Mr. Nicholson, of Warkworth, grocer, falsely pretending that it was for Miss Thompson of Acklington, who, she stated, required poison for two cats. On her way home, she dropped the packet out of her glove, and it was seen by a girl named Shell, who was an important witness against her. The jury adjourned on the Monday night, to Thursday, May 2, when the girl Mordue, - who at the commencement of the inquiry, had exhibited the utmost indifference--became softened, and confessed her guilt, stating, that she had been prompted to the deed by Susan Stephenson (a woman who has had two or three illegitimate children, and bears a very indifferent character.) The jury further adjoined to Friday, the 3rd inst; and having returned a verdict of implicating both the girl and the old woman, they were committed for trial at the assizes. The jury were unanimous in the case of the girl, but as to the woman there were some dissentients. The daughter of the deceased, we are informed, was led to meditate revenge by some reproof which she received from her parent, in a matter of comparatively trifling importance.



The Newcastle Courant Friday, May 17, 1839
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