A Shocking Occurrence - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

Carlisle Patriot

December 27th, 1844

A Shocking Occurrence

Carlisle Patriot - December 27th, 1844

    The quiet village of Ashford, a short distance from Staines, has been
the scene of a shocking affair, which has created a great sensation in the
neighbourhood.

    So far as the facts have been ascertained up to this time, it appears
that a man named William OLIVER, and his wife and family, consisting of several
children, occupied a miserable cottage by the road side, near Ashford for
some time past.

    The woman was in the habit of vending lucifer matches, and the children
were sent out to beg, the man being represented as an idle and dissolute
character, and these being the only means by which the family could eke out a
subsistence. The family had been in great distress, and were receiving relief
from the parish of Isleworth.

    On Tuesday morning William OLIVER, one of the sons, came to a neighbours
house, in a state of alarm, and said that his father and mother were very
ill, and the person to whom he applied immediately went for Mr. RICHARDSON, the
overseer, and accompanied him to the miserable hut occupied by the family,
where a dreadful scene presented itself, the woman laying upon the bed quite
dead, and her husband, in the agonies of death, by her side.

    A messenger was immediately despatched for Mr. CURTIS, the medical of
ficer of the union, and he soon attended, and did all the was possible to
alleviate the sufferings of the man, but without avail, as he expired almost
immediately.

    The actual cause of this double death at present remains in mystery, but
it is believed to be the effect of poison. The constable who was called in
found a piece of paper, which contained some white powder, believed to be
arsenic, which has been taken away for medical examination, but the result has
not yet transpired.

    On a further search the constable found one penny and a small quantity
of bread and bacon, which the little boy, William said his father wished him
to eat in the night, and awoke him for that purpose, but he would not do so.
There is some reason to believe that there was an intention on the part of
one or other of the unhappy deceased persons to destroy the whole family; for
another child. Eliza, had evidently partaken of some noxious ingredient, as
she was very ill when the surgeon was called in, and exhibited all the
appearance of having taken poison, although she is now out of danger, and, with her
brother in the union house, under the care of the parochial authorities.

    The cottage and the remains of the unhappy deceased are at present in
the charge of the police, and will remain so until after the inquest.

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