An inquest was held before a highly respectable jury, at Barrowstop, near Lanercost Priory, on the 27th inst. The inquiry was instituted to investigate the cause of death of a new-born male child, born of the body of Jane NATTRASS, single woman.

Elizabeth HIND, wife of Mark HIND, of Barrowstop, miller, deposed that Jane NATTRASS and she lived under one roof, each having a separate entrance. NATTRASS lived with her father, a labourer. She had an illegitimate child four years old living with her. That the last witness saw her before the birth of the deceased was on Friday evening last, in her own house - she was going about as usual and made no complaint.

Witness and she generally worked out together at husbandry work. It was witness’s practice to go into her room every morning to ask how she was, and to know if she was going out to work. On Saturday morning last witness went as usual, but found the door bolted inside; witness asked her if she was up and ready to go to work, she replied, “No; I am not well; I cannot go this forenoon, I have a bowel complaint, such as my aunt had at the beginning of the week, and I have been bad all night.” Witness went into her own house, and returned shortly afterwards and told NATTRASS she was going. She said, “Very well; if I am better I will go in this afternoon.”

On witnesses return from work, about half past twelve, she spoke through the door to NATTRASS and asked her how she was. She replied she was no better. The door was still fast. Witness then went to the window and put her hand through a broken pane and drew the curtain to one side. She was in bed, and said she had been up twice but could not sit, she was so sick and bad in her head.” Witness told her some meal had been left for her at their house, and asked if she might bring it in for her. She said, “No, I shall perhaps be better in the afternoon and will bring it in myself.”

Witness returned to her work, and did not come home till nine at night. Witness met her children, who told her Jane (NATTRASS) was dying. Witness went to the window and looked in again and said - “Are you any better; is there nothing I can get for you?” She said she was no better, and witness could get nothing for her. She was still in bed; the fire nearly out. She refused to let the witness in, but said if she grew worse she would let her know.

Witness went for Mary ATKINSON, a neighbour. She came and said,”Dear me, Jane, can we get nothing for you; you will be lost lying all day.” Mary asked her to let her in. Jane said “She could not get up and let her in, and that she could do nothing for her.” She added, “She had got both coffee and tea and mint tea, and if she wanted anything she would call witness.” Mary then left. Shortly afterwards, whilst witness was cleaning up her house, another neighbour, Elizabeth DOBSON, came in, and immediately afterwards Jane NATTRASS called very loud and anxious for witness. Witness and DOBSON went. The door was open. She was sitting on the bedside. Witness saw marks on the floor near the fireside, two yards from where she was sitting.

Witness said, “O Jane, what has thou let it come this far for; could thou not let me in in the beginning of the day?” She said the child was born, and witness was to look under the bed clothes. She said witness might look at it, but she believed it was not then alive. Witness exclaimed much on her for not letting her in sooner. She examined underneath the clothes, and found the child wrapped in a petticoat at the foot of the bed, between the upper and under bed clothes where she had been lying. One arm was lying across its chest, and the other by its side.

Witness said, “There must be something done with it; and it will be necessary to call for a doctor.” She said, “it would not be worthwhile, he would not come.” Witness said it was a bad job. She said, “Well it will just have to be as it is.” She told witness and DOBSON it was born at five o’clock in the afternoon in the bed. She said the little boy gave her the scissors and she had cut the navel-string and had managed to tie it. That she attempted to rise with it after that but fell down in the bed again, she was so sick and could not rise. Witness and DOBSON asked her why she let it lie at the bed foot. She said it was over then and it would have to be as it was.

Several neighbors came by this time. When she told witness she believed it was dead, she also said she believed it was alive when she (witness) came home - that she heard it breathing and ruttling as witness passed her door into her own house. She had kindled the fire which was burning briskly when witness went in. There is a room between the witness’ kitchen and NATTRASS’s, and a stone wall between, so that witness could not hear any ordinary noise made in NATTRASS’s room. She did not seem in an exhausted state, but appeared stronger than a woman generally is under such circumstances. She is twenty-eight years of age, and has been a strong healthy woman till this summer. She never told witness she was in the family way, but witness suspected it and gave her many a hint that she thought so. She always turned it off as a thing of no consequence, and neither denied or admitted it. She had nothing prepared but what she had left from the other child.

When witness was exclaiming for not telling her sooner, she said, “I wish I had not called thee at all.” Witness asked why she had it lying there. She said she meant to get up with it but she fainted down. Witness said she might have kept it up at the head of the bead, and not kept it there, (where it was lying). She made her excuse that she could not do it. Witness upbraided her for not telling her when she heard it breathing, but she said she could not get up. She must have got up and lighted the fire a very few minutes after.

The body was warm when witness found it; the neck seemed black at first, but no marks of injury were upon it. There did not appear to have been more than the ordinary discharge of blood from the child, not so much as from some. She did not father her other child. Witness asked her how she came to have the child in the petticoat. She said, “I had it under myself, and I just let it lie in it and I pushed it down the bed.” Witness said the neighbors present upbraided her for giving it no care. She said, “it was over now and might just be as it was.” The petticoat was folded tightly over the child. She must have wrapped it up with her hands. Witness thinks child could not have lived any time in that position, the petticoat being so close about it.

John GRAHAM, M. D., saw the child shortly after death and made an examination of it. No external marks of violence. Found both lungs fully inflated proving that the child had been born with a life. In his opinion it had died from suffocation.

Other witnesses were examined who corroborated the evidence of Mrs. HIND.

The Coroner then summed up the evidence and the jury, after some deliberation, found the deceased died from suffocation by reason of the mother willfully neglecting to nurse and take care of it.

This verdict amounts to Willful Murder, on which charge she will be committed to gaol as soon as she is considered by the medical officer fit to be removed.