The Rugby Romance - 1861
'An extraordinary story, which reads more like a page extracted from the Mysteries of Paris, or of London, than an occurrence in what we are usually accustomed to look upon as real life, comes to us from Rugby. It concerns a young child not quite three years old, and the heir to £14,000 a-year, who has just been rescued from a loathsome den in the purlieus of Drury-lane, after having been suckled and fed from its birth among thieves, prostitutes, and beggars. The father of that child was brought up, on the 16th September, on a warrant, before two of the Warwickshire magistrates, to answer the apparently mild charge of " having wilfully made certain false statements concerning a male infant, born of the body of one Amy Georgina Hill, by Richard Guinness Hill, her husband."
The prisoner, Mr Hill, married Miss Burdett, a grand-daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, a lady in whose welfare Miss Burdett Coutts, by whom she had been adopted, took the liveliest interest. For several years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Hill are represented as having lived most affectionately together ; so much so, that the latter devised the whole of her property, which is of very considerable value, to her husband in the event of no issue surviving her decease. But an event, which, in ordinary cases, would have increased this happiness, suddenly turned it into gall and bitterness. When on her way from Dublin to London to be confined, Mrs. Hill was obliged to remain at Rugby, and there the child, who has formed the subject of the present inquiry, was born at the commencement of January, 1859. This child the prisoner registered as " Robert Hill, son of Robert Hill and Mary Hill, maiden name Seymour." About a week afterwards, having prevailed upon his wife to place the child out to nurse, he came to London to make the necessary and proper arrangements, as it was supposed, for that purpose; and, in a day or so, the child, in the care of a young girl, named Catherine Parsons, left for London by train, and was met at the Euston-square station by the father. From that time up to within the last few weeks, a period of more than two years and a-half, the mother could obtain no tidings of her lost child. She had been informed by the girl, Catherine Parsons, that it had been placed in improper hands; but the prisoner succeeded, for a time, in allaying both her anxiety and her suspicions by fallacious reports of the satisfactory manner in which the child was progressing. At length, when Mrs. Hill would brook no further delay, she was informed the child was dead, then that it had left England for Australia ; and, finally, after having, as it is alleged, been subject to ill-usage, a separation took place, and the weak woman's rights were confided to the care of those who were better able to look after them than herself.
A couple of London detectives soon succeeded in obtaining a clue, which, though it eventually turned out a correct one, might have led to the discovery of any forsaken little one in St. Giles's. A woman informed them that, eighteen months ago, she lived on the same floor with another woman, who had no children, but who had in her room a child which she had received from a gentleman at a railway-station. This woman, with the child, was tracked, through some of the vilest dens imaginable, to a house situated in a filthy alley, not more than five minutes' walk from two of the greatest thoroughfares of London. In a small apartment on the second floor, in one corner of which lay a man, nearly naked, dying, and around whom were squatted several women in the most ragged and miserable condition, the whole place reeking with filth and stench, the detectives found the woman Andrews, and the heir to £14,000 a-year. The child, almost iv a state of nudity, was covered with filth and vermin, sores, and wounds, a dreadful picture of the degraded state to which neglect and ill-usage can reduce humanity. And now the story, in all its darkness, was brought to light. Andrews, with two children (one in her arms, the other iv the gutter), was begging in Windmill-street, and, one wet Saturday night, was accosted by the prisoner. He asked her if she would take care of a child ; to treat it like her own ; like the little one, with bare feet, standing in the gutter on that cold, raw, wet Saturday evening in January. If she liked, he added, she might dispose of it, perhaps to another beggar, to attract, by the display of such touching misery, the sympathies of the passers-by. The bargain was struck on Sunday night ; and, the night afterwards, the father delivered his child, at midnight, to that woman, in the presence of a friend who is now in gaol for theft, and the servant-girl who brought the child from Rugby. The child, then about ten days old, was wrapped in a shawl which the mother peculiarly valued. That shawl, which the woman Andrews pawned, has been identified by Mrs. Hill. The box in which the child's linen had been packed was found in Andrews' possession. In short, the identity of the child is said to have been made clearly manifest.
Upon the above facts being clearly established, Mr. Cooke and Mr. Brett applied to the magistrates for a warrant for the apprehension of the prisoner, The warrant was granted, but it could not be executed, inasmuch as the prisoner was not in England. He was known to be in Brussels, but as no treaty of extradition existed, he could not be demanded. Mr R. Hill was advised to go to London, in the hope that the prisoner, who had privately renewed his entreaties for forgiveness, would follow her . The ruse ultimately succeeded, for, on a Saturday afternoon, the prisoner, having shaven off a large pair of red whiskers, and in their place substituted a pair of false black ones, eluded the vigilance of the Belgian authorities, who were watching his movements, and succeeded in reaching London. By some secret means he had obtained the address of his wife, who had been located by her friends in a portion of the metropolis where it was thought she was safe from intrusion ; and, to her great surprise, while out upon a visit, she received information that the prisoner had endeavoured to see her. She, naturally much alarmed, sought the assistance of Mr. Brett, who hastened to the neighbourhood, and at last succeeded in securing him at a house a few doors removed from his wife's residence ; and it was clear that he had taken the apartments for the purpose of overlooking his wife's movements. When taken into custody prisoner said it was a bad job, but he must make the best of it. He was taken to Bow Station, where he remained until Monday morning, when he was conveyed by Mr. Brett to Rugby, and placed before the magistrates. It seems that when the child was discovered by Brett in the filthy den in Lincoln-court, Drury-lane, the prisoner was living in Brussels ; and, although his wife resided in the same city, they were not upon friendly terms. The child was taken over to Brussels, and placed by its mother under proper medical treatment. The arrival of the infant became known to Hill, who exerted himself to see it ; and, on one occasion, when the nurse was walking with it in a garden, he came to the railings and induced the servant girl to allow him to kiss it. He afterwards forwarded a frock, made of costly materials, and other presents ; but they were returned, and his endeavours to resume friendly relations with his wife were more and more discouraged. The London police were well aware of his movements in Brussels, but they could not secure his apprehension. Mrs. Hill was ultimately advised to return to England, the hope being entertained that ! she would be followed by her husband, and the ruse succeeded.
Two or three singular matters have transpired, which will strengthen the evidence to be brought forward to prove the identity of the child. The women who received it state that when they were paid the £15 by Hill, they were afraid of losing the money, and it was decided by them to place £5 in each of their names in the St. Martin's Savings Bank. Search has, it is understood, been made in the books at the bank, and the truth of the women's statement established, both as to amount and date, the latter, of course, being, in a legal point of view, highly important. Both of these women will give evidence before the magistrates ; but as one of them, Mrs. Scott, alias Idle, is in Tothill Fields Prison, under sentence of twelve months' hard labour for robbery, it will be necessary to procure her attendance by habeas corpus. The prisoner, it seems, has admitted that the woman to whom he gave the child told him her name was Farebrother (Mrs. Andrews's alias), which he says he remembers distinctly, because of certain peculiar circumstances which he narrated.
Mr. Hill's examination began on the 16th of September, and was continued on the 21st. On the latter occasion he was represented by counsel. After evidence had been heard with reference to the alleged falsification of the register, Mr Phillbrick, on the prisoner's behalf, objected to the production of evidence on the question of the identity of the child as having nothing to do with the charge ; but the magistrates overruled this objection, and both the woman Andrews, in whose hands the prisoner is alleged to have placed the child, and her confederate, Mary Ann Idle, were examined as to their share in the transaction. The little boy was produced in court, and his appearance excited much commiseration. The prisoner was remanded till September 25. A correspondent of the Daily News says: — "I have been seriously misinformed of the defence of Mr. Hill will not prove as strange a chapter as the one now open to the public. There are, however, some grounds for believing that the charge will never be further prosecuted, and that the accused asked for the presence of Colonel Burdett, a near relation of his wife's, before being called on for his defence, because of his belief that he could, through such intervention, induce a compromise by assisting in determining the identity of the child. If the defence indicated to me be really the defence relied upon, I would not be at all surprised if there was no further publicity, and if the afflicted mother consented to forego a prosecution after the identity of her child shall have been conclusively established."
The Dublin Evening Post, has ascertained that Mr Richard Guinness Hill is not related, as at first asserted, to Mr Benjamin Lee Guinness, and states that Mr Hill, who bears the Christian name of Guinness, was a relation of the late Mr Henry Darley, head of the brewery firm of Messrs Darley and Nicholson, at Stillorgan. For some years after the death of Mr. Darley and the cessation of the brewery establishment Mr. Hill carried on a malting establishment there. Some years since, as stated in the report of the proceedings, Mr Hill married, in Brussels, Miss Burdett, a young lady of great personal attractions and large fortune, the grand-daughter (this was later corrected to her being the grand-niece) of the late Sir Francis Burdett, for many years member for Westminster, and niece of Miss Burdett Coutts, who had taken a great interest in her welfare. For some time after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hill resided in Stephen's-green West, in Dublin, and Mr. Hill carried on the business of a maltster, making sales occasionally at the Corn Exchange.'
This account is taken from The Sydney Morning Herald, Wed 20 Nov 1861, Page 3 available at TROVE
©June Bow & Karen Poff – October 2020
'An extraordinary story, which reads more like a page extracted from the Mysteries of Paris, or of London, than an occurrence in what we are usually accustomed to look upon as real life, comes to us from Rugby. It concerns a young child not quite three years old, and the heir to £14,000 a-year, who has just been rescued from a loathsome den in the purlieus of Drury-lane, after having been suckled and fed from its birth among thieves, prostitutes, and beggars. The father of that child was brought up, on the 16th September, on a warrant, before two of the Warwickshire magistrates, to answer the apparently mild charge of " having wilfully made certain false statements concerning a male infant, born of the body of one Amy Georgina Hill, by Richard Guinness Hill, her husband."
The prisoner, Mr Hill, married Miss Burdett, a grand-daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, a lady in whose welfare Miss Burdett Coutts, by whom she had been adopted, took the liveliest interest. For several years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Hill are represented as having lived most affectionately together ; so much so, that the latter devised the whole of her property, which is of very considerable value, to her husband in the event of no issue surviving her decease. But an event, which, in ordinary cases, would have increased this happiness, suddenly turned it into gall and bitterness. When on her way from Dublin to London to be confined, Mrs. Hill was obliged to remain at Rugby, and there the child, who has formed the subject of the present inquiry, was born at the commencement of January, 1859. This child the prisoner registered as " Robert Hill, son of Robert Hill and Mary Hill, maiden name Seymour." About a week afterwards, having prevailed upon his wife to place the child out to nurse, he came to London to make the necessary and proper arrangements, as it was supposed, for that purpose; and, in a day or so, the child, in the care of a young girl, named Catherine Parsons, left for London by train, and was met at the Euston-square station by the father. From that time up to within the last few weeks, a period of more than two years and a-half, the mother could obtain no tidings of her lost child. She had been informed by the girl, Catherine Parsons, that it had been placed in improper hands; but the prisoner succeeded, for a time, in allaying both her anxiety and her suspicions by fallacious reports of the satisfactory manner in which the child was progressing. At length, when Mrs. Hill would brook no further delay, she was informed the child was dead, then that it had left England for Australia ; and, finally, after having, as it is alleged, been subject to ill-usage, a separation took place, and the weak woman's rights were confided to the care of those who were better able to look after them than herself.
A couple of London detectives soon succeeded in obtaining a clue, which, though it eventually turned out a correct one, might have led to the discovery of any forsaken little one in St. Giles's. A woman informed them that, eighteen months ago, she lived on the same floor with another woman, who had no children, but who had in her room a child which she had received from a gentleman at a railway-station. This woman, with the child, was tracked, through some of the vilest dens imaginable, to a house situated in a filthy alley, not more than five minutes' walk from two of the greatest thoroughfares of London. In a small apartment on the second floor, in one corner of which lay a man, nearly naked, dying, and around whom were squatted several women in the most ragged and miserable condition, the whole place reeking with filth and stench, the detectives found the woman Andrews, and the heir to £14,000 a-year. The child, almost iv a state of nudity, was covered with filth and vermin, sores, and wounds, a dreadful picture of the degraded state to which neglect and ill-usage can reduce humanity. And now the story, in all its darkness, was brought to light. Andrews, with two children (one in her arms, the other iv the gutter), was begging in Windmill-street, and, one wet Saturday night, was accosted by the prisoner. He asked her if she would take care of a child ; to treat it like her own ; like the little one, with bare feet, standing in the gutter on that cold, raw, wet Saturday evening in January. If she liked, he added, she might dispose of it, perhaps to another beggar, to attract, by the display of such touching misery, the sympathies of the passers-by. The bargain was struck on Sunday night ; and, the night afterwards, the father delivered his child, at midnight, to that woman, in the presence of a friend who is now in gaol for theft, and the servant-girl who brought the child from Rugby. The child, then about ten days old, was wrapped in a shawl which the mother peculiarly valued. That shawl, which the woman Andrews pawned, has been identified by Mrs. Hill. The box in which the child's linen had been packed was found in Andrews' possession. In short, the identity of the child is said to have been made clearly manifest.
Upon the above facts being clearly established, Mr. Cooke and Mr. Brett applied to the magistrates for a warrant for the apprehension of the prisoner, The warrant was granted, but it could not be executed, inasmuch as the prisoner was not in England. He was known to be in Brussels, but as no treaty of extradition existed, he could not be demanded. Mr R. Hill was advised to go to London, in the hope that the prisoner, who had privately renewed his entreaties for forgiveness, would follow her . The ruse ultimately succeeded, for, on a Saturday afternoon, the prisoner, having shaven off a large pair of red whiskers, and in their place substituted a pair of false black ones, eluded the vigilance of the Belgian authorities, who were watching his movements, and succeeded in reaching London. By some secret means he had obtained the address of his wife, who had been located by her friends in a portion of the metropolis where it was thought she was safe from intrusion ; and, to her great surprise, while out upon a visit, she received information that the prisoner had endeavoured to see her. She, naturally much alarmed, sought the assistance of Mr. Brett, who hastened to the neighbourhood, and at last succeeded in securing him at a house a few doors removed from his wife's residence ; and it was clear that he had taken the apartments for the purpose of overlooking his wife's movements. When taken into custody prisoner said it was a bad job, but he must make the best of it. He was taken to Bow Station, where he remained until Monday morning, when he was conveyed by Mr. Brett to Rugby, and placed before the magistrates. It seems that when the child was discovered by Brett in the filthy den in Lincoln-court, Drury-lane, the prisoner was living in Brussels ; and, although his wife resided in the same city, they were not upon friendly terms. The child was taken over to Brussels, and placed by its mother under proper medical treatment. The arrival of the infant became known to Hill, who exerted himself to see it ; and, on one occasion, when the nurse was walking with it in a garden, he came to the railings and induced the servant girl to allow him to kiss it. He afterwards forwarded a frock, made of costly materials, and other presents ; but they were returned, and his endeavours to resume friendly relations with his wife were more and more discouraged. The London police were well aware of his movements in Brussels, but they could not secure his apprehension. Mrs. Hill was ultimately advised to return to England, the hope being entertained that ! she would be followed by her husband, and the ruse succeeded.
Two or three singular matters have transpired, which will strengthen the evidence to be brought forward to prove the identity of the child. The women who received it state that when they were paid the £15 by Hill, they were afraid of losing the money, and it was decided by them to place £5 in each of their names in the St. Martin's Savings Bank. Search has, it is understood, been made in the books at the bank, and the truth of the women's statement established, both as to amount and date, the latter, of course, being, in a legal point of view, highly important. Both of these women will give evidence before the magistrates ; but as one of them, Mrs. Scott, alias Idle, is in Tothill Fields Prison, under sentence of twelve months' hard labour for robbery, it will be necessary to procure her attendance by habeas corpus. The prisoner, it seems, has admitted that the woman to whom he gave the child told him her name was Farebrother (Mrs. Andrews's alias), which he says he remembers distinctly, because of certain peculiar circumstances which he narrated.
Mr. Hill's examination began on the 16th of September, and was continued on the 21st. On the latter occasion he was represented by counsel. After evidence had been heard with reference to the alleged falsification of the register, Mr Phillbrick, on the prisoner's behalf, objected to the production of evidence on the question of the identity of the child as having nothing to do with the charge ; but the magistrates overruled this objection, and both the woman Andrews, in whose hands the prisoner is alleged to have placed the child, and her confederate, Mary Ann Idle, were examined as to their share in the transaction. The little boy was produced in court, and his appearance excited much commiseration. The prisoner was remanded till September 25. A correspondent of the Daily News says: — "I have been seriously misinformed of the defence of Mr. Hill will not prove as strange a chapter as the one now open to the public. There are, however, some grounds for believing that the charge will never be further prosecuted, and that the accused asked for the presence of Colonel Burdett, a near relation of his wife's, before being called on for his defence, because of his belief that he could, through such intervention, induce a compromise by assisting in determining the identity of the child. If the defence indicated to me be really the defence relied upon, I would not be at all surprised if there was no further publicity, and if the afflicted mother consented to forego a prosecution after the identity of her child shall have been conclusively established."
The Dublin Evening Post, has ascertained that Mr Richard Guinness Hill is not related, as at first asserted, to Mr Benjamin Lee Guinness, and states that Mr Hill, who bears the Christian name of Guinness, was a relation of the late Mr Henry Darley, head of the brewery firm of Messrs Darley and Nicholson, at Stillorgan. For some years after the death of Mr. Darley and the cessation of the brewery establishment Mr. Hill carried on a malting establishment there. Some years since, as stated in the report of the proceedings, Mr Hill married, in Brussels, Miss Burdett, a young lady of great personal attractions and large fortune, the grand-daughter (this was later corrected to her being the grand-niece) of the late Sir Francis Burdett, for many years member for Westminster, and niece of Miss Burdett Coutts, who had taken a great interest in her welfare. For some time after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hill resided in Stephen's-green West, in Dublin, and Mr. Hill carried on the business of a maltster, making sales occasionally at the Corn Exchange.'
This account is taken from The Sydney Morning Herald, Wed 20 Nov 1861, Page 3 available at TROVE
©June Bow & Karen Poff – October 2020