The Bowden Murder, 1856

In this very sad case, baby Jane Bowden was killed by her mentally-ill grandmother in 1857. I have capitalised the first instance of each new person in the following newspaper report.

Entry from The Times, Wednesday March 11 1857

NORFOLK CIRCUIT, AYLESBURY MARCH 10
ALLLEGED MURDER

Maria Isabella BECKET, aged 66, was indicted for the wilful murder of Jane BOWDEN, on the 30th of December last.

Mr WROTH was counsel for the prosecution; Mr POWER and Mr MILLS appeared for the prisoner.

The prisoner is a respectable looking old lady, who at the time of the occurrence out of which this charge arose was lodging at Wing with her son-in-law Mr BOWDEN. Near to their house lived Mrs BECKET, the wife of the prisoner's son, and it appeared that on the 30th of December the old lady paid the latter a morning call. Mrs Becket welcomed her relative warmly, saying "Oh mother, you have not been here since the alterations." To which the prisoner, whose eyes glared wildly, replied with a sad and solemn voice, "Yes, I am come, but not on a pleasant errand, for I am come to kill you. I must do it for I am mad," and muttered something about her having been sent by the devil, who had given her a razor; at the same time she produced a razor from her pocket, and seized Mrs Becket's arm. A scream and struggle ensued, during which the old lady said, "Oh! I must do it!" but a second scream summoned to the aid of Mrs Becket, who was far advanced in pregnancy, a neighbour, and by his assistance the maniac was subdued and apparently pacified. After a while she said she was better and went away, saying she could go alone. Although Mrs Becket had observed indications of a failing intellect in her mother-in-law since her husband's death two years ago, neither she nor her friend accompanied the prisoner. On her return home she found the deceased, a child only ten weeks old, sleeping in a cradle rocked by an elder sister five years old. Mrs Bowden was upstairs, and immediately after the return of the prisoner she heard a shriek from the girl, and on rushing down discovered to her horror the old lady, with the babe on her lap, deliberately engaged in the act of cutting its throat with a knife. The injuries thus inflicted on the child caused its death in a few minutes, as her distracted mother rushed out of the house with it in her arms. When taxed with the murder the old lady said "I was forced to kill the baby in order that it might go to Heaven." Both Mrs Becket and Mrs Bowden agreed in attributing this dreadful act to the impulses of insanity, and described the conduct of the prisoner for some time past as that of one labouring under a delusion, struggling with invisible spirits as it were, and whose intellect was failing. The medical man who had known her for several years spoke of her as hypochondriacal at times, and deposed that, in his opinion, the prisoner was of unsound mind at the time in question. She answered all his questions rationally enough, and had always taken to the child more than her other grandchildren. On one occasion the prisoner said to Mrs Bowden, she wished someone would kill her if she would not be hanged for it, and regretted that it was a sin to kill herself, and often expressed the fear that she would die in a workhouse, though her circumstances were amply sufficient for one in her class of life.

Mr Power having addressed the jury, urging that his unfortunate client was entitled to an acquittal on the grounds of insanity.

The Chief BARON left it to them to say whether they were satisfied by the evidence that the prisoner at the time she took away the life of her grandchild was in a state of insanity, so as not to render her criminally responsible for that horrible act.

The jury at once returned a verdict of Not Guilty on the grounds of insanity.