At the Chester Assizes, Louisa Plant, aged seventeen, and Tho-
mas Birchenough, aged twenty-two years, were tried on the charge of murdering Edward Plant, the infant child of Louisa Plant by the male prisoner. It was proved, that the woman suffered great distress In consequence of the man refusing to give her any thing for the sup- port of the child. Several witnesses stated, that when the female pri- soner asked the man for money, be beat her, and treated her in a very cruel manner. On some of those occasions, after Birchenough had left the house, the female prisoner had been observed to take up the child, and, sitting with it on her knee, exclaim—" I have nothing but trouble of mind ; if the Lord would take my baby, never, never, would I go in that man's company any more. If it bad only a pennyworth of arsenic, it would be gone." After that, the witnesses said she went to bed, lamenting very much. At another time, she said to Mrs. Bur- rowes, the person with whom she lodged, that she had seen a girl who had a child which was very poorly, and who told her that if she would give her child what the girl had given to bees she would soon get shut of it. It appeared that she gave arsenic to her baby, being herself almost distracted, and caused its death. It was proved that Birchenough was an accessory to the murder, but not a principal ; and he was acquitted. After Louisa Plant had been found guilty, he was tried and convicted of being an accessory. The woman was most strongly recommended to mercy by the Jury, in consideration of her youth and the influence under which she acted; and Lord Denman only directed sentence of
death to be recorded against her, intimating that it would be com- muted. Birchenough was sentenced to be banged.
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