William Bayliss

341

Maureen Withey on 23rd April 2026

Child Stealing. —William Bayliss, (aged 20,) was charged, on the coroner’s inquisition, with manslaughter, in causing the death of a young child he had stolen,  named Elizabeth Egan.—John Egan, the father of the deceased, stated, that he is a labourer, and in September last lived in Mill-lane, Birmingham. had a little child called Elizabeth, about four years old; he missed her on Saturday, the 3d of September. The prisoner, Bayliss, lodged with him at that time, and was in the habit of paying great attention to the child, and appeared very fond of it. He used to noticed by the neighbours for playing with the child often. On the evening before the child was missed, when the witness was returning home, he saw the prisoner coaxing the girl to follow him out of the house. Witness asked her what she was doing, when she replied she was going after Bayliss  The prisoner then wanted witness to let him take the child out a short distance, but he refused. The following day she was missed, and witness did not see her again till the Friday week following; when she was found a corpse in Oakley Wood. William Sumner, a brass-founder, in Birmingham, saw the prisoner with the child at Stratford, on Thursday, the ? of September. They were at inn there kept by Sumner’s uncle; the child at that time appeared very much fatigued and had a ragged dress on. The prisoner staid days at the inn, and from his want of attention to the girl, some suspicion  was excited that she was not his, which he had asserted she was. She was questioned by the persons in the house, but was in so much dread of the prisoner that she dared not speak in his presence, and it appeared that when first entered the inn she was extremely hungry and ate very voraciously. Saturday evening the prisoner left the inn, and when took hold of the child she screamed very loudly, and it was some time before  she could be pacified and persuaded to accompany him. He then went to a lodging-house for paupers at Stratford, where he represented himself the father of the child, and to have come from Rugby. The prisoner said, to account for the child being with him, that its mother was a drunken woman and had left her children. Mr. Hobbins, the keeper of the poor-house, afterwards searched for the prisoner, consequence of the real father of the child having traced him to Stratford, and he was found at a public-house at Snitherfield, without the child. When asked where it was, he said he had left it with his (the prisoner’s) own mother, but while was saying so his mother entered the public-house, and contradicted him. He then said he had left the child in field near, he went in search for the child did but could not find her, and returned for the prisoner to assist in the search. Bayliss then acknowledged that the child was dead, and that he had laid it in the wood. He said that while they were crossing the fields she was taken by vomiting, which continued some time and appeared to get worse; that he then became frightened. He sat down and held the child's head in his lap, and in about ten minutes she died in in his arms. He said did not know what to do, but after a short time took the dead body into a thicket, in the wood  where laid it down and ran away. The prisoner was taken to the wood on Thursday, the I6th of September, and pointed out the spot, where the body of the child was found, partly covered with leaves. The body was examined  by Mr. Thomas Irons, surgeon, of Warwick, when there did not appear to be any marks of external violence it. In the stomach there was nothing found but a few blackberries, and the surgeon was of opinion that her death was caused general fatigue and exhaustion, and a want of proper food, though she could not have died of actual  starvation. The jury found a verdict of guilty, and the learned Judge, in passing sentence on the prisoner, observed, that that it was very fortunate for him he had not been charged with murder, which, in his opinion, ought to have been ;  and in that case would undoubtedly have been left for execution. it was, had been convicted of manslaughter  and as that did not affect his life the severest sentence could pass upon  him was transportation for life. Staffordshire Advertiser, 8 April 1826. Hulk Records. HO-9-7_2 (page 40/48) Retribution Hulk at Sheerness. Received from Warwick, 4 May 1826. Wm. Bayliss, age 20, Child stg, Tried at Warwick, 25 March 1826, Life, To NSW 31 July 1826.