Shocking Murder of a Wife and Six Children. A Wife and Six Children
On Monday morning last, a terrible tragedy took place in Hosier-lane, City, in which a man named Duggin, his wife, and six children were found poisoned. On Saturday evening Duggin returned from his work, and he then looked rather sad, and his wife told a female neighbour that her husband had been dismissed his employment, and they had also received notice to leave their lodgings at 12 o’clock on Monday. On Sunday evening Duggin took his wife and children out for a walk, and on his return went to the Wheatsheaf-tavern, Hosier-lane, and asked the landlord for a quart of ale. He then left, and was not seen again until half-past 4. o’clock on Monday morning, when a man saw him drop a letter in the Hospital pillar letter-box, and then walked towards his home. Two hours afterwards the police received a letter signed James Duggin, stating that he had murdered seven persons, and that he was about to destroy his own life. In it he said the police would be able to obtain further particulars of his brother at Sheffield. Constables were immediately despatched to 15, Hosier-lane, where they found the writer of the letter lying dead upon a bed in a room by himself. In another room they found lying on a bed, a boy aged 4, and a girl aged 3, lying upon the arms of the dead body of the mother. At the foot of the bed was the dead body of a girl aged 12, and on another bed lay the dead body of another child.
Attend you feeling parents dear,
While I relate a sad affair;
Which has fill’d all around with grief and pain
It did occur in Hosier Lane.
On Monday, June the 28th,
These crimes was done as I now state,
How horrible it is to tell,
Eight human persons by poison fell.
In London city it does appear,
Walter James Duggin lived we hear,
And seemed to live most happily,
With his dear wife and family.
They happy lived, until of late,
He appear’d in a sad desponding state,
At something he seem’d much annoy’d
At his master’s, where he is employed.
He was discharged, and that we find,
It preyed upon his anxious mind,
Lest they should want, that fatal day,
His wife and children he did slay.
Last Sunday evening, as we hear,
To the Wheatsheaf he did repair,
Then homewards went, as we may read,
For to commit this horrid deed.
To the police he did a letter send,
That he was about this life to end,
And that he had poisoned, he did declare
His wife, and his six children dear.
To Hosier Lane in haste they flew,
And found it was alas, too true,
They found him stretched upon the bed,
His troubles o’er—was cold and dead.
They searched the premises around,
And they the deadly poison found;
And the shocking sight, as you may hear,
Caused in many an eye a tear.
They found upon another bed,
The ill-fated mother, she was dead,
While two pretty children we are told,
In her outstretched arms she did enfold,
It is supposed this wretched pair,
First poisoned their six children dear,
Then took the fatal draught themselves,
Their state of mind no tongue can tell.
Of such an heartrending affair,
I trust we never more may hear,
Such deeds they make the blood run cold,
May God forgive their sinful souls.
This wholesale poisoning has caused much pain
It did take place in Hosier Lane.
H. Disley, Printer, 57, High Street, St. Giles.