Aged thirty, admitted May 1822. This unfortunate poor woman is
married, and has a family of three or four children, residing near
Bethnal Green, but became deranged from unknown causes, and destroyed
one of her children, seven months old, by severing its head from
its body. She was tried for the fact at the Old Bailey in May last
year, but acquitted on the ground of insanity. She believes the
devil had directed her so to do. She was sent to Bethlem in a very
dreadful state, violent and dangerous in the extreme, both to herself
and others. She has attempted, by various contrivances, to destroy
herself; tearing the sheets and blankets in slips to strangle herself:
she attempted it even with the strings of her apron, but her clothes
have since been entirely divested of strings, and made to button.
She would bite, kick, or strike any person who approached her; she
would frequently speak of her dear infant in affectionate terms, and
cry bitterly almost day and night. Latterly she is not so violent,
and is not in any restraint throughout the day; but at night she is
necessarily secured to prevent self-destruction. She has of late left
off conversation, and her only answer to all questions is, “for ever
and a day, as the boy sold his top.” She speaks no more than these
words by night or day, and passes her time in reflection, weeping at
intervals, exclaiming “for ever and a day, as the boy sold his top.”
She had an excellent character as a good wife and mother, until this
unfortunate malady afflicted her.