by Jill Evans
Agnes Mould’s mother, Mrs Eliza Pollard, lived at 51 Seymour Road. She told the inquest that her daughter was in a bad mental state both on the day of the birth and on the day after. She was quieter on the third day, and the baby was brought to her. She seemed very fond of it and fed it naturally. When her daughter was brought to stay at her house, she was very poorly and very low. Mrs Pollard slept with her daughter and the baby, and saw her frequently during the day. She didn’t ever leave them alone for long.
On Tuesday, 19 May, she got up as usual at five o’clock, leaving her daughter and the baby in bed. At a quarter to six, she took her daughter a cup of tea and an egg, and was in and out of the room several times before breakfast. At about a quarter to ten, she went upstairs and her daughter was feeding the baby. Agnes said the child had a stomach ache and that she was very tired and wanted to go to sleep. She was lying on her right side with her child at her right breast. Mrs Pollard pulled down the bedclothes and checked the baby was all right, then she went back downstairs.
All was quiet for about twenty minutes, until her daughter came down to the kitchen. She had her dress on, and her expression made Mrs Pollard feel frightened. Agnes said in a hurried way, ‘I have done something,’ and Mrs Pollard rushed upstairs, where she found the baby in the bed, in the same place she had last seen her. She looked as if she was asleep, but didn’t appear to be breathing, and so Mrs Pollard blew in her nostrils to try to make her breathe. She then ran downstairs with the infant and called out to a neighbour opposite, who came at once and looked at the baby, before saying, ‘It’s dead.’ Mrs Pollard questioned her daughter as to what had happened, but could get nothing out of her. She sent for William Mould, Dr Bibby and a policeman. Her daughter was crying and depressed all day after and she had to watch her all night and the following day, up to the time she was taken to the asylum. Between one and two o’clock, Dr Bibby, the Relieving Officer and a magistrate came, and her daughter was removed as ‘a lunatic not under proper control’.
Dr Bibby said he had attended Mrs Mould for several weeks, and was called by her husband to examine her as to her mental condition. She seemed to be suffering from acute depression. Dr Bibby was not engaged to attend her at her confinement, but he saw her on the day she gave birth, in the evening. He advised that the baby be kept away from her for a day or two, as her mental health had declined since he had last seen her. He visited her almost daily for about a week, and she improved considerably under treatment. The baby was returned to her under his sanction. He didn’t see her again until 9 May, when she was very bad again mentally – more depressed and melancholy than ever, and crying bitterly, as if in great grief and trouble. It was then that he first advised her husband to make a formal application for her removal to the asylum.
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When Dr Bibby was called on 19 May, the child was dead, but there was nothing obvious to say what had been the cause of death. He asked Mrs Mould how she was getting on, then how the baby was, and finally, getting no response, he asked her if she had done anything to the baby. She gave no reply. She was taken to another room and he asked her again to tell him all about it. She replied that she did not know why she had done it. He asked her, ‘What did you do?’ and she said she was breastfeeding the baby and held it close to her until it could not breathe.
Detail from a 1924 map showing the asylum. (Author’s collection)
He saw her again on Wednesday afternoon, and she was still the same. She was undoubtedly of unsound mind and incapable of taking care of herself. The post-mortem carried out by Dr Bibby concluded that the infant had died of suffocation. This could have been caused by ‘over-laying’, that is by the mother falling asleep and rolling on top of the baby.
The Coroner then addressed the inquest jury, saying it was clear that the baby had died of suffocation. He commented that when being fed, the child was laid in the most dangerous position possible, and if the mother went to sleep she could easily have smothered it. The evidence of the position the child was put in was consistent with accidental death, but he spoke most strongly against mothers feeding children in this position, and believed it should be made against the law, as it was in other countries.
After considering the facts briefly, the jury returned a verdict of accidental death. Mrs Mould was returned to the asylum to continue her treatment. She was sent home in July, but after six weeks, she went back to the asylum. She was officially discharged as ‘cured’ on 14 December 1903.
On Boxing Day in 1903, the local newspapers reported that the Gloucester police were investigating a mysterious affair concerning one Mrs Agnes Mould, who had been detained by the police in connection with the disappearance of a little boy. Mrs Mould had recently been released from the County Lunatic Asylum at Wotton, where she had spent several months. She had gone missing during a shopping trip with her son, and when she was found some time later, she said that she had thrown a boy into the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal. Because of her previous mental health problems, her family had thought that she was having delusions, but when she persisted in her claim, she was taken to the police station. As no children had been reported missing, the police told her to go home. On Christmas Day, a family called Boulter who lived in Tudor Street, off Bristol Road, realised that their six-year-old-son, Hubert, was missing. As a result, a search of the canal was carried out, and Mrs Mould was taken into custody.
The search for little Hubert Boulter continued through Christmas Day and Boxing Day, without success. The operation was resumed on Sunday, 27 December. Six dragnets were used, supplemented by the use of a large fishing net, loaned by Mr Walter Jelf. It was determined to sweep every foot of the canal for a considerable distance from the docks. This was impeded by the movement of steamers going up and down, but at about two o’clock in the afternoon, a police constable signalled that his dragnet had found something: this proved to be the body of Hubert Boulter. He was fully dressed, except his cap was missing. He was taken to the mortuary on the quay, where Mr Boulter identified the body of his son. The boy had been found at a spot between Two Mile Bend and the gas works, where Mr Boulter worked.
Detail from Ordnance Survey map of 1903, showing the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal. Two Mile Bend is bottom left. Tudor Street was one of those in the top right corner. (Author’s collection)
On 28 December, an inquiry began at the Lower George Hotel – the same venue where the earlier inquest involving Agnes Mould had been held. The City Coroner, Charles Scott, led the inquiry into the circumstances of the death of six-year-old Hubert Thomas Boulter, the son of John and Emily Jane Boulter. Mr Scott outlined the case for the jury, and said Mrs Mould had been discharged from the asylum on 14 December. Two days later, she had been seen near Two Mile Bend and the bridge-keeper, thinking she was acting suspiciously, spoke to her and told her to go away.
On Christmas Eve, Mrs Mould and her son, who was about sixteen, had gone into the city to do some shopping when her son suddenly lost sight of her. A search was made by members of the family, and Mrs Mould’s brother finally met her in Bristol Road and asked her what she had been doing. In reply, she said she had thrown a boy into the canal. He thought she was deluded, but she persisted in her statement. The next morning, the police were told that Hubert Boulter was missing. Mrs Mould had said that she saw the boy on a turning into Bristol Road, and had induced him to go for a walk with her down to the canal side, where she pushed him into the water. The daughter of the bridge-keeper saw the woman on the canal bank that evening, with a little boy. The girl’s brother, who was walking along the bank some distance from the bridge, also saw a woman with a boy on the bank, and spoke to her.
Hubert’s mother, Emily Jane Boulter, gave evidence. She had six children, and had last seen Hubert alive in the house on Christmas Eve, between five and six o’clock. She gave the children some food and afterwards Hubert and three of the others ran out to play. She put the youngest two children to bed, then at about seven o’clock in the ev
ening she went out shopping, leaving her eldest son, who was ten, in charge of the house. Her husband was on a nightshift at the gas works. She got home at about ten o’clock and found her eldest son waiting up for her. She asked him if all the other children were in bed and he said they were. She went to bed herself at eleven o’clock. She got up at half past eight on Christmas morning to make breakfast, and called the children down at nine o’clock. It was then that she realised that Hubert was missing. She sent one of her boys to see if he was at Bristol Road police station, but he wasn’t there.
In reply to a question from the jury foreman, Mrs Boulter said that she rarely went out and left her children. When asked why she hadn’t checked that Hubert was in bed when she got back from shopping, the distressed mother replied that she wouldn’t have rested contented if she’d known the dear little fellow was not in. She loved her children too much for that. The Coroner then interposed, commenting that he thought there was no ground for the suggestion that Mrs Boulter did not look after her children properly. The police had made every inquiry and found her to be a thoroughly respectable woman.
Inspector Weaver said that on Christmas Day, having heard that the Boulter child was missing, he went to the Duke of Wellington and spoke to Mrs Mould. She cried and said she didn’t know why she had done it. He arrested her later that evening and brought her in a cab to the city police station, where she was charged with murder.
He said that the place where the boy’s body had been found was just above Two Mile Bend, about a mile and a half from the Boulters’ house. On Christmas Day, the prints of a child’s hobnailed boots were found on the canal bank, adjoining the towpath. They had been compared with the boy’s boots, and the pattern of the nails was very similar. The prints were about 20 yards lower down from the spot where the body was found two days later. There was no flow of water in the canal, but assuming the boy went in at the point where the prints were found, his body might have been moved by the passage of the steamers going up and down. Other footprints were found on the bank in the same area, including one of a woman’s boot. The prints of the boy’s boots were in a slanting direction, while the woman’s was straight with the canal. The bank was almost perpendicular there, and there would have been no chance of a child getting out.
Annie Priday lived with her parents at the Rea Bridge House, Quedgeley, about half a mile below Two Mile Bend. She said that on 24 December, at about half past six, she met a woman and a boy on the towpath. She and the woman looked each other full in the face. The friend that Annie was with remarked that the boy had no cap on. She and her friend went on to Gloucester. Returning home later, she told her mother what she had seen. It was a moonlit night, so she saw the woman’s face clearly. She met the woman just above the old Pike House, a little above Two Mile Bend. She was sure the woman was the same one her father had spoken to on 16 December.
Arthur Thomas Priday, Annie’s brother, also saw Mrs Mould and the boy on the towpath, at about ten minutes to seven. When he passed them, the steamship Clio was coming up the canal, and the light from the ship shone full on the woman’s face. He said goodnight to her, but she didn’t reply. He thought the boy looked quite comfortable.
William Moulder junior, aged sixteen, said he assisted his father in the bar of the Duke of Wellington. His mother had gone into Wotton Asylum in May. She stayed there for two months, then came home for six weeks, but then went back until 14 December. After coming home, she seemed fine at first, but the next day, at tea-time, she seemed unwell and wouldn’t speak to anyone. About a week before Christmas, she went out for some time, and when she came back she wouldn’t say where she had been. He noticed that she had muddy boots.
On Christmas Eve, at about half past two, he went shopping with his mother. They went into Bon Marché and bought toys for the children. While he was waiting for some change after paying, on looking round he found that his mother had disappeared. He searched up and down all the streets, but couldn’t find her. He asked the police if they had seen her, and carried on looking, but finally went home, carrying the toys they had bought, and told his father, who was busy in the bar. Later, he went to his uncle, John Pollard, who eventually found Agnes and brought her home between nine and ten o’clock. Her boots were muddy. She sat in the same chair all night, with members of the family watching over her.
Old postcard of Northgate Street. Bon Marché; is on the left-hand side of the street. (Author’s collection)
John Pollard, of 94 Alma Place, Bristol Road, was a stonemason and Mrs Mould’s brother. He said that when his sister went missing for the first time, about a week before Christmas, he went to look for her and found her in Slaney Street at about half past eleven at night. She wouldn’t say where she had been. On Christmas Eve, at about six o’clock in the evening, his nephew told him that his mother was missing again. He looked for her and eventually found her near the Avenue Hotel, on the corner of Bristol Road and Tuffley Avenue. She told him she had drowned a little boy. They walked together as far as Clifton Road. He asked her to show him where she had picked up the child, and she went back with him and pointed out a shop on the corner of Granville Street, saying she took him from there. She hadn’t given him anything, but the little boy went with her willingly.
Pollard then brought her up Bristol Road again and asked her to come home, but she refused. He told her she must come home with him or go to the police station, and she said she would rather go to the latter than home. He started to get her in the direction of home, but going up Clifton Road, she said she was thirsty and pointed to a barber’s shop as somewhere they could get a drink. When her brother told her they couldn’t get a drink there, she refused to go any further. Finally, he took her to the police station in Bristol Road, where they saw Sergeant Hale. As no child had been reported missing, he was advised to take his sister home, which he did.
He went back to his own house briefly, then returned to the Duke of Wellington and stayed with his sister all night. He next saw her on Christmas Day, after dinner, when he thought that if anything she looked a little worse.
In reply to questions from the jury, he said he had never known her to behave strangely towards children before. He had no idea how she had got a child she didn’t know to go off with her. Asked by the Coroner whether she had ever made peculiar statements about having done things, he replied only when she tried to do something to herself. She had told him one night that she had swallowed the ends off four boxes of matches – her husband had shown him the matches with all the tops off. Seventeen or eighteen years ago, she had swallowed a lot of pins and needles, but he didn’t think she had suffered any ill effects. His sister was now thirty-eight, and had had six children.
A tram in Bristol Road, 1904. (Author’s collection)
In response to further questions, Pollard said he thought it would take about ten minutes to walk from the Avenue Hotel to Hempsted Bridge. He had gone to look for her down Bristol Road because the captain of a tug boat had told him she had been seen on the canal bank the week before.
In reply to a question from a juror, the Coroner said that Mrs Mould had been discharged from the asylum at the urgent request of herself and her husband. The hearing was then adjourned.
On the morning of Wednesday 30 December, a large number of people, chiefly women, went to the City Police Court, hoping to see the now infamous Agnes Mould. A crowd had also gathered at the back of Shire Hall, near the police station, where they expected Mrs Mould to be brought from the prison. They were to be disappointed, as it had been determined that Hubert Boulter’s body had been found in the parish of Hempsted, outside the city boundary, meaning that the case was now under the jurisdiction of the county authorities.
Detail from a 1924 map showing the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal. (Author’s collection)
Mrs Mould appeared before a county magistrate at the police station on Wednesday afternoon. The proceedings, which lasted only a few minutes, took place in the office of the Deputy Chief Constable. Agne
s was wearing a dark dress and a short blue jacket, a black-trimmed straw hat and had a black lace scarf around her neck. She had been quietly brought from the gaol to the police station, and was kept in the guard room under observation until she was taken before the magistrate. She had a care-worn, anxious expression, which made her look older than she really was. Inspector Weaver took her before the Chairman of the Gloucester County Bench, Revd C.E. Dighton. She sat with her head cast down, toying with a handkerchief, and appeared to take no notice of the proceedings. Deputy Chief Constable Harrison read out the charge, to which she made no answer. Agnes was charged with murder, and her case was adjourned until January.
On Saturday, 2 January 1904, another crowd gathered at the rear of Shire Hall, and again it was disappointed. As it was only intended to apply for a formal remand, Revd Dighton, DCC Harrison and Mr Bruce, from the office of the Magistrate’s Clerk, went to the gaol to see Mrs Mould. She maintained her silence, and was further remanded until the following Saturday afternoon.
The inquest, which had been adjourned on 29 December, resumed on 4 January. Mrs Mould was not present but she was represented by Mr Armitage, who cross-examined some of the witnesses who had given evidence previously.
In reply to Mr Armitage, Mrs Boulter said she had never known her boy to stray away and play by the canal bank. He never went off alone at night, being a timid child, and was usually in the company of other children.
Inspector Weaver said he was present at the police station on 30 December, when Mrs Mould took part in an identity parade. She was placed in the hall of the station with five other women all dressed in dark clothing, about the same physical size, and three of them about the same age as Mrs Mould. When Annie Priday was brought in, she at once identified Mrs Mould, but her brother, Arthur Priday, at first could not identify the woman, and only did so after walking down the line slowly.