The Bermondsey murder : a full report of the trial of Frederick George Manning and Maria Manning, for the murder of Patrick O'Connor, at Minver-place, Bermondsey, on the 9th of August, 1849. Including memoirs of Patrick O'Connor, Frederick George Manning, and Maria Manning. With their portraits, and several other engravings.

Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Bermondsey murder : a full report of the trial of Frederick George Manning and Maria Manning, for the murder of Patrick O'Connor, at Minver-place, Bermondsey, on the 9th of August, 1849. Including memoirs of Patrick O'Connor, Frederick George Manning, and Maria Manning. With their portraits, and several other engravings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    dispose of the business, Manning and his wife leaving Taunton and coming up'f(j London, where, in a few weeks, they opened a beer-shop in the vicinity of the Hackney- road; but this lasted a very short time, and the place was abruptly closed up by Mrs. Manning absconding, taking with her the greater part of the property. This wm done at the wish of the deceased, Patrick O’Connor, who had prepared a home for Mrs. Manning at another partjof the metropolis. Manning traced her, through the cabman who had driven her to O’Connor’s house. They made up matters, and remained for some time in apartments, and eventually took possession of the house where the murder was after- wards committed. Maria Manning’s maiden name was De Roux. She is a native of Lausanne, in Switzerland, and inherited some small patrimony from her parents, both of whom are deceased About six years since she served in the family of Sir Lawrence Palk, at Haldon House, Devonshire, as maid to Lady Palk; and while travelling to and fro with this family it is supposed she made the acquaintance of Manning, who was at that time a guard on the Great Western Railway. At the decease of Lady Palk, in the year 1846, she obtained a situation as maid to Lady Blan- tyre, the second daughter of the Duchess of Sutherland. She came to reside with her lady- ship at Stafford House, in July, 1846, and accompanied her to Scotland in the autumn of the same year. While attending her ladyship on a brief continental tour, before proceeding to Scotland, she met with the deceased, O’Connor, who seems to have been struck with her ap- pearance and manners—so much so as to have offered her marriage. In the early part of the season 1847 she returned to town with Lady Blantyre, and it appears was frequently visited at Stafford House by both Maiming and O’Connor, the latter of whom appeared to entertain a very warm affection for her. Manning, however, seems to have been the most favoured suitor, and on the 27th of May, 1847, she was married to him at St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, After her marriage she accompanied Manning into Devonshire for a week or ten days; and then, returning to Stafford House, went with Lady Blantyre to the Continent a second time, one motive for her doing so being, as it is alleged, the opportunity it afforded of arranging her own affairs abroad previously to settling down to married life in England. Cm her return from the Continent she went to reside with her husoand in lodgings at 2, Church-street, Paddington, Manning still filling the situation of guard on the Great Western Railway. We should here state, that it is believed. Manning, in prosecuting his addresses, succeeded in persuading Maria De Roux that he was entitled to property under his mother’s will, amounting to between £600 and £700. This was of course only a fiction; but so deeply did he lay his schemes that he actually drew up a will, which has been found among the papers in his wife’s possession, by which he bequeathed this property to his “ very dear and beloved wife,” to the exclusion of all other claimants, appointing her executor, conjointly with Henry Poole, recently convicted of the mail robberies on the Great Western Railway, who is one of the subscribing witnesses to the deed. There does not appear to be the least reason to believe that Manning had any property himself, but with the money he obtained from his wife, very shortly after their marriage, he took the public-house at Taunton. Patrick O’Connor, the wretched victim, first arrived in London from Ireland in February, 1832, or at least early in the spring of that year. He had a letter of in- troduction from his brother, now priest of the rich parish of Templemore, near Thurles, county of Tipperary, to a gentleman of influence, living at the time in chambers in the Temple. The gentleman in question is a native of Ireland, and a friend of the murdered man’s brother, the Reverend Father O’Connor. The gentleman received O'Connor kindly for his reverend brother’s sake, and asked him what were his views, and the nature of the situation he was seeking for. O’Connor said he wished to enter the police, and the gentleman, to forward his views, gave him a letter to Mr. Mayne, one of the police commis- sioners. It is probable the letter was never delivered by O’Connor, for a few days after he had received it he changed Ids mind and said he would not become “ a thief taker.” In about six weeks after his first introduction he called on the gentleman, and, much to the latter's surprise, he produced a £50 note, and requested the gentleman to take care of it for him. The gentleman took charge of the note, and knowing O’Connor’s poverty, eagerly enquired how he became possessed of it. The latter said his mother had sent him £15, with which he had purchased contraband tobacco and cigars, and trading surreptitiously in them, had amassed the amount of the £50 note. The gentleman at the time believed the story to be trile, and as O’Connor was then endeavouring to obtain a situation in the Excise, he told him ironically that his practical knowdedge of smuggling would, no doubt, if known to the Excise commissioners, prove a great recommendation in his favour. Before the close of the year 1832, Patrick O’Connor had placed in the gentleman’s hands no less altogether than £184, £100 of which the gentleman invested in the funds at O’Connor’s request. This rapid accumulation of money excited the gentleman’s surprise, and almost his suspicions that everything was not right. In the winter 1832-33 O’Connor obtained, through the influence of'the late Bishop of Llandaff, we believe, the situation of tide-waiter in the port of London. In the meautime he had been, bit by bit, withdrawing from the gentleman s hands the £84 not invested, and got back the last of it to buy a bed, which he said he was obliged to take about with him from one ship to another in the Thames, in the discharge of his new duties. ^ He had hardly been installed in his situation of tide-waiter, when he sent an attorney s letter to the gentleman, demanding payment of the whole sum of £184. Ihe gentleman