Beware of Having a Sweet Tooth!

Daft Bat

Administrator. Chief cook & bottle washer!
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It was today, 20th October, back in 1847, that a 12-year-old by the name of William Newton Allnutt popped some arsenic in his grandfather’s sugar bowl. It came about because the two of them often argued ending up with the grandfather hitting him. On one occasion, the grandfather, Samuel Nelme, had hit the lad so hard that it knocked him off his feet, banging his head. The result of the arsenic was that Samuel died 5 days later and William was sent for trial at the Old Bailey.

Even though he was only 12, he was sentenced to death. However, he was “Earnestly recommended to mercy by the Jury, on account of his tender age”, and place in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight.

On 10th July 1851, he left for Australia, transported on the vessel Minden, arriving there on 14th October that year. He died in Fremantle Prison on 17th April 1853.
 
convictrecords.com.au
Williams father was insane and 37 when he died. William was also insane. He would sleepwalk and yell out things in the night. He also heard voices.
At the time of his trial, William had Scrofula which is tuberculosis affecting the lymph nodes especially in the neck. The doctors suggested this may have affected his brain function at the time of the murder.
Therefore poor William was suffering some form of tuberculosis for at least 6 years. Perhaps his father also suffered this form as well.
 
William Newton Allnutt my Great Great grandfather's sibling David Allnutt. David ,Edward Allnutt , Maximilian Allnutt , Marylu Allnutt was my bio mother ( 4 children between them were taken from them because of their condition just that uh Marylu and her twin sister had schizophrenia was just thinking is that too far down to inherit? Meaning Marylu not me that is so sad the poor gentleman and really too the 12 year old child
 
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