On Monday 13 January 1873 an official of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railways
was most surprised to be handed a box addressed to a ‘Mr William Jones, 18 Sorby Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire.’ It had been found in a railway carriage when a passenger arrived at the Victoria Station, Sheffield the previous Saturday. Accordingly the box was taken to the address the following day by an employee of the Railway Company. He found that there was indeed a man of that name living there, although he was also known as William Towns. He was not at home at the time, so the railway employee requested the person who opened the door, to let Mr Jones know that the package was ready for collection.

Accordingly William Towns collected the parcel on Wednesday 15 January. Puzzled as to who could have sent him the parcel which was postmarked from Retford, Towns (otherwise Jones) opened the parcel and just underneath the lid he found a letter which he opened and it said:

‘Well William,
I have sent you this box and I hope you will carefully examine it and put it away respectfully as you have behaved so bad to me. By the time you get this box I will have left Retford and I hope never to see you again. It died as it was born. You are the cause of all my misery, but I hope God will provide something for me. You will never prosper. I have sent you many a letter, but you wont answer. You promised me money.’

Underneath this was something wrapped in a blanket which Towns dare not open. So he had no option but to notify the Sheffield police authorities and to ask them to come and open the box as he was afraid as to what he might find inside. When he was questioned, Towns stated categorically that he knew of no person in Retford or anywhere else for that matter, who could have done this. Accordingly the police were called and they asked for two neighbours to also witness the opening of the box. Two neighbours entered the house, although Towns remained at the door of the room, unwilling to come any closer.

To the watchers horror, inside wrapped in a blanket was the dead body of a newly born, female child. The body was immediately taken to the police office, and an inquest was arranged by the Sheffield Coroner, Mr J Webster Esq. When he opened the enquiry which took place on Friday 17 January 1873 at the police office on Castle Green, the first witness was William Towns himself. He described collecting the box and signing for it when he went to collect it. The delivery book was passed around the members of the jury and the signature ‘W Jones’ was clearly to be seen. Towns was asked by the coroner why had he signed the book ‘William Jones?’ But he could not give a reason for doing this, apart from the fact that the parcel had been addressed in that name.

The next to give evidence was the clerk at the railway office, Mr Charles Collins. In reply to one of the jury, Collins stated that the parcel could have been left in the railway carriage anywhere. as the train had stopped at several stations such as Lincoln and Hull en route to Sheffield. The police surgeon, Mr Woolhouse told the inquest that he had made a post mortem of the little body and found it to be a normal, full term child. He said that he had firstly examined it externally, but had found no marks of violence or negligence upon the little body.

However the surgeon said that internally he had found evidence that the child had breathed after being born. Mr Woolhouse said one lung had been fully inflated and the other appeared to be partially so. He also added that there was evidence that a professional midwife must have attended at the birth. Mr Webster asked him if he could see any evidence as to how the child had met its death, but Mr Woolhouse stated that he could not account for it. At this point the inquest was then adjourned for a fortnight until 31 January in order for police enquiries to continue.

When the inquest was re-opened Mr Webster stated that the Chief Constable had made enquiries about the case in all directions, but without any success. However, his enquiries with the railway company had led him to believe that the parcel had originated from Nottingham. The main witness once again, was Towns himself, but his account left more questions than answers. The coroner told the jury that after the last inquest, the witness Towns had been interviewed by the Chief Constable and afterwards he left Sheffield for Nottingham where he arrived in the early hours of the Sunday morning. Then he had left Nottingham at noon on the Monday and returned back to Sheffield.

Mr Webster therefore asked the witness why he had gone to Nottingham in the first place, but all he got in reply were even more evasions. Towns however did admit that he had once lived in Nottingham for about five months. At this point the coroner confronted the witness and accused him of being the father of the dead child, which Towns adamantly denied. When he was asked if he lived with his wife, the witness stated that he had not lived with her for the past two years. Nevertheless Towns denied that he had lived with any other woman either.

Mr Webster cross-examined the witness and asked him many other questions, all of which he denied. However some of the police enquiries revealed that when the witness went to Nottingham he had called at the house of a Mrs Denham, who lived in Rancliffe Street, Nottingham. A juryman asked Towns if he had received any letters from this woman and the witness admitted that he had, but had burned them all afterwards. Despite making out that he had nothing to do with Mrs Denham Towns admitted that he had twice recently sent her money. He stated that he had sent her 5s about three weeks ago and since then he sent her 9s. When asked what the money was for, he claimed it was to pay her back for a previous loan.

By this time it was clear that Mr Webster had quite enough, as he told the inquest that Towns obviously knew more than he cared to tell. He said that he believed that although Mrs Denham wasn’t the mother of the child, she clearly knew who was. He advised the jury therefore to return an open verdict and leave the rest to the police. The jury accordingly returned a verdict ‘that the deceased was found dead in a box in a railway carriage addressed to William Jones or Towns, but how it came by its death there was no evidence to show.’