Child Abandoned at Llangunnor - Mother cautioned and bound over


The Carmarthen County Police Court was held at the Guildhall on Saturday, before Col. Dudley W Drummond and Major T H Dowdeswell.

Annie J Morgan (aged 20), was charged with abandoning a child. The defendant, who was represented by Mr H Brunel White, pleaded "Guilty."

Supt. Jones said that on Thursday the 27th inst. about 11.30pm; a train arrived in Carmarthen from Swansea. The train is known as the "munition train." A young woman carrying a baby arrived by that train. It was unusual to see a person of that kind arrive by that train. She called at a house in Pensarn about midnight. The husband came to the window; the defendant pleaded very hard to be admitted for the sake of the child. She said that she was going off by the 6 train to Llandilo in the morning and had come from Gowerton. She was allowed to stay in the house, and left at 5.30am.

At 6.45am the same morning she was seen on the Llanarthney road going towards Capel Dewi and was then about a mile from a place called Penddaulwyn. The road ran right through the farm of Penddaulwyn, the house being on one side of the road and the out-buildings on the other. About 8am Mr Griffiths, of Penddaulwyn, had occasion to go from the house to the out-buildings, and on the same side of the road as the house he found a baby wrapped up in some clothes. He went to the out-buildings and called one of the servants, and at some distance they saw a woman travelling very fast in the direction of Capel Dewi. It was a misty morning, and she turned into the lane and was lost sight of.

A Mrs Ellis came to the rescue and took charge of the child for the time being. She is an experienced matron, being the mother of nine children. She said that the child was rather hungry, but was clean and well clothed. The act of the defendant had seemed to cast some reflection on Mr Griffiths, but the defendant had since stated that he was in no way implicated in the matter. Defendant had been traced by means of a box which she left at the railway station. By means of that box she was traced to Glantowy Lodge.

Mr White said that unfortunately this was not the defendant's first lapse. She had previously become the mother of a child, and he had been instructed to take proceedings to have the amount of the order increased in respect of that child. Her parents had been very strict with her after her first lapse, and she was very anxious to conceal this from them. She had been in service in Llanelly, and the child was born at Landore. The father of the child is in the Army, and at the present moment she did not know where he is. She dreaded the idea of going home with the baby, and acted as she did without quite realising what she was doing.

The Chairman pointed out that the defendant might have been brought up on a more serious charge. The child might have suffered a good deal, or it might have died. It was only a matter of good fortune and care on the part of the police that the unfortunate baby had not suffered a good deal more if not died.

The defendant was bound over in the sum of £50 to be of good behaviour for twelve months.

Source - The Carmarthen Weekly Reporter Friday March 14, 1919.
Note The article mentions that she was returning to her parents at Glantowy Lodge, so I thought I would look at the 1911 census for the area and found a Morgan family living at Glantowy Lodge. I went back and looked at the 1901 census records and found an Annie whom I assumed was the person in the above article. However further research brought up another Annie Morgan who came to a rather tragic end a few years prior. I have found another Annie living at Wern in 1901 who I believe to be the correct person but have transcribed the records as being Morgans - So the lesson is to never jump to conclusions

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