Child Murder or Changeling Belief? (Co Antrim)

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pigs and babies

Samuel Gilmore was accused of murdering his son an infant of two months. Gilmore claimed that the family pig had killed the baby: though medical evidence suggested otherwise. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, though the sentence was reduced to transportation for life at the end of July. Fairies appear only briefly in the case, as part of his first explanation for the disappearance of the baby before its body was found. ‘Malcolm McMullan, examined: I saw the child several times. It appeared healthy and well. I did not see it on the 9th June, but I saw it a day or two previously. On that day, the prisoner came to my house and told me he had lost the child. He wondered what could come of it. I said may-be the pig had destroyed it. He said not, for the pig had not been out since the middle of the day. The sister then said she had left the child on the bed when she went out to milk, and the prisoner said he had gone out to fetter the mare, and when he came back it was away. He wondered if the ‘wee folk’, or fairies, could have taken it. The mother of the child was then sent for, to see if she had taken it. I saw the child again at the inquest. I cannot, however, say positively that it was the same child, for it was greatly disfigured. There were cuts on its face, and across its throat.’ Anon ‘County of Antrim Assizes’, (23 July 1852)

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