In all four deaths each child was in a burial society, and arsenic was indisputably the cause of death.
I may also mention that each death was of a female child. The male children, more likely to be useful to their parents, were in each case spared.
I have the honour to be,
Your most obedient servant,
Henry Coppock,
Town Clerk of Stockport, and
Clerk to the Stockport Union.
[In answer to a subsequent inquiry, Mr. Coppock stated that at the time the offences detailed in the above letter were committed, both the parties were in employment. Standring was a hatter, in full work, and making with industry 20s. a-week; the Sandys, Robert and George, were mat-makers, not making more than from 7s. to 10s. per week each; the women contributing, it is presumed, to the earnings of the family.]