The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

LEEDS, May 10. The following melancholy affair happened on Thursday in the afternoon, at a public house at Hough, near Rotherham: A piece of beef being roasting for dinner, and, in the mean time, the landlord having occasion to go into the cellar; he found there a very large toad, which he took up with the tongs, and as is too common, put it in the fire. A travelling tinker happening to be in the house, begged a sop, of which he eat very heartily, and a fine boy six years old, and a girl about Seven (both belonging to the house) also partook with him; but the landlord's eldest son (about nine) being asked to share with them, he absolutely refused, telling them, that he saw something fall into the drippingpan from the toad which his father had put into the fire. This occasioned some confusion, especially as poisonous symptoms, viz. inflammations, swelling in the mouth, throat, stomach &c. appearing in those that had eaten of the sop; & notwithstanding all possible help was called in, the children died in great agonies about six, and the stranger about nine o'clock the same evening. The tinker said that his name was George Bancroft, that he came from Lincoln, and that he had a wife and three small children.