“Fearing he should be called upon to depose about this destroyed child, and so be the cause of her death, he hid himself (much as he grieved for the child), kept himself dark, as he says, out of the way and out of the trial, and was only vaguely talked of as a certain man called Abel, out of whom the jealousy arose. After the acquittal she disappeared, and thus he lost the child and the child’s mother.”
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 50. Herbert explains part of Magwitch’s backstory to Pip. Magwitch was married to a woman who in a vengeful and jealous rage murdered another woman. She also threatened to destroy her own child she had with Magwitch, a child he was “exceedingly fond of.” Fearing that he might be the cause of the child’s death, Magwitch hid himself during his wife’s trial and remained anonymous. After she was acquitted, she disappeared and Magwitch lost both her and the child. We learn that this child was Estella. The incident also provided Compeyson the chance to blackmail Magwitch and suck him deeper into crime.