1851

Coroner’s Inquests 1851 cases

There were 125 cases for 1851, presented over eight sub-pages.

William Dovey would have been saved to die another day had basic emergency aid and knowledge, a bandage and pressure, have been available. It staggers me that an eighty-two year old man, Robert Timbrell, deaf and almost blind, who had experienced a near-miss already, climbed some steps and was crossing the railway to get some sugar from a shop.

I must admit to cynicism in the many cases, like those of James Kellow and Moses Shore, of men being caught and fatally injured in thrashing machines – seemingly it was always their own fault, they had ignored warnings, they knew they shouldn’t get too near, etc.. Hannah Brown, an ignorant country woman, got a village shoemaker to bleed her when she felt unwell, the verdict saying she died from the effects of being bled by a non-medical man, though one wonders if a doctor would have succeeded anyway!

When an unknown male infant was found naked in a brook, suspicion turned rapidly on a family group of Irish vagrants, who had passed through the area, and who had been seen crying as they went, one of the woman heard to say, “Don’t cry, old woman – ’tis gone, and can’t be helped.” PC William Turner and Inspector Bowns arrested them and interrogated them, to no effect, as they were completely innocent – a clear demonstration of the attitude of the times towards strangers, particularly Gypsies.

Charlotte Silk and her 12 month old baby Henry, were lodging with Mrs Bridgeman, while her husband sought work in the neighbourhood, the whole family having previously been in the Union Workhouse. When the child ailed though, Mrs Bridgeman seemingly couldn’t get them out of the house quick enough, and baby Henry died on the road as his mother walked all the way towards Calne to seek a relieving officer who may or may not have given her a ticket for medical assistance.

A similar lack of feeling about poverty is evident in the fact of Mary Ann Shergold being sent to the Assizes for feloniously slaying her infant Martha Shergold. They had gone to Farnham from Warminster with a group of workers hop-picking, and coming back towards Marlborough they slept in fields or on the roads, in the rain, with nothing to eat and nothing to cover theirselves. The baby, already weak, died in her arms – and the jury really thought the starving mother to blame.

William Bolwell of Devizes carefully conceived his own death, lying to the druggist about the use to which he wished to put some laudanum, and, without any sign of insanity to temper their conclusion, the jury returned a verdict of felo-de-se, murder of self, meaning that the body had to be buried late at night without ceremony – but, given the large crowd of onlookers, the Rev. Mr Phipps saw fit to expand on the reason and history for this melancholy rite.

The appropriately named Henry Belcher came into some property, but, unlike you or I perhaps, he blurrily drank the money away, sold his clothes to procure more, and expressed the wish that he might die drinking, and on that very day he did just that.

Moody, William & Boyce, James – Landford

Greenaway, Mrs – Marlborough

Hollidge, Jacob – Wroughton

Ashe, James – Brinkworth

Ponting, William – Calne

Beaven, Thomas – Wingfield

Drewett, James – Edington

Whately, Matilda – Chitterne

Dovey, William – Shaw

Part, John – Pool Keynes

Langford, Edwin – Devizes

Coleman, Henry – Highway

Cue, female infant – Calne

Church, Robert – Aldbourne

Maidment, Ira – East Knoyle

Gibbs, John – Imber

Angell, Thomas – Trowbridge

Bullen, Frederic – Warminster

Griffin, John – Steeple Ashton

Gulliver, Mary – Semington

Baker, Frances – Bishopstone

Read, James – Fovant

Wiltshire, Eliza – Studley

Walker, Emma – Baydon

Unknown male infant – Calne

Hinder, Abraham – Melksham

Arnold, Ann – West Knoyle

Arnold, infant male – West Knoyle

Wiltshire, William – Melksham

Connor, Charles – Salisbury

Chant, Alfred – Homington

Barrett, Francis – Burbage

Chequer, Isaac – Cliffe Pypard

Coombs, William – Lacock

Shelley, Stephen – Redlynch

Simmonds, Robert – Salisbury

Rumble, William – West Lavington

Bell, George – Tilshead

Wheeler, John – Warminster

Langley, Mary – Warminster

Reeves, Sarah – Rowde

Cram/Oram, Richard – Etchilhampton

Chappel, Samuel – Littleton Drew

Knee, William – Potterne

Hiscock, Robert – Swindon

Willis, John – Purton

Waters, Stephen – Stalham

Howell, James – Bradford on Avon

Connor, Elizabeth – Trowbridge

Keevil, Julia – Bradford on Avon

Downs, Phoebe – Melksham

Wells, Joseph – Marden

May, Isaac – Ogbourne St Andrew

Turling, William – Seagry

Kellow, James – Teffont Magna

Silk, Henry – Lyneham

Inness, John – Chippenham

Taylor, Eliza – Chippenham

Wilkins, Eliza – Bradford on Avon

Spender, Mary – Trowbridge

Jones, William – Avoncliffe

Torrington, Henry – Biddestone St Nicholas

Warman, Ann – Ogbourne St George

Humphreys, William – Highworth

Tarrant, Richard – Rodborne Cheney

James, Mary – Malmesbury

House, John – Stratton St Margaret

Noble, male infant – Harnham

Lucas, Arthur – Quidhampton

Brown, Henry – Salisbury

Sheppard, Henry – Warminster

Dear, Henry – Harnham

New, James – Salisbury

Coombs, male infant – Salisbury

Sheppard, male infant – Figheldean

Williams, Charles – Orcheston St George

Bolwell, William – Devizes

Simpkins, Charles & Merrett, Joseph – Winterbourne Monkton

Penny, William – Melksham

Dowden, Benjamin – West Lavington

Brown, James – Atworth

Shore, Moses – West Lavington

Vincent, Millicent – Diltons Marsh

Nunn, Mary – Whiteparish

Mills, John – Hindon

Unknown male – Melksham

Mason, Charles – Great Bedwin

Cozens, William – Chittoe

Shergold, Martha – Ogbourne St George

Turner, female infant – Westbury

Philips, Thomas – Great Bedwin

Boscombe, John – Chippenham

Belcher, Henry – Bishopstone

Hunt, Selina – Box

Tanner, Esther – Chippenham

Weston, Sarah – Etchilhampton

Kite, William – East Lavington

Parsons, Edward – Heytesbury

Timbrell, Robert – Minety

Hibberd, Anna – Salisbury

Glass, William – Burbage

Farling, Thomas – Seagry

Henly, Jane – Wootton Bassett

Priors, Daniel – Trowbridge

Prangley, Mary – Heytesbury

Hitchcock, John – Monkton Farley

Powel, Frederick – Bradford on Avon

Buckett, John – Redlynch

Brown, Hannah – Ashton Keynes

Packer, David – Minety

Hill, Thomas – Chippenham

Potter, male infant – Rushall

Chandler, William – Shrewton

Carter, Rebecca – Steeple Langford

Drew, Richard – Chirton

Morris, John – Sherston Magna

Lawrence, Joseph – Ramsbury

Ransom, Henry – Warminster

Wicks, George – Steeple Ashton

Large, Frederick – Melksham

Bennett, John – Southwick

Whitmarsh, Jane – Great Wishford

Scammell, John – Broadchalke

Millins, Elizabeth – Donhead St Mary

Hemp, John – Salisbury

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