1853

Coroner’s Inquests 1853 Cases

There were 125 cases for 1853, presented in eight sub-pages.

Rumour and unfounded opinions count large on the social media of today, just as they did way back then – Eliza Hall happened to lodge in the same house as a child-minder, and was quite a callous young lady, but the child being minded by Mary Sutton, by name Mary Cleverly, seems to have fallen against a nail in the wall. Rumour said that Eliza had driven the nail into the child’s head! This was easily enough to get Eliza Hall to an Assizes trial for murder.

A rare case, as with that of Thomas Pitcher in 1856, was when Edwin Ely ate some berries of a yew tree – seriously toxic.

Yet again, a young lad, ten year old Thomas Reasey, is in charge of what I would judge an industrial operation, driving three horses attached to a thrashing machine – whilst getting off the hurdle his smock-frock hutched, and the lever coming round took and drawed him into the frame, needless to say with fatal injuries.

Miller’s carter George Ball took the deceased, Thomas Brown, along with him on a late afternoon job with a load of corn, but coming back at 9pm the drunken Brown fell off the cart and paralysed himself with spinal injuries. In sharp contrast with our times, they arrived back at the mill to find the family asleep, so, despite the injuries, they slept in a tallot and only the following morning was the injured man taken to the Union Workhouse.

George Busson was a yeoman, a respected man, and even he thought nothing of walking home along the railway line – something widely done at the time – which we of course think a ludicrous risk. Samuel Kelson seemingly thought nothing of the risks he took when descending a twenty-foot ladder facing forwards.

Controversy raged between the County Lunatic Asylum and Salisbury Infirmary over the death of George Long, a depressed former farmer who had cut his throat before his landlady in Salisbury, been treated at the Infirmary, and transported to the Asylum for their specialist mental care, dying just after arrival. But whose account of his state on arrival should we believe?

This was a period when various schemes of railway building were underway throughout Wiltshire, and the earthworks often involved raising embankments using tip-trucks on temporary rail-roads, horses getting the trucks going, being unhitched at speed, and the trucks allowed to collide with the barrier and tip their load in an unsupervised manner – it was unfortunate that they took little note of security at the locations, or of the safety of onlookers, such as Joseph Fell, one of a group of small children playing round the line.

Dredge, Ann – Chapmanslade

Hill, Thomas – Westbury

Ferris, Timothy – Bradford on Avon

Faulkner, Thomas – Monkton Farley

Burrows, John – Corsley

Cleverly, Mary – Devizes

Haynes, Noah – Corsley

Hunter, Robert – Swindon

Gale, Eliza – Bradford on Avon

Murrell, Elizabeth – Trowbridge

Cockrell, Robert – Bradford on Avon

Hull, male infant – Westbury

Cole, Joseph – Lacock

Curtis, Alfred – Malmesbury

Pearce, Frank – Bromham

Leonard, Joseph – Burton

Brodie, Charles – Salisbury

Dudman, Eliza – Salisbury

Furnell, Esther – Sutton Mandeville

Underwood, Sarah – Trowbridge

Harmond, James – Warminster

Willis, Edwina – Southwick

Hall, Daniel – Winsley

West, Richard – Broughton Gifford

Coosey, William & Jackson, Thomas – Trowbridge

Millard, William – Westbury

Wayte, James – Trowbridge

Jerman, Emily – Milford

Tanner, Charles – Hullavington

Matthews, John – Tockenham

Bowly, William – Sherston Magna

Lewis, William – Malmesbury

Merrett, John – Bishops Cannings

Hill, John – Hannington

Townsend, John – Stratton St Margaret

Matthews, Mary – Brinkworth

Reasey, Thomas – Overton

Elkins, Albert – Westbury

Hillman, Worthy – Wingfield

Carr, William – Edington

Batt, Ann – West Lavington

Hale, Henry – Winsley

Taylor, Anne – Maiden Bradley

Bowley, Ruth – Slaughterford

Brown, Thomas – Malmesbury

Reeve, Jane – Heddington

Gulliver, Eli – Bowerchalke

Foreman, Joseph – Salisbury

Wiltshire William – Chippenham

Newman, James – Salisbury

Vincent, Ann – Wilton

Fulford, Martha – Redlynch

Phippard, John – Salisbury

Hams, Thomas – Alton Barnes

Busson, George – Wootton Bassett

Little, John – Melksham

Bishop, Dinah – Bishopstrow

White, Mary – Warminster

Phillips, Mary – Steeple Ashton

Unknown female infant – Salisbury

Ford, George – Westbury

Bowles, John & Mizen, Arthur & Hulborn, Thomas – Corsham

Stephens, James – Devizes

Wyatt, William – Ramsbury

White, James – Bradford on Avon

Harrington, female infant – Bradford on Avon

Gilbert, Jonathan – Berwick St James

Targett, William – Compton Chamberlayne

Weeks, Thomas – Market Lavington

Jacques, George – Chippenham

New, Silas – Chilton Foliatt

Ruddle, James – Limpley Stoke

Paradise, Susan – Broughton Gifford

Chislett, Ann – Mere

Yeo, Henry & Yeo, Maria – Corsham

Dibden, Moses – Salisbury

Bates, Edward – Broughton Gifford

Allen, female infant – Chapmanslade

Sanger, Thomas – Compton Chamberlayne

Berriman, infant male – Purton

Long, George – Devizes

King, William – North Newnton

Smart, Isabella – Salisbury

Gray, Charles – Westbury

Kinton, James – Trowbridge

Park, Ann – East Lavington

Gorton, Isaac – Bradford on Avon

Jerrett, William – Great Cheverell

Gregory, John – Trowbridge

Hitchcock, David – Stanton St Bernard

Reynolds, William – Chippenham

Pearce, William – Marlborough

Unknown male infant – Salisbury

Cray, Mary – Warminster

Warburton, Frederick – Trowbridge

Dainton, male infant – Limpley Stoke

Edmonds, Isaac – Semington

Atherton, Henry – Westbury

Bolwell, Charles – Semington

Parker, William – Bradford on Avon

Whately, Mary – Sutton Veny

Knee, William – Devizes

Imber, William – Sutton Veny

Kelson, Samuel – Bradford on Avon

Edwards, William – Trowbridge

Fell, Joseph – Devizes

Coombes, James – Chippenham

Barnes, Emanuel – Calne

Pinniger, Eleanor – Calne

Looker, Eliza – Mildenhall

Ely, Edwin – Highworth

Cockle, Sarah – Westbury

Knee, Martha – Warminster

Brent, Isaac – Trowbridge

Unknown male – Fisherton Delamere

Hams, Elizabeth & Hams, Martha – Preshute

Bint, John – Preshute

Carter, John – Figheldean

West, John – Broadchalke

Holloway, Susannah – Westbury

Broadway, Henry – Burbage

Alexander, Edna – Blacklands

Scott, Daniel – Bromham

Bartlett, Sarah – Enford

© http://www.salisburyinquests.wordpress.com, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to http://www.salisburyinquests.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

I acknowledge with thanks the permission of Salisbury Journal to reproduce their materials on this blog.