Coroner’s Inquests 1855 cases
There were 91 cases for 1855, presented in six sub-pages.
This year two lines of railway were in construction local to Salisbury, the Great Western branch line from Warminster to Salisbury, and the South Western line from Andover to Salisbury. It’s easy to forget the railways running near us were built by the labour of men with only basic tools and machination. One of the common techniques for making embankments was a tip-run, in which waggons of earth from an excavation further along were brought along the top of the bank, hitched to a horse, which was then led by a man into a trot and then a gallop, before man unhitched horse, and both jumped aside to let the truck smash into a barrier, tipping the earth over – a recipe for disaster which was enacted twice in close succession to John David at Bapton, and John Smith at Stockton. I have added a couple of other horrific accidents which had occurred.
A tale partly of abandonment and poverty, but also of neglect, in the deaths of two infant children of a woman named Bamber, who traipsed the suffering babies about the streets to elicit sympathy and coins from passers-by, but what did the Coroner mean by saying her home was, “the abode of women of notoriously profligate habits”? A hint of poverty of life in the account of the death of Robert Scull, one weak of intellect who lived in a small damp cottage without a fire, and with at times a muddy floor.
Two cases of people being left to make their way in the cold – both, by the way, after taking excessive drink – William Godwin got his brother-in-law’s help to deliver a side of bacon to Bowood House, but virtually collapsed crossing the park, and was left by his colleagues laid on the ground. William Pottow might have walked home with his brother, but told him, “Thee go thy way, and I’ll go mine,” which included trying to cross a ploughed field in the dark, where he was found frozen the following morning.
For the second time in this collection, someone in a workhouse actually choked and died on the food, in this case Joseph Hillman voraciously ate his gruel and bread – somewhat ironic considering the vittels on offer. In the opposite direction, James Pearce refused to leave the poverty of his hovel, when it was suggested he should go to the Union, he said, “He would sooner be hung at Erchfont than die a natural death in the Union.”
Bamber, Sarah & Bamber, Thomas – Devizes
Harman, female infant – Salisbury
Tompkins, William – Trowbridge
Unknown male infant – Salisbury
Davis, John & Smith, John – Bapton
Jenkins, William – Great Bedwin
Wakefield, William – Stratton St Margaret
Porton, William – Ogbourne St Andrew
Kilminster, William – Cricklade
Scriven, Harriett – Marlborough
Potticary, William – Warminster
Mears, Thomas – Bishops Cannings
Farmer, Mary – Winterbourne Bassett
Simpson, James – Hannington Wick
Chappel, John – Sherston Parva
Macey, Richard – No-Man’s-Land
Bryant, Thomas – Bradford on Avon
Lee, Charles – Ogbourne St George
Little, Thomas – Lydiard Tregose
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Wiltshire Coroner's Inquests 1801-1920 