Coroner’s Inquests 1859 cases
There were 121 cases in the year 1859, presented in eight sub-pages.
At the start of this year the newspaper criticises those who cause needless inquests – in this case Frances Dredge died aged 81, having been seen medically several months before, and having refused a doctor at the point of her expected death. And yet the local constable requested an inquest, necessitating the costs of transport for the officials, the wasted time of the jury and witnesses, and the pain to the family, with no new evidence forthcoming. There are a number of cases of what might be construed as at one extreme of unexpected death, but most are attributable to old age and poor health-keeping
When Zachariah Burrett fell backwards off a cart and killed himself in the landing, a witness was most shocked at the terrible cursing language the father used, cursing the ground upon which he stood, and actually cursing the Almighty for permitting the accident to happen. Not on, really not on.
Mary Mullings had seemingly kept her pregnancy from her family, when she went to Malmesbury and, with the help of a contact, visited Hannah Godwin, a fortune teller. Gram Godwin, as she was locally known, was also, between the times she went a-greening, an abortionist, and Mary was given poison to procure an abortion of her child, dying from the treatment later. It is rare that such a character as Godwin appears in this collection.
Charlotte Truen seemed determined to commit suicide in the Avon at Amesbury, but as she was often in drink her husband ignored the threat, and it was left to Charles Lloyd, in spite of other people watching on, to nearly lose his life in trying to save hers. Esther Smart, having been taken by the local constable for theft, was also determined on her own death, but the constable and his wife had to look after her in their own home until the village lock-up could be readied for use, and she proved too determined a suicide for their kindness to prevent.
The death of Joseph Read is not the first time a smock-frock will cause a fatal accident in this collection, in this case his frock caught probably on the shaft of his waggon as he endeavoured to jump down to control the running horses, and the inevitable end occurred. Another agricultural accident – in effect a double-peril – occurred to Thomas Manley at Steeple Ashton. He was loading barley on top of a rick or a waggon, when the load slipped, and he started to fall with it, only for his colleague on the ground to raise his pitchfork to try and stop the load. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
A brutal murder took place at Donhead to Anastatia Trowbridge, the frenzied attacker Serafin Manzano, a Spanish tramp who had been wandering the lonelier parts of the Wiltshire countryside, being hanged at Devizes before a crowd of several thousand.
A glimpse of Victorian morality is found in the case of Fanny Smith. It is clear that, having somehow become pregnant – by her own consent or not – she has become a social outcast from her family/employer, and has had the child in a ‘questionable house’ in Swindon, presumably a house of prostitution if she is without the means of life. She then went into a reformatory, where her morals would be cleansed by labour, and her child cared for, only for tuberculin tendencies to emerge, health to fade, and her child die, followed closely by herself. Did she take her own life by poisoning, or not? No one seemed bothered to do the tests, but just assumed suicide as a verdict, and buried her at night with no ceremonial. Her sponsor wrote at length to question this inquest, and I must say I agree with his anger and doubts on the findings.
Coles, George – Great Cheverell
Bigwood, female infant – Trowbridge
Northeast, William – Salisbury
Unknown female infant – Somerford Parva
Harding, William – Longbridge Deverill
Selwood, Jane – Bradford on Avon
Burrett, Zachariah – North Newnton
Minal, James – Stratton St Margaret
Flemington, Charles – Salisbury
Yeates, Edward – Stratton St Margaret
Liversuch, female infant – Edington
Hansfield, Henry – Bradford on Avon
Unknown male infant – Salisbury
Henstridge, Elizabeth – Donhead St Andrew
Fry, Samuel – Winterbourne Earls
Ford, John & Cornish, Timothy – Trowbridge
Thring, John – Stratford-sub-castle
Guy, Isabella – Yatton Keynell
Timms, Elizabeth – Marlborough
Nightingale, Thomas – Broadchalke
Manley, Thomas – Steeple Ashton
Weaver, Richard – Little Somerford
Day, Charles – Somerford Magna
Wilkins, Jonathan – Trowbridge
Trowbridge, Anastatia – Donhead
Lipyeat, William – Charlton Cat
Sellwood, Eliza – Wootton Bassett
Smith, Fanny & Smith, William – Wroughton
Wheeler, female infant – Studley
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Wiltshire Coroner's Inquests 1801-1920 