Coroner’s Inquests 1862 cases
There were 94 cases in 1862, presented in six sub-pages.
A number of the cases this year are rather long-winded.
Following the Road Hill House Murder of 1860, and the Ann Hill murder of 1861, is another case in which I found suspicions racing through my mind. A long complex report is that of the death of Ann Kiddle, wife to John Kiddle, a carpenter and wheelwright of Donhead St Mary. Mrs Kiddle had seemingly shown signs both of a potential cancer, and of the effects of irritant poison, being unable to take food without bringing it up again, at the same time growing thinner and more wasted and in more pain.
A close friend, Mrs Trowbridge, was in constant attendance, and provided much in the way of tasty foods for the invalid, seemingly, but still she wasted away, except on one occasion when she spent some days with Frederick Bates in Salisbury, when she recovered even her appetite. Four doctors presented evidence, much of it based on contrary opinions – Dr Roberts of Salisbury, Dr Shettle of Cann near Shaftesbury, Dr Harley of Harley Street, and Mr Cardell of Salisbury, with expert analysis from a Dr Herapath, but was this the genuine Dr Herapath of Bristol? In the end, no definitive answer was reached, though I still suspect the husband, who it seems was above the suspicions of all involved!
When an infant, Ernest Gunstone, was left by his mother for the evening with a woman named Parker, and the child died of suffocation, there were accusations. Parker, who lived in a squalid hovel with three or four girls, had herself gone out for three hours, leaving the child covered, face and all, with a pillow on top, apparently. Who knows the truth…
Mary Comley was stood in her kitchen at a cupboard when a flash of lightning came down through the house, shattering part of the chimney, and passing through her, a very rare occurrence in this collection.
King John died from over-eating; so did five-year-old George Fryer, who accompanied his father in the garden, digging up five carrots and eating them there and then – not a bright thing to do.
It’s easy to forget that railways were built primarily on the muscles of men, plus the sheer power of horses, both moving mountains of soil to make a perfectly level permanent way. James Anson was in charge of a horse-drawn ballast train of waggons moving soil from an excavation when, in detaching the horses, he slipped.
Slow, Catherine – Great Wishford
Huggins, James – Sutton Benger
Wordley, Thomas – Bishops Cannings
Beckingham, James – Marlborough
Beauchamp, James – Whiteparish
Swayne, Elizabeth – Winterbourne Stoke
Knight, Lucy – Compton Bassett
Wait, James – Bishops Cannings
Mercer, George – Donhead St Andrew
Arnold, female infant – Warminster
Comley, Mary – Wootton Bassett
Hayter, female infant – Amesbury
Pewsey, Henry – Lydiard Millicent
Anson, James – Barford St Martin
Lampard, Fanny – Barford St Martin
Phillips, Henrietta – Littleton
Colerick, Ephraim – Chippenham
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Wiltshire Coroner's Inquests 1801-1920 