Note
EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDING. – On Friday evening last a poor man named Ambrose James and his wife, Diana James, took a night’s lodging at the house of a small shoemaker of the name of Ward, at Hounslow. The unfortunate couple, who had travelled on foot from Oakingham, in Berkshire, were in a state of very abject distress, added to which the poor woman was suffering from severe indisposition, brought on by excessive fatigue and the want of the common necessaries of life. On the Saturday morning, between six and seven o’clock, the occupiers of the house were disturbed by an unusual bustle in the room in which James and his wife slept, which on inquiry was found to be occasioned by the poor woman being discovered by the husband in the agonies of death. Mr. Frogley, a surgeon, was sent for immediately, and promptly attended, but before his arrival she breathed her last. Information of the death, with the attending circumstances, was forwarded in the ordinary way to Mr. Stirling, the coroner, in order that an inquest might be held on the body, and the inquiry was fixed to take place at three o’clock Wednesday afternoon, at the house of Mr. Binfield, the King’s Arms, Hounslow. Shortly after the above hour the coroner arrived, at which time the jury were in waiting on and about the premises. The coroner and jury assembled in a back room of the inn, and the summoning officer (Nichols) was about to open the court previous to the evidence be taken when the landlord abruptly entered the room and protested against the proceedings taking place in his house, and insisting upon the removal of the coroner and jury elsewhere.
Coroner: (with evident surprise and indignation) Do you intend, Sir, to disturb me in my judicial office, and not allow the gentlemen present to fulfil the important duty they are called upon by the country to perform?
Landlord: I cannot allow my house to be made a convenience of without the parish make me a certain remuneration for the same—the law does not compel me to do so. I expect the present inquiry will take place elsewhere. I shall afford no accommodation.
Coroner: (to the beadle) Is no allowance made to this man by the parish for the use of his room in the prosecution of investigations like the present?
Beadle: I believe not, Sir. The churchwardens an overseers have objected either to remunerate landlords for the use of their rooms, or to make any compensation to jurors for the trouble and loss of time in attending inquests.
Coroner: (rising from his seat) Then all I say, is, that the parochial officers of Heston parish are a mean, pitiable set, and I will speak of the conduct wherever I go. I have filled the office of coroner above 20 years, and I never was so disrespectfully treated.
The venerable gentleman then left the house followed by the jury, and the inquest was held in a miserable little ship, the above of Ward,where the deceased died, the implements of his trade lying about, and without any convenience for the jury to site, or the depositions in the case to betaken. After the facts stated in the first instance were sworn to by the several witnesses, the jury returned a verdict of “Died by the visitation of God.”
- Last updated: June 9, 2022 19:52