Person Page - 773

HARMSTON. Death of a Woman. The Husband Censured. -At the Thorold Arms. Harmston, on Saturday last, Dr. Mitchinson, County Coroner, held an inquest on the body of Fanny Bradford, aged thirty-two, wife of a stone sawyer who had been working at the Hall, whose death occurred under circumstances which gave rise to certain rumours in the locality. The first witness called was Dr. Jas. D. Campbell, of Navenby, who said he first visited the deceased woman on the 22nd Oct. She was then in bed, and complained of severe headache and sickness. She seemed much depressed. She had been confined of twins on the 13th Sept., and got over that fairly well. Deceased was extensively bruised about her eyes, and the bridge of her nose was likewise bruised. She did not tell him how she got injured- she seemed to avoid the subject, and he did not press it. He saw her again on the 26th Oct., when she complained of stiffness about the back of the neck. She rambled in conversation. She took a little food at the time. The next time he visited her, deceased was delirious, and in a state of collapse. He attributed her death to inflammation of the covering of the brain. That might have arisen from a chill or from low condition of her general health, or [in answer to the coroner] from external violence, but he could not say that her death did arise from the last named cause. There were no marks of violence elsewhere on the body. -By a juror: The injuries to the face might have arisen from either a blow or a fall.-By another juror: I am unable to say that death would be likely to have arisen from such blow as caused the eyes to blacken. -Catharine Phillips, wife a labourer living under the same roof as deceased, said on Saturday, the 22nd Oct., the deceased's husband asked her and see his wife, who was very ill. She was in bed. Witness asked her how she felt, and she said she must have got a violent cold she had no use in her limbs and felt stiff all over. Witness had previously seen her on the 21st when she was going about, and she did not complain. She seemed very weak. She had black eye on Monday, but did not make any complaint or allusion to it.-By the Coroner: Deceased and her husband always seemed comfortable together, and deceased seemed have plenty of food; but her husband was somewhat given to drinking.- Thos. Cooke, labourer, who lodged with the deceased and her husband, and Hester Bradford, sister of the deceased, also gave evidence.-'The Coroner said he understood there were ugly rumours about the village of the man having ill-used his wife, but the jury could not bring a verdict against him unless they could connect the woman's death with the alleged violence. After the medical evidence, he thought they would be unable to do that; indeed, there was not sufficient evidence that gave the deceased the black eye, although they might judge of that from the conduct of the deceased herself. The jury returned a verdict that deceased died from inflammation of the covering of the brain, but that there was no evidence to enable them to say whether such disease arose from natural causes or external violence.-The Coroner informed deceased's husband of the verdict, and told him there was very grave doubt in the minds of the jury as to whether he had not been the cause of his wife's death. He reprimanded the man severely for his general conduct, and expressed a hope that this would be a warning to him.- Deceased leaves four children, two being the twins born in September.¹⁰