Extracts
from the Stockton & Hartlepool Mercury, Wednesday, July 27th. 1864.
Melancholy death from drowning
at Hartlepool
On Friday afternoon, July 22nd
1864, a melancholy accident, resulting in the death of a young man named John
Farrar, occurred at the works in course of construction near the Hartlepool
Slake. It appears that the deceased, who is a carpenter, was engaged in the
wood work at the sluices, he was about to step on the scaffolding, when the
chain that held it gave way, and the unfortunate man was precipitated into the
current, which was running very fast at the time, and has not been seen since.
A fellow workman was also immersed, but
fortunately seized hold of the hanging timber and was thereby saved from
inevitable drowning. The body had not yet been found up to the time of this
edition going to press. (Friday Evening, July,22nd.1864 )
From
our Second Edition of Saturday. July 23 rd 1864.
Finding
of the body--Coroner’s Inquest , &c.
The body of the young man,
drowned under the melancholy circumstances reported in our second edition of
Friday evening, was found at a late hour the same evening,( Friday 22nd.
) in the Slake, having been washed through
the sluice gates by the heavy current of flood-tide which sets in
through this narrow opening. The place where it was found was about a hundred
yards from the spot where the melancholy accident occurred. The deceased was
a highly respectable young man in his
own rank of life, and had, with a brother who was also drowned, been for some
years the only support of a widowed mother, now some time deceased. He was
married to a daughter of Mr.Colling, the deputy Harbour Master of Hartlepool,
and leaves a wife and a young family bereaved by his sudden and melancholy
death.
An inquest was held on view of
the body on the following (Saturday ) evening, before John Settle, Esq and the
following jury,
John Lawrenson, Foreman. Chas.
Ferrier, Benjamin Roome,?
David Myers, Daniel Ellwood,
Robert Brown, Jabez Smith,
Adam McKenzie, Christopher
Hoggett-Thos. Hudspith,
Wm. Wilson and Jas. Brown,
The first witness called was
:-
Wm. Colling, Deputy-Harbour
Master, who stated that the deceased was his son-in-law, aged 28 years, and a
ships carpenter to trade.
Wm. Banks, acting foreman of
the works, said that the deceased and he were working together, rigging a stage
upon the side of the slope at the head of the old harbour. After they had it
erected, deceased jumped upon it from off the pile head, and the stage went
down in consequence.
The stage was merely a
temporary one, and there was no necessity for the deceased to jump upon it. The
distance he jumped would be about 3/ feet. Witness said to him -just when he
jumped “What business had you to jump
on the stage before I had it secured?” He replied “Oh Bill, I am
nervous” and with that the stage went
down, taken with it himself and witness.
Witness escaped by swimming to
the chain which crosses the sluice gate, leading to the Slake. Deceased could
not swim. The depth of the water would be about 20 feet. There is no life -buoy
within 300 or 400 yards of the place.
Wm.Sheffield, mariner, said he found the body of the deceased about
half past 10 at night, 100 yards from the place where he was drowned, washed in
the Slake
Dorothy
Sharp said, I laid out the body and
I saw a piece of flesh had been cut out of his right eye, His left ear was cut,
and there was a large wound on the back of his neck.
William
Nipper, shipwright, said I assisted the
deceased to hang the stage,I saw the deceased jump upon it, I was on the
opposite side of it, The chain broke and the deceased vanished from view, The
chain which broke was merely temporary. The same chain bore the weight of four
of us before, besides two deals,about three weeks ago. At the time it broke
there were only two men and one deal resting on it. I had confidence in the
chain and risked my own life on it. I have examined the chain, and the link I now
produce is the only bad one in the chain. If I had been in Banks position on
the stage, or in the deceased’s when he jumped, I
should have had no fear. The chain 3 weeks ago was double and Banks did not say
whether the stage was right or wrong. The stage was only one plank, and quite
safe to walk over.
The jury after a short consultation returned a verdict
of “Accidentally Drowned .”
FUNERAL OF THE DECEASED.
The deceased, who was a member
of the St. Hilda Court of Foresters, was interred in Hartlepool Cemetery-Hart-Warren
,(Spion Kop) on Sunday Afternoon,
and was followed to his last resting place by 230 of the brethren of the
various Courts, and by a large number of his friends and fellow workmen.
John Farrar (many different
spellings) was my Great Grandfather, John Farrar had married my Great Grand Mother Ann Colling on Wednesday the 23rd.May 1860 in the
Independent Chapel, they had one child, a daughter Jane Isabella Farrar my Grand Mother, On Monday the 6th.August
1866, John Farrar’s widow Ann
remarried in St Hilda’s Church to John
Horsley, a widower and Sea Pilot, they both lived at 2 Chapel Street for the
rest of their lives.
On the Birth, Marriage and
Death Certificates, their surnames are spelt differently, it is likely that the
people spoke their names and the correct spelling was left up to the registrar,
priest, or enumerator, you have to bear this fact in mind at all times that the
spellings of Surnames was far more flexible in times gone bye-
it should also be remembered
that few men and even less females- could read or write-in the 1860’s –I don’t
doubt the Honesty or Integrity- of any of the witnesses at the inquest- but the
answers given and the manner in which they replied to the Coroners
questions-does give the impression that their answers had been a little inspired-or
rehearsed- I leave others to make up their own minds on that?
Alan Harvey Flounders-
