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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: RJMortimer on Wednesday 06 February 13 18:53 GMT (UK)
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Hi,
I am researching my family tree. Today I found a newspaper clipping onlinethat suggests that my great great grandfather Henry Thomas Mortimer committed suicide in Manchester in 1887. He was a builder from Leicester.
I would really appreciate if anyone would see if they can find any info on this case other than the London Gazette mentioning of his death.
Ryan :)
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Hi Ryan, I can't find a death registration for Henry Thomas in 1897, so
are you sure about the date? There is a registration for a Thomas Henry
in the last Quarter of 1898 (West Ham Essex), though, could that be the
one?
No luck so far with the newspaper article. Can you remember where and
when it was published?
vv.
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Sorry about the mistake it's 1887 not 1897 :-[ I'll modify the first post.
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I can find a birth for Henry Thomas Mortimer in Leicester in June Q 1848 (Leicester 15 119)
There is also a death record for a Henry Mortimer in Chorlton (Lancs) in Dec Q 1887 (Chorlton 8C 465). The age given at death was 38 so I am pretty sure it is your Henry.
I didn't find any newspaper items on FindMyPast though.
Best regards
Kevin
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Hi Ryan,
There are a couple of the same/similar reports in ie. Leicester Chronicle and the Manchester Evening News.
I can pm you with details unless someone's beat me to it. :)
Cathy
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Yeah thanks very much Kevin, that is him :)
I found the article on British newspaper archives but don't have a subscription yet- thought maybe it was somewhere else. ???
Thanks,
Ryan :)
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Spooky:
I've found an article re Henry Thomas Mortimer, independent gentleman,
who killed his wife, his four children and himself, but the article is
dated Thursday 22 August 1901. Published in the Evening Telegraph. The
crime took place at Saltash in Cornwall.
vv.
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That really is horrible- thankfully I've just found this: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XSH8-BS3 so it's not him.
Ryan
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I did find this link to a grave marker
http://www.fowrcl.org.uk/index.php/search/20383-mortimer (http://www.fowrcl.org.uk/index.php/search/20383-mortimer)
Which may go some way to explaining why he may have taken the action he took. :( (if it is him of course)
Kevin
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There is a tree on Ancestry that has Henry Thomas Mortimer 18 jun 1848-28 sep 1887 on it.
It has details of the grave already found
Welford Road, Cemetry, Leiester, England
Unconsecrated Plot 40 FB u60535
Perhaps the owner of the family tree has the details that you are looking for
Jay
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Dear Mr Mortimer,
A somewhat tasteless listing of suicides in The Leeds Times 1 October 1887 confirms what I suspect you already know. It includes: "A gentleman named Mortimer from Leicester was observed standing at the window of an empty house at Didsbury covered with blood. It was found that his throat was cut, both arteries being severed. He died in half-an-hour, £6-11s-2d, a watch chain and a letter from his wife were found upon him. Deceased had lately stayed at Matlock for his health." In addition the will was proved at Leicester in March 1888 by Harriett Mortimer, of 24 Nicholas Street, Leicester, of her husband Henry Thomas Mortimer of Leicester, builder, who died 28 September 1887 at Didsbury. He left a fair sum gross for the time, but what it was net I don't know.
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Wow that's horrible but thanks for the post, I would really appreciate any more articles :o
Any ideas what Matlcock was? An area? Hospital?
I'd love to get my hands on the letter from his wife, Harriet. Also this doesn't confirm suicide :-\
Thanks also for the two earlier replies- I want to pay their graves a visit this year.
Ryan
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Wow that's horrible but thanks for the post, I would really appreciate any more articles :o
Any ideas what Matlcock was? An area? Hospital?
I'd love to get my hands on the letter from his wife, Harriet. Also this doesn't confirm suicide :-\
Thanks also for the two earlier replies- I want to pay their graves a visit this year.
Ryan
Matlock is a spa town in Derbyshire just over the Pennines from Lancashire. It was a place people went to 'take the waters'.
Kevin
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Oh right thanks Kevin- so he probably left for Matlock as he was feeling stressed which would suggest suicide is more likely but I'll wait and see.
Ryan :)
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That would be my take on it.
His first wife (according to the grave marker) died in 1874, so maybe he just never got over that?
If he went to Matlock to partake of the waters, that to me would imply he was fairly well off...but it could also meant that he had an illness that he was desperately trying to defeat. I understand sometimes people with 'incurable' ailments would try taking spa waters in the hope of it curing them. In other words, it may not have been a mental illness that he was suffering with.
Kevin
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Yes he married in 1873 and Emma died in 1874 :( His father was a doctor and his sister had depression, even being in a lunatic asylum for a few months.
Hopefully medical records will turn up later- for now though I'm trying to find out as much as I can without spending too much :)
Thanks Kevin,
Ryan :)
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Dear Ryan,
I suspect all Kevin suggests is very probably right. Mr Mortimer would of course have travelled by train - no other way. Leicester to Matlock Bath railway station or Matlock proper is still easy. Now, effectively, these stations are at the end of the line. But in the 1880s there was a recently added (now disused) line from Matlock to Buxton and then on up to Manchester; it went through Didsbury (then a major railway station - now demolished). For reasons which I don't suppose we shall ever know after taking "the cure" he decided to go north rather than back to Leicester.
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Thanks for that. Maybe we won't ever know, really sad though and hopefully I'll find out more.
Ryan
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Dear Ryan,
These will be my final thoughts. I looked and found there were a fair number of references to him in the Leicester Chronicle. He was incidentally a freemen's deputy there [a Leicester institution, this, which can be googled]. Regarding his departure this was in the issue of Saturday 1 October 1887 under the heading "Terrible Suicide of a Leicester Builder": 'Intelligence was received in Leicester late on Wednesday evening that Mr H T Mortimer, builder, of St Nicholas Street, had been found dead at Manchester with his throat cut. From inquiries since made we hear that the deceased had been very unwell for some weeks past and about a fortnight ago went to Matlock for the benefit of his health. He was visited there by some of his friends as recently as Saturday last and the family had no knowledge of his having left Matlock when the sad news of his death was received by the Head Constable (Mr J Duns) from the police authorities at Manchester. The melancholy intelligence was conveyed to Mrs Mortimer by Detective-Inspector Mardlin and some of the family, we understand, started for Manchester on Thursday morning. The deceased had for some years been in business in the town, and one of his latest undertakings was the large building in Southgate Street now in course of erection...' From other references it seems the business did not long survive him his stock-in-trade being sold off in 1888 and there was evidently some form of legal action against his estate, Pochin v Mortimer, which carried on for several years in the High Court, though it's not obvious what it was about. Good luck with the search. Though it's a sad story it doesn't lack interest and there's a slight chance there might be one or two of his buildings surviving in Leicester which still has plenty of Victorian architecture.