Nailsea: Newspapers of 1840s?

[DebbieDee]

Hi all,

Yesterday I received a death certificate for a 7 year old boy who drowned in Nailsea in August 1846  .  The Coroner was the informant and the death wasn't registered until June 1847 so I am assuming there would have been an inquest.  Just wondered if anyone can tell me which newspapers are most likely to have covered this?

TIA

Debbie

[stanmapstone]

It would probably be The Bristol Mercury. What was his name, as this paper is available online through some libraries.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

It is surprising that he was drowned in August 1846, and the death not registered until June ¼ 1847. In those days an inquest was held either the same day as the event, or the day afterwards. One reason could be that his body was not recovered until 1847.
As an example In The Bristol Mercury of Saturday, January 30, 1847, there is a report of the inquest of a John Cleuny who drowned on the previous Friday afternoon, by falling from his ship, and the inquest was held on the body on the Friday evening.
As I understand it the general requirement was that an inquest was held immediately upon the notice to the coroner of the death or discovery of the dead body. Apparently statutes required that the coroner and jury must have a view of the body together except in cases where the body could not be found or was too decomposed for view. The purpose of this inspection was to ascertain from the appearance of the body how the death was caused.
Stan

[DebbieDee]

Thank you for the replies Stan.

The child's name was Thomas Hurse.  He died on 4 Aug 1846 according to the death certificate.  This fits with the burial at Holy Trinity, Nailsea on 8 August 1846.  The death was registered 28 June 1847 by Robert Uphill, Coroner. Cause of death given as "Accidently drowned in the water half an hour".

Could it be possible that the late registration was simply an administrative error?

Debbie

[KGarrad]

Stan, Nice try - but no ships or boats in Nailsea!! 

I would have thought that a Somerset, or Weston-super-Mare newpaper would be more likely to have coverage?

Somerset County Gazette (1836 to date) might be worth a try?
Somerset County Herald? No longer in existence, though.
Westonian & Somerset Mercury?

These are available in the British Newspaper Library, Collingdale.
Somerset Archives may have more local papers?

[stanmapstone]

Stan, Nice try - but no ships or boats in Nailsea!! 

I did not say there were, I was simply giving an example  of how quickly an inquest was held. I did not think that he was the 7 year old boy, as he was the mate of a ship. I did say "falling from his ship" and the date is January 30, 1847, not as in Debbie's post "drowned in Nailsea in August 1846"


Stan

[scrubnut]

I too have an ancestor who drowned, this time in the River Avon at Bath. His name was James Corbitt, who went missing on the Wednesday, but was found on the Sat 4 days later. His inquest was held on the same day the body was found, which was April 1840, but the death was not registered until September 1840 - coroner? = one Robert Uphill!!

I wonder if he was very lax in his registering of deaths? this was 5 MONTHS after the body had been found!!

Just thought Mr Uphill might have been rather careless in his paperwork??

[DebbieDee]

Thank you for your reply scrubnut    Very interesting!  I have now got a little more info about this.  Thomas' younger brother was born 21 June 1847 and was also named Thomas.  This was only one week before the older Thomas' death was registered (over 10 months after his death  ). 

I think the registrar after talking to the parents registering their younger son's birth must have realised there was no death registration for the older one. 

I had thought it was possibly the registrar at fault but I think you are correct and that Mr Uphill would appear to be the culprit. 

[avrilw]

Hi

I believe Find My Past have now added newspapers to their site as of last week. I think their parent company owned a newspaper site and have now added it to their records.

 I haven't tried it yet, but was going to subscribe to the newspaper site anyway so I think I'm saving about £80 by getting it through FindMyPast!

Worth a try?

Avril