Leamington Spa Church DEATH- J.Archer

[Woggle]

I am over 70 and a family story has always been that my relative Joseph Archer (Mason/labourer) fell off the church spire in Leamington Spa and was killed. He was born in 1806 and he had children till about 1848 so if the story was true he would have died after 1848. Can anyone throw any light on this story? Is it true?

[patrish]

Cannot help with the story but there is a death record of a Joseph Archer, June q. 1848 Warwick 16 - 421

[smudwhisk]

There is a burial of a Joseph Archer in Leamington Priors on 3 June 1848 aged 45 years.  You'd need to get the death certificate to find out if he had a somewhat unnatural death.

I'm not sure when the name Leamington Spa took over from Leamington Priors, sometime during the 19th century.  If he did fall off a church spire in Leamington it would either have been All Saints, the main parish church, or St Marys which appears to have started sometime around 1839.

[Woggle]

Thank you Mudwhisk. Obvious that it is I had not thought about checking the death certificate I will do that next . Can it be done on-line? What had occured to me is that if Joseph had fallen off the church spire, that it would have been of significance that would have merited a line or two in the local paper. That poses another question or two. What was the local Leamington Spa newspaper about 1848 and is there an Archive somewhere where this could be checked?

[jim1]

Why not contact the Leamington Spa History Group & ask them.
http://www.leamingtonhistory.co.uk/

jim

[cath151]

Hi,
My great great grandfather died in a very similar way in 1862 , he fell from scaffolding whilst helping to build a church in Brighton. There was an inquest and although the records did nt survive it was reported very briefly in the local paper, so possibly a route to go down, jim1' s link sounds good.

Cathy