Great Great Grandfather Suicide 1897?

[frogspawn4]

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

[ramptonlyles]

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.
 

[RJMortimer]

Wow that's horrible but thanks for the post, I would really appreciate any more articles 

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

[kevinf2349]

Wow that's horrible but thanks for the post, I would really appreciate any more articles 

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

[RJMortimer]

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

[kevinf2349]

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

[RJMortimer]

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

[ramptonlyles]

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. 

[RJMortimer]

Thanks for that. Maybe we won't ever know, really sad though and hopefully I'll find out more.
Ryan