Sorry for the delay, been away for a couple of days. I am sure this must be related to your family.
16 December 1893 Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser.
PATHETIC CASE.- n inquest was held by Mr S Smelt, Deputy Coroner, on Monday morning, on the body of Richard Jackson, aged 74 years, late of Poplar Street, Oldham Road. Jackson was a pipe maker by trade, and was admitted to the Crumpsall Workhouse Hospital suffering from bronchitis and a form of consumption. As he improved it was suggested by the medical officer that he should go into the infirm ward, there being great pressure on accommodation in the hospital. Jackson would not go into the ward, and after staying in the hospital until the second inst., took his discharge. The same evening he was found by a policeman leaning against a windowsill on Hendham Vale, near Queen's Park. He had to be taken home on a litter, and died on Saturday. It was stated by his widow who is 72 years of age, that she remonstrated with him about having left the workhouse, but he said he had come home to die.. All they had to live on since he returned home was tea and bread and butter supplied by the neighbours. Before her husband left her to go into the workhouse she had 2s and 6d a week from the parish, out of which she had to pay the rent of the room they occupied. This allowance was stopped when the deceased went into the workhouse. She was advised to accompany him, the relieving-officer being of opinion that the room she occupied was not fit for habitation, but she did not like the idea of going into the workhouse. The verdict of the jury was that the death was due to natural causes, and it was remarked by the coroner that it was only natural the widow should object to going into the workhouse, where she would have been separated from her husband. In the case of old people like this couple, he thought the guardians might strain a point by allowing them to remain together if both became inmates.
Such a terribly sad report.
