New, John 1888 June 2nd Milford
Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon the city coroner (Mr G Smith) held an inquiry at the Council Chamber touching the death of a man named John New, of Green Croft Street, who expired suddenly the previous day. Mr Wyatt was chosen foreman of the jury.
Selina Churchill was the first witness. She stated that she resided at the Cottage, Milford, and her husband was a harness maker. Deceased was not known to her but she had seen him in the town several times. At about quarter to two on Wednesday afternoon she saw him in the lane near her house. He was walking then and he appeared to have been beating his boy. A stick was in his hand and the boy was crying. Deceased had hold of the boy by the hand. Witness saw deceased stagger, sit on the bank, and roll off into the road. He still had the boy by the hand, and when the lad felt his father leave go he ran off. Witness called to him to come back but he would not. She fetched the deceased some water, undid his collar, and ran to the village for Mr Aldridge, who came back with her, after which he went for a medical man, but she believed deceased was dead before Mr Aldridge left.
Supt Mathews said he was sent for to see the deceased about three o’clock in the afternoon. He saw him at his own house after he had been brought from Milford. Deceased’s age was 33, and he worked as a laborer on a ballast train on the SWR. He had been ill and had been an inmate of the Infirmary about a fortnight, having strained something in his chest while at work. On Wednesday he sent his son out to purchase something for dinner and as he did not return for some time deceased went to look for him. He first went to the Fisherton Stations and not finding him there proceeded to Milford, where he found him, and he was returning to Salisbury when he fell down and expired.
Fitzroy Philip Darke, surgeon, deposed to being sent for to see the deceased between two and three o’clock on Wednesday afternoon. Deceased was, he said, dead when he arrived, and he was unable to certify the cause of death. He had not known him before. He should say, if he were asked, that he probably died from heart disease, accelerated by the excitement of running after and chastising his son. When he first saw deceased he was lying on his back in the lane leading from Milford hill over the railway bridge into Milford.
The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical testimony.
Wiltshire Coroner's Inquests 1801-1920 