PETERSFIELD.
MELANCHOLY AND FATAL ACCIDENT. —We have the painful duty of recording a second inquest, touching the death of Mary Waller, at the house of her son, Mr. Thomas Waller, the proprietor of Steep Farm, near this town, within the short space of 13 months. The first was upon the remains of his daughter, a French teacher at Miss Bull’s establishment for young ladies, who, on the 30th of May, 1865, while engaged in the afternoon service with her pupils in the parish church of Petersfield, suddenly fell dead upon the floor of the pew. (Ed: Mary Ann Waller) We now have to record a distressing accident, which has brought to an untimely end the existence of an aged, affectionate, and industrious mother. The coroner, Edward Hoskins, Esq., Mr. J. J. Powell, foreman, and jury assembled at six o’clock on Saturday evening when the following evidence was adduced:—
Mr. Thomas Waller said—I reside at Steep Farm; my mother Mary Waller was living with me, she was a widow aged 73 years, she was in the possession of all her faculties, and very active; had never been subject to fits. I saw her almost the last, about half-past four o’clock yesterday afternoon; she was then in this room (the parlour). I next saw her about two minutes after leaving the room; my attention was aroused the smashing of crockery. I called the children and sent them to see; they came back and said grandma had fallen down the stairs. I found my mother lying on her back at the bottom of the cellar steps. A broken basin was lying by her, and the skimmer was lying under her on the floor. No other person was in the cellar. Had it not been for the breaking of the crockery, we should not have known it. She went down, as was her customs, to skim milk for a calf. James Paynter had asked her for milk, and last saw her alive. There was a large quantity of blood on the spot, and running from her mouth. I do not think she was more than two minutes from this room before I saw her; she was then quite unconscious.
Mr. William Holt, a registered medical practitioner at Petersfield, and assistant to Messrs. Whicher and Cross, who was called in immediately, deposed that the cause of death was the fracture of the skull. The fall upon the hard brick floor from the steps would be likely to cause the contusion at the back of the head. If a weapon had been used I should have found an abrasion of the skin.
The jury were perfectly satisfied, and returned a verdict of ‟Accidental death.”
Ancestry shows the Burial Register at Steep on 30-Jul-1866
