General Chat

Googlebooks has a brilliant book on the story of Ireland.....written in the 1860s If I recall. Worth a look, anyway.

I used to enjoy reading these when you posted them, and still do :-)
Thank you.

* goes back to watching story of Ireland on i player, thinking do it matter on which board it is posted? Nah! :-)

Yes i've always been an avid reader of your 'gory tales from long ago' Susan ......muuwahhhh :O

Mau ;-)

Lol Janey....not sure if I noticed that at the time

Me too Rose.....I have a long list of items to take with me 'just in case'


Loads Mau.......not all under my 2009 numbers though

I think I got up to NEWS FROM THE PAST 20......the earlier ones may not have been numbered


EDIT.....just realised what you meant lol.......yes.....I have found a few more and will put them up soon......not sure they should be on general chat though.

'The Fall of the house of Usher" the abridged version of which I read as a child ( and film with Vincent Price) decided me that I would want to be cremated rather than risk being buried alive :O

"Among them were two skulls ... which must have belonged to a person of gigantic structure."

Just the one then?

;)

Morning Susan...2 years ago ...blimey!

Genealogy Chat I would have thought ...........something about our Ancestors? have you any more for us to read?

Mau :-)

Just wondered what board this was meant to be on.......hmmm!

I do try to find some lighthearted ones Mau :-(, but alas, like the tabloids of today, most news was sensationalised to get the reader to buy the paper.

Just goes to show what went on in those days though......I wonder what our ancestors would have had to say about it all......That is if they weren't involved in some of the doings lol. I am just glad I didn't live in those days.....tis bad enough now

Thanks Susan
Gruesome reading as usual

re the resurrectionists.......body-snatching became so prevalent that it was not unusual for relatives and friends of someone who had just died to watch over the body until burial, and then to keep watch over the grave after burial, to stop it being violated.
Authorities often turned a blind eye to body snatchers, because with no refrigeration in those days,bodies often decayed too quickly and were considered useless for hospital use.
Actual stealing clothes or jewellry was considered a worse crime!

I too remember as a child, having nightmares about being buried alive,must have read a horror story sometime!

ANNUAL REGISTER

March 24 1794

This evening a set of resurrectionists were apprehended at a house near the turnpike Mile End. That morning a coach was observed to stop at the house and an ill-looking fellow came out of it with a sack containing, as was supposed, a body which he carried into the house and returned immediately with a large hamper, they then drove off to a neighbouring public house when, after a short stay, they took up some others, and were traced to the launch at Deptford.

In the meantime the parish officers were informed of the circumstances and at six in the evening the coach returned with a similar lading which was deposited in the house. Some constables, accompanied by a number of people, surrounded the house, and forcing an entrance, they found two men and a woman drinking tea on a bench; at one end of which lay the bodies of two children.

They were secured, and one entering an adjoining room the bodies of six adults were discovered un-mutilated, besides which the floor was strewed with limbs too shocking for public description.

Me too carol,

a changing world but so similar in some cases :-(


A CHIMNEY BOY'S DEATH

THE TIMES

January 24 1831

On Monday the 17th instant John Pavey, 10 year of age, apprentice to Briant the sweep was sent up a flue at the Omnibus Coffee House, 60 Minories, the top of which flue was from 12 to 16 feet above the roof of the house, and it appears that the brickwork was decayed and that when the sweep had reached the top the whole chimney gave way and the poor boy was found on the parapet dead with his skull beaten in.

The following day an inquest was held at the Golden Lion, Goodman's Yard, and a verdict of ‘Accidental Death’ was brought in, which verdict could not be otherwise so long as the law permits the barbarous custom of using children instead of brushes in the sweeping of chimneys.

From Robt. Steven, Hon. Sec. of Society for Superseding Climbing Boys.

I have often wanted to put up a thread about it Meriweather, but fully understand that it may not be to everyones taste even if I do find it fascinating.


ST MARY-LE-STRAND GRAVEYARD

ANNUAL REGISTER

February 24 1830

The workmen engaged in excavating the ground on the eastern side of Somerset House, on which the new university is to be erected, discovered, several feet beneath the surface of the soil, the remains of a human skeleton without any coffin or shell. On digging deeper they discovered nearly a cart load of skeletons, some of which were nearly entire. The circumstance was mentioned to the authorities of Somerset House, but no one could give any information respecting it, or throw any light upon the subject.

Stow, the historian, relates, that several buildings were pulled down to make room for Somerset House, among which was the original church of the Parish of St. Mary-le-Strand which then stood on the site of the houses east of Somerset House, opposite the present church.

On the demolition of the sacred edifice, the bodies of all those interred therein were exhumed and buried in a hole made for the purpose. The exact spot is not mentioned, but there is very little doubt the repository thus discovered was the place chosen for the occasion, and this supposition is strengthened by the fact that the pit appears to have been of a square form and bodies, with very few exceptions, have been regularly placed, one upon another.

Among them were two skulls and several bones of extraordinary dimensions, and which must have belonged to a person of gigantic
structure.

The *new university* was King's College, which was
completed in 1834.

A terrifying story of being buried alive, Susan with numbers. As a child I lived near an ancient chapel and graveyard where such a legend had persisted about a young woman for more than 80 years.

The story gave me nightmares and I have asked to be cremated myself, but have a nagging fear of waking up in the flames.

PREMATURE BURIAL

ANNUAL REGISTER

July 23 1776

The body of a coachman found without any of the common signs of life ... in a stable at Fulham to which he went a few days before in a seeming state of good health to put up his horses, was buried at that place. But when, the funeral was over, a person insisting that during the performance of the service he heard a rumbling and struggling in the coffin, the earth was removed, and the coffin taken out of the grave; when, on opening it there appeared evident proofs that the unhappy man, though then absolutely dead, had come to himself as his body was very much bruised in several places some of which were still bleeding, and there appeared besides a quantity of blood in the coffin.



NOTE: I have my own thoughts on being buried alive and would need a very large coffin to accommodate all the items I shall be taking with me to ensure it doesn't happen.....cos I read a book about it once, years ago, and it scared the life out of me. There are many many stories, even in this day and age, that have added to my fears.....If this entry upsets anyone, please Pm me and I will delete immediately.

STONED TO DEATH

ANNUAL REGISTER

April 16 1771

Yesterday, between four and five o'clock a mob assembled in a field near Bethnal Green consisting of upwards of two thousand, when they set upon one Clark, a pattern drawer, who was the principal evidence against the two cutters that were executed at Bethnal Green sometime since; they continued pelting him with brick-bats for three hours which laid his skull entirely open.

Never did any poor mortal suffer more than he did; he begged of them several times to shoot him; but they kept stoning him till he died in the greatest agonies. Six or seven are said to be taken into custody on this account.

Hi Susan

I knew of a person who kept his Mother's body so that he could still draw her pension. It wasn't found out for a few years. He got away with it somehow.....must look it up :-)

Love the unburied for nineteen years one.

AN AQUATIC ADVENTURE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE

January l0, 1832

The inhabitants of Greenwich were amused by a man walking under the surface of the water in the Thames immediately opposite the Royal Hospital.

A craft was moored off the stairs to which was affixed a ladder, down the steps of which the exhibitor descended to the water.

He was dressed in a manner so as to exclude the water from penetrating, and upon his head he wore a sort of helmet which covered his face, and in which there were two small bull's eyes, whereby he was enabled to see. During the exhibition he remained under the water nearly twenty minutes.

A MUCH-WIVED MAN

PUBLIC ADVERTISER

September 28 1769

A few days ago died at Chelsea, aged 90, Mr. Henry Tetop, formerly a coach master and stable keeper, worth 12,000 pounds. The Deceased had married 13 wives, the last of whom had died five months ago In the 46th year of her age.