Thursday 18 June 2015

The village inn



A case of poisoning

An interesting inquest was held at the Lamb into a mysterious case of poisoning in 1890. Mr John Dew, of Exwick, found his wife Anne dead, early on a Friday morning. He told the Deputy-Coroner, Mr Gould, that at 6pm on the previous evening his wife, who was 51, was laying on the bed when he came home from work - he said to her "Why don't you get up and do some mangling?" She replied that she would very soon. At 10pm, still on the bed undressed, she requested a cup of tea. He took her the tea, of which Mrs Dew drank half and then told her husband she wanted to go to sleep, so he left her. Mr Dew slept downstairs that night and the next morning at a quarter to six, Mr Dew went to see his wife and found her quite dead. Mrs Dew's body was was on her side, on the bed – her eyes were dilated, and she was black around the mouth and nose, possible signs of poisoning. He told the coroner that his wife was in the habit of drinking alcoholic liquors. By the bed were two bottles and a glass – the bottles were labelled as containing liniment which his daughter used to apply to her legs. Mr Dew had no reason to think his wife had committed suicide. The Dew's two sons gave evidence, stating they did not think their mother had been intoxicated that evening. Louisa Bond, of Exwick, called in to Mrs Dew with some mangling that evening, and stated that Mrs Dew was complaining of feeling very cold, but was not intoxicated. The contents of one of the bottles and glass was found by a chemist to contain ammonia and belladonna. Dr Vlieland also gave evidence and recalled that six months previously he had Mrs Dew taken into hospital after she had taken Keating's insect powder mixed in a cup. The coroner stated that death was caused by taking belladonna, but that there was no evidence that it was accidental or deliberate.




the village inn

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