Death came as a Surprise

[elsinore]

My maternal great-grandmother lived in Darlington for most of her life, raising four boys with her labourer husband and spending the last 33 years as a widow. Her granddaughter lived with her for the last 10 or so years. She died aged 87.

The death certificate was issued after a coroner's inquest.

Cause of death: Apoplexy, accelerated by neglect, filth and want of proper care.

Not what any of us ever want to read.

Peter

[Sue Mackay]

My grandfather, the youngest child, left home the day after his mother's funeral and emigrated to South Africa. He had apparently quarreled with his father over the way his mother had been expected, despite being ill, to keep providing the meals and doing the housework.

Cause of death: Uterine cancer and exhaustion.

[JackieC]

I have a gx3-grandfather whose COD was 'Accidentally strangled' in the stables of a Pickering pub in 1849. I found a newspaper report of the inquest, which related that he was seen by the groom heading to the stables to drink off an alcoholic stupor 'as was his habit'. The following morning he was found dead, his head tangled in a halter about a foot off the ground.

The report said that the inquest was held 'over the body' - does that mean that the corpse was there for all to see?