![]() He made one or two ineffectual attempts but without being able to succeed. He was then lowered, so that he could easily get his feet as far as the the bodies of the deceased, but the smell was so offensive, and the so affected him, that he became faint, and he was certain that if he had not been instantly drawn up, he must have shared the fate of the others. He offered to go down, but took the precaution to have topes affixed to his person, so that he might be pulled up in case of need. William Thomas King, the late gravedigger of the parish, said he was passing by the gate when he was told by Mrs Fleetwood what had happened. The deceased had been employed as a grave-digger about six months, and was, she should think, 53 years of age. On such occasions they (the deceased, and his predecessor King) were in the habit of burning straw, and using other means, to dispel the impure, and then going down. Witness knew of instances wherein the gravediggers could not go down a grave owing to the foulness of the air but she was not aware that the fact had been made known to the churchwarden. The practice of digging deep graves had been adopted by order of the churchwardens five or six years ago. It was not the custom to put any earth between the coffins in those graves, except in case where the persons died of contagious diseases and in that case some slaked lime, and a thin layer of earth, were put down to separate them. Such graves as these were kept open until there 17 or 18 bodies interred in them there was only the body of a still-born infant in the one in question. The grave was what is called a pauper's grave. The grave was what was termed a deep grave and had been opened for about four weeks. She instantly gave an alarm, and Mr Cheeper and other persons were soon on the spot. Mrs Mary Fleetwood stated that she was the daughter of Philip, the sexton, and her father not being well on that morning it was the duty of Oakes to ring the chimes at half-past 10 o'clock, and she finding that he had not done so, went to look for him, and ultimately proceeded to the grave, where she saw him lying at the bottom. William Mallin deposed that he and the deceased Luddett, who was a friend of his, were accidentally passing by the churchyard, when they heard that a man was suffocated in a grave, and Luddett volunteered to descend the ladder. Mr Davies, a member of the Society of Friends, residing in Churchpassage, corroborated the last witness, and said, that he was on the spot, and that every exertion had been used to get up the bodies. In modern times, St Botolphs finds itself the subject of a different kind of overcrowding King, the former gravedigger, made two or three ineffectual attempts to descend, but so foul was the air that he was obliged to be drawn up again, and it was full 25 minutes or half-an-hour before the bodies were taken up by means of a hook attached to a rope.Įvery possible exertion had been made to recover the bodies, and the conduct of the medical gentleman, Mr Jones, who promptly attended, was beyond all praise. On reaching the bottom of the grave witness called out to him to place the ropes under the arms of Oakes, and the instant he stooped down to raise the head of Oakes he appeared as if struck with a cannon ball, and fell back with his head in a different direction to his fellow sufferer, and appeared instantly to expire. A ladder was instantly procured, and the deceased young man, Luddett, who with several others had by this time been attracted to the spot, instantly volunteered to descend to the assistance of Oakes. Mr Edward Cheeper, the master of the workhouse, stated that about 11 o'clock, while passing through Churchpassage, Aldgate, he heard the loud screams of a female in the churchyard, and he instantly hastened to the spot, and looking into a grave, about 20 feet deep, at the north side of the churchyard, he saw the deceased grave-digger, Oakes, lying on his back, apparently dead. Friday evening an inquest was held in the committee- room at the workhouse of the parish of St Botolph, Aldgate, on the bodies of Thomas Oakes, the grave-digger belonging to Aldgate Church, and Edward Luddett, a fish-dealer at Billingsgate, who came by their deaths on that forenoon, under the following circumstances:
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