General Chat

My wife has a Great x Grandmother who died in 1886. Cause of death was - Cerebral softening from blow to head from hand brush by child in play - lived 11 months after. Nice!
Anyway, the death certificate also mentions a Coroner's Inquest held 29 January 1886 by Coroner for Easington Ward Durham. Does anyone know if or how this inquest record can be found? The lady who died had two daughters. One was subsequently shipped off to London and the other instituionalised (for being an idiot from birth!). I'm intrigued. Many thanks for any help that can be given. Chris.

Have you found the family on any census - this may state if the child was "an idiot" - rather unkind expressions in those days. If you would like any census look ups, just post the names, dates and places on this thread.
Kind regards, Liz

Joan and Liz, many thanks for your responses. I foolishly assumed coroner's inquests would be public domain documents, but obviously not. I'll try and track down through local newpapers, although I live some way away from Sunderland where this happened.
Liz, the younger daughter who was an idiot from birth was the census description and not mine. A cruel description it certainly is. On the following census (1901) she was described by the workhouse as an imbecile mute pauper. I was intrigued whether it was this daughter or my wife's great freat grandmother who had dealt the fateful blow with the hairbrush. Chris.

Try asking the local records office in case the inquest reports have survived. I was very fortunate to have copies of two for ancestors in the 1860s / 1870s in Suffolk.

Janet and Joy, many thanks.

You're welcome.
Happy hunting :-)