Body Exhumed at Chesterton, Cambridge When Neighbours Started Rumours it was Murder!

I love reading old newspapers and finding strange events.  Just this week I found a body that'd been exhumed at Chesterton, Cambridge, in 1881.... so I had to read on and then do a little "outline research" to find out what happened!

The story begins before 1881, as Joseph and Harriet met and married in 1868, having four children, all born in Chesterton.  But this story of a part of Joseph's life hit the newspapers in late September 1881 when a body had been exhumed from St Andrew's churchyard in Old Chesterton, Cambridge.  What caught my eye was that I had a LOT of family living there at the time, so was intrigued to read on as my great-great grandmother/grandfather would've been of a similar age and so would've known this couple, who lived at High Street, Chesterton.

It was on 14 August 1881 that Joseph Doggett, husband of Harriet Doggett, died at home, aged just 38 years.  He was buried on 17 August 1881 in St Andrew's churchyard.  Harriet Doggett was about three years younger than Joseph and at the time of his death she had four children by him.

However, when Mrs Harriet Doggett attended church just a few weeks later with a 'new man' the tittle tattle and rumours started.  Such an explosive rumour was built up that one local resident even sent anonymous letters to the local Coroner suggesting to him that the late Joseph Doggett had been poisoned!  The rumour was that Harriet had put something in his tea - and one resident even telegraphed distant newspapers to inform them of a "supposed murder near Cambridge".

A Coroner has the power to order an exhumation only where he has received information that the death was not due to natural causes. A reasonable suspicion it wasn't natural causes could be sufficient.  Exhumations are not common, they are an exception.

So, up Joseph came, bless him.

The Coroner, Mr CW Palmer, held an inquest at the Union Workhouse, with a jury of local people from New Chesterton.  He started by telling them that it was important that they only listened to the evidence given in the inquest and to set any rumours aside.  The Coroner also told the people present that he'd received anonymous letters and he hoped they would not bother themselves, or the Coroner, again as any future letters would be ignored.

Giving evidence were Edward Reader, Sexton of St Andrew's Church - he had buried Joseph on 17 August and exhumed him on 17 September 1881. He confirmed that the body he exhumed was the same one he'd buried the previous month.

Dr Anningson of Grantchester and Mr GE Wherry carried out the post-mortem.  Dr Anningson gave his evidence of the examinations they performed and their conclusions.  An ulcer they found was sufficient to have been the cause of death. He said he'd discovered nothing to show that death had been from anything but natural causes. He also noted that Joseph had a weak heart.

Mr Wherry then stood and said he agreed with the findings of Dr Anningson and that a perforating ulcer in the stomach is a well recognised disease and that, from what he saw, Joseph Doggett must have had this problem for some time.

Harriet Doggett was asked for her evidence.  She said that Joseph was a brewer's labourer and had first fallen ill on the Friday before he died (Friday 12 August).  Harriet had been out at work and when she came home at about 7-8pm Joseph was in bed and told her he had diarrhoea.  Harriet sent somebody to Dr Waller's to get some medicine, which she gave to Joseph. Joseph said he'd been shaking, so Harriet made him some hot beer.   On the morning of Saturday 13 August Harriet went to work, leaving Joseph in bed; she was at work all day, returning again in the evening.  Joseph was up and sitting in a chair when she returned - and he said he had left the house in the afternoon. He had taken some of the diarrhoea medicine that morning.  On the Friday evening he said he was feeling better.   Harriet went to the Doctor for more medicine and the Doctor said he'd come to see him if he got much worse.

Harriet and Joseph went to bed about midnight and she was awoken in the night to find Joseph getting undressed - he said he'd been outside in the yard.  She got up and lit a fire to make a Linseed Poultice.  Joseph kept going downstairs another 2-3 times and Harriet found it hard to get him to stay in bed.  Joseph died in Harriet's arms, before she could get him to bed.  She said he'd been wandering and saying he wanted to do his work.  Harriet said she hadn't realised he was so ill and if she'd have known she'd have gone for the Doctor.

Joseph died at about 3am on the morning of Sunday 14 August.

No Doctor had seen Joseph for some time.  Dr Ransom hadn't seen him for 6-8 weeks, yet he issued the death certificate to Mrs Allman when she asked for it.  Mrs Allman helped Harriet to lay out the body.

There was some discussion over how the Death Certificate had been obtained and it appeared that the Doctor shouldn't have just written one out and handed it over.  But, the Coroner was happy that nobody was covering anything up and that the Doctors involved were honourable professionals, so he simply rebuked them over their slackness in writing out a death certificate so readily.

The Coroner didn't call any further witnesses and asked the Jury to consider just two points:

1. What was the cause of the man’s death?
2. Whether any person had done any act about which would render him or her responsible to the law 

He said he'd asked two Doctors to carry out the post-mortem since the Death Certificate had been written without Dr Ransom seeing the patient.  He also noted that it was a matter of extreme regret that Dr Ransom had written out the Death Certificate without seeing the patient before he died, which was unquestionably a want of judgement on his part, but the Coroner was sure it wouldn't happen again.  In the event, what Dr Ransom wrote on the certificate matched what the patient had presented with 6-8 weeks prior to his death.

They found that Joseph Doggett died of natural causes.

Poor Harriet, what a horrible last month she must've had.  So what happened next?

It seems that Harriet, widowed and with four children by Joseph, remarried in 1882, to John Norfield, a man about 13 years older than her.  They then had a couple of children together.  John died in 1911, aged 75, and Harriet died in 1919, aged 70.  Both are buried in St Andrew's Churchyard, Chesterton.

As I said earlier, my great-great-grandparents were also living in High Street, Chesterton, at the time of Joseph's death.  And, with the aid of the Census returns of 1881 I'm off now to find out how many doors away they were!  I wonder what my GG-grandparents made of it, which side of the fence they sat on.