Victorian inquest paused over doubt Leigh fisherman was dead

During the Victorian era this fear reached fever pitch and clever feats of engineering were sought to comfort people.

‘The safety coffin’ was one such reassurance. It gave its occupant the ability to escape from their tomb in the event they were actually alive when they were laid to rest.

Bells housed above ground were connected to strings attached to the body’s head, hands and feet.

The idea was if the bell rang the cemetery watchman would insert a tube into the coffin and pump air using bellows until the presumably panicky person inside could be safely evacuated from their grave. That’s after the poor cemetery watchman came round from most likely passing out in horror at such an extraordinary event!

The problem was, however, due to the process of natural decay, a swelling corpse could activate the bell system leading to false beliefs those buried inside were alive.

Despite its popular use during Victorian times there is no record of a safety coffin saving anyone. Other ways to ensure someone was definitely dead was to pull or pinch their tongue, scrape their skin with prickly brambles, blow smoke up their nether regions..the list goes on.

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For Leigh fisherman James Osborne, when he died in 1878 there was some doubt about whether he had 100 per cent departed this earth.

The verification method used was to perform a live autopsy on him. After all, if he was simply in some death-like slumber surely he’d wake up?

Fortunately James was indeed dead as the thought of the fellow waking up while being sliced open would surely have sent him hurtling full throttle into the afterlife anyway.

His bizarre story unfolded late in November of 1878.

About a week after James Osborne had died on board a fishing smack an inquest was held into his death at the Bell Inn in Leigh.

The 58-year-old fisherman had died while out shrimping in the Thames off the coast of Grays in Thurrock.

Osborne, who had never married and according to the 1871 census was living in Hill Villas in Leigh, appeared to be fine while out on the boat, until his crewmate noticed his eyes looks strange and he began to stagger around.

Within minutes Osborne had collapsed and fallen down the boat hold - a depth of three feet. But he recovered from this and clambered back up again. Yet before long he collapsed again, this time in a heap on the deck.

At the inquest into Osborne’s death, his crew mate William Gowen, also of Leigh, was called to give evidence.

He gave an account of the drama to the jury and the coroner: “I was with him in a boat, we were shrimping in the Thames, off Grays,” he said.

“I first noticed, while we were driving along the river with nets overboard in the morning, the deceased appeared giddy and staggered as we stood on deck.

“I asked him what was the matter but he never answered. I asked him to go below but he did not, but staggered again and fell into the hold.

“I went down to him and helped him to get up, and asked him to remain below, for fear he should fall again, but he returned on deck.”

After Osborne’s final collapse on the boat Gowen said “His face remained unchanged, but his lips were black and his eyes closed. I tried to get him to speak, but he could not.

“I had sailed with him for nine months but never heard him complain or knew him to have any illness but rheumatism.”

The boat immediately sailed off to Gravesend to get medical attention for Osborne. There it was determined he had died and so his body was brought back to Leigh.

At the inquest George Francis Jones, a surgeon from Southend, described to the jury how he was aware of Osborne’s medical history: “I attended the deceased nine or ten months ago and have attended him professionally for years past,” he said.

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“Ten months ago he suffered from an affection of the heart and from defective circulation. I think the heart affection caused death, but it must have been caused by a brain affection, probably rapture of a vessel and as the blood oozed he got worse, lost his speech and died.”

It was here that the inquest took a bizarre turn. The foreman of the jury, who likely had seen the body and knew Osborne, said he and several other members of the jury were not at all certain that Osborne was dead.

They were keen for Dr Jones to go and, basically, double check!

The foreman of the jury said Mr Osborne seemed “as life-like as ever” to him and that he was aware of siblings of Osborne in the past having experienced fits where they had appeared dead but were very much alive. He said his had seen Osborne’s siblings “in a state of torpor for hours”.

Of course, their prime concern was that Osborne could be put in the ground while still breathing but in some sort of death-like trance.

The coroner, William Codd, said he was ‘ready to guarantee’ that the man was dead but did concede it was possible for a someone to lie in such a state for weeks or even months. Therefore he allowed Dr Jones to go and examine the body.

Dr Jones went off to perform an examination of Osborne’s body, and on his return to the inquest declared that ‘as near as he could say the man was dead’.

That wasn’t particularly comforting to anyone and because there was still an element of doubt Dr Jones suggested actually performing a post-mortem on the body just to be sure. The foreman of the jury and the coroner agreed and adjourned the inquest.

The proceedings were halted for an hour while Dr Jones sliced open James Osborne.

Upon the inquest resuming, Dr Jones told the inquest “yes he’s definitely dead”. Osborne, he said, turned out to have ‘chronic congestion of the brain’ and was showing signs of meningitis. He was most likely unconscious for some time before he died, Dr Jones explained.

The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence and James Osborne was finally allowed to be laid to rest.

Within a few weeks his father - also called James Osborne and also a well known Leigh fisherman – would be dead too. The whole saga had proved too much for him.

The Osborne family have been fishermen in Leigh for generations and continue to be so today.

Thomas George Osborne, possibly the nephew or cousin of James, started Osborne Bros in 1880 just two years after the inquest palava.

He sold cockles from Cockle Shed Row in Old Leigh, where the cockle processing factory and fishmonger’s are now located.

Coincidentally, just days before the James Osborne inquest rigmarole an unlucky gravedigger from Essex actually did get buried alive!

The gravedigger, who was named Palmer, was also a clerk and sexton of his parish church in Dagenham. He died a horrendous death while digging a grave in the churchyard.

When Palmer’s young daughter went to the churchyard to fetch her father home for dinner she could not see him anywhere.

She did however, hear groaning coming from beneath the grave that her father had been digging. He had fallen in and become trapped by the earth.

The 10-year-old daughter ran to the vicarage and told the vicar who, along with his coachman and others rushed to the spot and proceeded to frantically remove the earth.

They spent 30 minutes trying to release Palmer who was trapped by one and a half tonnes of earth, but when they finally pulled him out, he was already dead.

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A few years later, in December 1893, a similar incident occurred but this time it was an ill-fated Essex rector who was buried alive.

The Reverend Morten Frewen Lord, rector of Leaden Roding near Dunmow, was excavating his vicarage garden and was in the process of removing some loose earth when he fell down a nine foot well.

The clergyman had been connecting a well at St Michael’s Church to a nearby moat and was working by lantern-light when the well fell in and buried him nine feet below the surface. Rev Lord, who had been at the church since 1884, was tragically stuck in the well, in agony, for hours until his wife found him and alerted the authorities.

Locals ran to help and what was described as “a superhuman effort” was made to pull him out, but it was too late and he succumbed to his injuries. He was only 45 years old and it was said his death cast “a terrible gloom over the district”.

In 1935 William Cartwright, aged just 27, suffered a similar death when he was buried alive while carrying out work on an extension Brentwood Mental Hospital.

A deep pit had been dug for the erection of a large water tower to be built. Cartwright, who was from Blackmore near Brentwood, was working at the bottom of the pit when the timber supports collapsed on top of him.

The sides of the pit caved in and he was buried under several tons of earth.

Workmen made frantic efforts to save him but it was 30 minutes before they could get to him. His body had been fatally crushed.

Before we dismiss the actions of the jury at the James Osborne inquest as perhaps ‘over the top’ we should remember that it was not uncommon for Victorian and even Edwardian doctors, with their limited scientific knowledge and equipment, to pronounce somebody dead prematurely.

This could lead to the unfortunate person being buried alive.

In 1908 this actually happened. A woman named Carton from Tonbridge in Kent had a narrow escape when just before her coffin was about to be screwed down, her husband – at the last moment – discovered that his wife’s cheek was warm.

A doctor was immediately summoned and Mrs Carton was taken to hospital where she ended up making a full recovery.

Her account of the drama will send shivers down the spine of those with taphephobia- the fear of being buried alive.

She said she was aware of everything that went on around her during the time she was believed to be dead but was totally unable to move or speak.