Saturday 31 May 1845 (p. 3, col. 2-3) Part 1 THE LATE INQUEST AT GRINSDALE. ----- We published last week a statement of the circumstances attending the death of Mr. John GRAHAM, of Grinsdale, so far as they had been elicited from the evidence given at the Coroner's Inquest, held on Thursday the 22nd inst. We withheld the evidence in extenso from considerations urged by the Coroner and Jury; but as there can now be no objection to its publication, we subjoin it:- Ruth GRAHAM (wife of deceased) was the first witness called: she said-I am the widow of John GRAHAM, and am 69 years old. Deceased was turned 76 years. He died on Tuesday last, at twelve o'clock. Only he and I lived in this house. We have four children,-John (who lives at Kirkandrews), Mary (who is married to John HIND, of Abbey Holme), Sibson (who lives in Grinsdale), and Ruth (married to Mr. CANNELL, of Carlisle). My husband was first taken ill about eleven o'clock on Thursday night. Up to that time he had been going about, but was not to call very well; he complained a little of gradual weakness, but nothing particular-no acute pain, but just in that condition that you might expect in a man of his years-some days better and some days worse. He took his breakfast, dinner, and tea on Thursday. He always had a glass of ale after dinner, and he came in once in the afternoon, and said he was very thirsty, and I got him a glass of ale. His thirst was nothing particular. We had a piece of what we call "neaded" cake to tea, baked on a girdle. It was the only kind of bread we had to tea. I baked it myself and made it. I took the flour from the flour-tub, which stands upstairs. The cake was made of flour and butter, and a little milk and salt: it had no yeast in it. All these things were kept in the dairy. I have some of the same things left: they have never been touched since. None of us was the least worse until supper time. About nine o'clock my husband had some bread and milk. I made the bread myself: it was baked at a neighbour's house: it was what is called "yeasted cake," it had no currants in it, but was made of yeast, flour, and salt butter: the flour was taken from the same place as the flour of which the other cakes were made. It was salted butter that was used, and we have some of it left. My husband went to bed almost immediately after taking his supper, and I went in half an hour. He spoke to me when he went up stairs, but said nothing particular. I did not understand that he was at all poorly till I had been in bed about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. He said he had taken a little bread and milk, that he had not for a long time taken anything after tea, and it had made him sick. He did not get up, but his stomach seemed much affected, and he began to retch. I got him a basin, and he threw-up over the bed side. He continued to vomit much at intervals, but I did not notice how often-perhaps every quarter of an hour. He said his stomach was in a bad way. He did not mention the words "burning sensation." The retching and vomiting lasted till eight or nine o'clock, and he complained of thirst a little during that time. The purging began at six or seven o'clock next morning, but it was not much. He did not drink much during the night. His skin was cool, and he seemed no way heated. I took a small piece of this bread: I broke a small piece off a cake, and ate it, and was also ill in the same way just after he began. Sibson GRAHAM's family were the first to come in after we were ill: the servant, Jane THOMPSON, came about ten o'clock in the forenoon,-she was the first. The vomiting went off by degrees before night on Friday. We both got up, but I was not able to go about my work. He was out, and went up to my son's and milked a cow (we had a cow standing there)-still he was very ill, and he continued very poorly till he died. He did not complain very much of pain, but he was sick, you know, at times. He was sometimes up, sometimes in bed. He took his dinner downstairs on Monday; he went to bed between five and six that evening, and was not out of bed after that. I only baked two or three little cakes. I did not save any of them. Somebody said they were not good-that there was something in them, and they had better be thrown away. It did not strike me, at the moment, that there was any unusual taste, but after I became ill I thought there was a queer taste. Deceased said it agreed badly with him, he wished nothing had got in that shouldn't. He said there was nothing in our house that could hurt anybody, however. My son John from Kirkandrews was in our house on Thursday morning. He came about ten o'clock; he staid a little while here (more than an hour perhaps) and then went to his brother's. He was only in the front part of the house. I was in the kitchen when he came in at the back door. He went into the front kitchen and sat down. I was then in the back kitchen. I sat beside him a good while in the kitchen, and then he got up and went to Sibson's. He was in no other room-I am quite sure of it. He looked into the back-kitchen as he came in, and went out at the front door. I had my bread set at this time; it was only a little piece, and was standing inside a common dibler (dish) which was placed in a set-pot, and covered over with a lid, so that nobody could see it, or know there was such a thing. I am quite sure that during the time my son was in the house it was in that set-pot. [The coroner and some the jurymen here retired to inspect the set-pot, which is on the right hand side of the fire-place.] I cannot remember any one else in particular who was in that day: Sibson's wife was not-she was confined, nor Sibson wasn't. After John left I was down at the well at the bottom of the garden several times getting some water, and was looking after the clothes hanging on the hedge, and I left the door open. My husband was not in before dinner. I took the bread out of the set-pot and worked it up on the table before he came in, and set it upon a stool before the fire. It was after I had done this that I had occasion to go the well, and to the hedge: I was in and out many times. My husband and myself and John were taken ill once before, in February last, shortly after dinner. We had a potato-pot made of salt goose. We became ill in less than an hour after partaking of it, in the same way, vomiting and purging, and all three alike. We all began together. The potatoe-pot was enclosed in a small earthen dish, baked in a little iron oven over the fire, in a little baking dish. We were ill all the afternoon, and Mr. ANDERSON was called in that evening, and gave us emetics. John remained all night, and was very ill indeed. John had not been in our house for a long time before then-not twelve months, hardly a month I dare say. He was here on Tuesday last. Mr. GRAHAM and he were particularly friendly; never had a word in their lives. John always dined with us when he came about dinner time, and often dined with us from time to time; when he came in he got whatever there was in hand. My husband had settled his affairs: I don't think any of them knew it but me; none of them knew. I am sure John did not know till after his death. My husband and the rest of the family were on intimate and friendly terms; he had no ill to anybody, and I don't know that anybody had to him. I do not know who it was that suggested I should put the bread out of the way. Mrs. CANNELL, my daughter, came down on Friday night with her husband. She partook of the same bread; it had been left in the dairy. She staid all night, and was taken poorly. A neighbour woman, Mary ANDREW, was here the same evening; and several others, while we were ill. Joshua ANDERSON, surgeon, Carlisle.-I have known Mr. GRAHAM intimately for thirty years. In consequence of what I heard I came down to see him last Sunday evening; I was not sent for by the family. I had been dining with Mr. STUDHOLME, and he told me Mr. GRAHAM was very ill. I found the deceased labouring under great debility; no other symptom, not any; I could not have had the least suspicion that had taken any poison from what I saw. I did not consider him dying at that time, but the debility was great for his time of life, and I knew he had been gradually declining for a number of years. I saw him the first time between five and six o'clock on Sunday evening, and the next time on Tuesday morning between seven and eight. He was then sinking very fast. There were the usual indications that are always observed in old men dying, but not any symptoms to lead me for a moment to suppose that he was suffering from the effects of acrid poison. It would depend upon the quantity of poison taken whether any symptoms would then be manifested. Had he taken poison he might, after certain consequences had resulted from it, have been left in the condition in which I found him. The CORONER-Is it not possible that the debility might have been produced by his swallowing a quantity of acrid poison ? Witness-I am not aware that it could. When I was sent for on the first occasion I was told he had taken poison, and I found him labouring under violent vomiting and purging, such as you would meet with in violent cases of Cholera. He did not at that time complain of burning in his stomach or throat; there were no symptoms to lead me to conclude whether it was poison or Cholera. If I had had no fore-knowledge I should have treated it for Cholera; but as I had heard he had taken poison I proceeded to evacuate the stomach and bowels. His wife and John were ill at the same time, and John was worse than the others. He could not be feigning, for he was vomiting violently before I gave him the emetic. was more sick than pained, and had a low, irritable, quick pulse. I am quite certain his illness was not assumed. I remained with him longer than the rest, and observed violent paroxysms of vomiting which he could not have feigned if had been playing any trick. Sibson GRAHAM,-son of the deceased-(not upon oath)-I live in Grinsdale, and reside on my father's property. I left his house seven years ago, two or three years after I married. I was not at my father's house at all on Thursday last, but I was on Monday. On Friday morning my father did not come up to my house as usual, and I sent my boy, John, down to see what was the matter. When the boy came back I was out, and my wife went down. I went after twelve o'clock. I found my mother in bed: my father was sitting in the kitchen, complaining of pains in his head and uneasiness in other parts of his body. I asked him how he was, and he said he was no better. I staid a few moments and then left him. I did not return till night. He was not vomiting. When I came in the evening, about nine o'clock, he was in bed. I did not see him. My mother also was in bed. My wife and my sister Ruth were present. I next saw my father on Saturday morning, when I was going to Carlisle; he was sitting in the kitchen. He was not vomiting, but was very ill. I wanted to send for a doctor, but he was not willing. On Monday he told me he thought there was something not good in the bread. I asked him it he thought the bread had done him any harm. He said he did not know, he thought not. I said there had been talk about it, and people thought it had done him harm. I saw John on Monday. I met with him in the fields, and he was in our house about eleven or twelve o'clock. He said he had some intention of going away, in the afternoon, to Newcastle. My mother had been talking about going some time before, but no day had been fixed; John said he was going for two or three days, and that he had business there. I don't know what it was. When he was coming along the road from Kirkandrews that day with me, he said his mother had been talking of going to Newcastle, and he wondered whether she was going that day. I understood from him that he was going to ask her to go with him. This was before we reached Grinsdale. After we parted he came to my mother's, and I went home. When he came to me afterwards, I asked him if he had asked her, and he said yes, and she was not going. He was in the dress he generally wears. He would be at his father's about an hour. There was no family disagreement; he and I were on friendly terms, and he spent the greatest part of his time with me and in the fields. John has been in the habit, during the winter, of coming once or twice every week. I never heard him express the least unkind feeling towards my father; they were always very friendly. After I heard about the cakes on Monday evening, I sent Jane THOMPSON, my servant, for one: she brought it, and I ate about half of it with a pint of ale. I thought I was a little sick through the night, but did not vomit at all. Both the girls partook of it, and were sick. By Mr. WHEATLEY-I ate the cake to give it a fair trial; having heard there was something in it. By Mr. PATTINSON-I might imagine I was sick. By the CORONER-When my father and mother and John were sick before they had been at my house, and I had been reading the newspapers to them. They went home to dinner, and I came to them afterwards. I had not promised to come. I found them ill. They all appeared to be equally affected. My father said he thought they had got something in the potato-pot that was not right. No remark was made by John, to my recollection. He was very poorly; I have no doubt about it. He had not come over by any previous appointment. I asked him that day to stay at my house to dinner, in the hearing of my mother. He said he thought he was coming down here with her; she told him they had a potato-pot baking in the oven. She had told him what they had previously. I had not been here before, that day. The girl ate the cake of her own accord. The girl, Elizabeth NICHOL, who was here when the family was ill the first time, threw the potato-pot upon the dunghill; that dung-hill was removed some time since, within the last week. It was removed yesterday, but my father had taken part of it to plant his potatoes and cabbages; the greatest part of it was used before yesterday. My father was out the next day, after eating the potato-pot. John was out after dinner. About that time Miss NIXON had some poison laid in an adjoining building, for rats. It is forty yards from this house. The potatoes were kept in an out-house. The bit of cake remaining, after I ate a piece, was put into the midden. I went with Mr. ANDERSON to look for it, but it was gone. [to be continued]