The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-12-19 00:00:00

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF A WOMAN-

On Saturday Mr. A. B. Hicks opened an inquiry '3.t
the St. Martin's Vestry Hall ooncerning the death of
Martha Elizabeth Perry, aged 26 years, a single
woman who died at 50, Strand, on Tuesday, under
mysterious circumstances. Mrs. Mahala Perry, a
married woman, living at The Rock, Dawley Bank,
Salop, deposed that the deceased, who was a domestic
servant, was her granddaughter. She came to see
witness on the Thursday after Easter Monday, upon
which day she took a ticket from Opengate Station 10-)
Birmingham. She had just come from Almeria?.
Her parents were dead. Witness never heard frotn
her again. Elizabeth Jackson, wife of William Jack-
son, an auctioneer's porter, said she was the house-
keeper of a private hotel at 50, Strand. On
Nov. 23 the deceased came there and engaged
the top floor front room, agreeing to pay 12s.
a week rent. On the same. evening she said, "I

have brought my naseana to 1001 L uut,
took possession on the following Monday, and the
person she represented as her husband called to see
her in the evening. Tho deceased explained that
her husband was the manager of a restaurant. The
husband never slept there, but he visited her every
day. The deceased was first taken bad on the Thurs-
day after she took the room, and she went out for
tht, ostensible purpose of going to see Dr. Ryan, in
Drury-laue. On the Sunday night the deceased was
much worse, and Dr. Watkins was sent for, and pre-
scribed for her. During Monday night witness found
her sitting on the stairs holding a greyish porder,
and in response to her request witness gave her a
spoonful of jam, in which she took the powder. Early
on Tuesday the deceased asked for some laudanum to
induce sleep, but witness had none. At ten o'clock
the same morning witness went up and found her
lying on the floor of her room in her night-dress,
quite dead. The supposed husband called during the
day, and was informed of the woman's death. The
man was then in court. (The person referred to here
said his name was Frederick Middleton.) Witness,
resuming her evidence, said she subsequently received
a letter, the signature to which was undecipherable.
in which the writer said: "Although you were led
to believe this was my wife, it was not. I know
nothing of her, or where she came from, or who she
might be. I was told she was married, and that her
husband was in Africa constructing the railway. Herl
name is, as she told me, Parry. That is all the in.
formation I can tell you." Dr. Charles Stewart
Watkins, of King William-street, Charing-cross, said
he first attended the deceased at 10 p.m on the
inst., when he found that she had been under medical
treatment for a rheumatic cold, and had had het
joints painted with iodine. She complained of heti
throat. On the Bth inst. he was summoned to th
house, and found her lying dead on the floor. Sh
was in her nightdress, and had a piece of red flannel
and a boa round her neck. She had been dead about
two hours. Witness made a post-mortem examina-
tion. The larynx and trachea were healthy, but
the swallow he discovered marks of irritation and
inflammation. The stomach was much inflamed.
There was nothing in the shape of disease to account
for death. The Coroner: In your opinion, was death
due to the action of some irritant poison? Witness:
Yes. Coroner: I have ordered the contents of the
stomach to be sealed up. Dr. Watkins, in reply to
another question, said he was not in a position to
state what was the cause of death. The Coroner said
he would have to apply to the Home Secretary for an
order on the Government analyst to make the neces-
sary analysis, and the inquiry was accordingly ad-
journed for three weeks.