The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-01-08 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

(From the Bury Post.]

On Monday last an inquest was held at the Guildhall in this
J town, before J. P. Case, Esq the Coroner, and a highly-respect-
able Jury, to inquire into the cause of the death of .lames Gobbing,
which took place on the previous evening.
The Jury having viewed the body at the house of the deceased,
in Angel-lane—
Ann Jermain was the first witness called. She stated that she
had been housekeeper to the deceased for four years. On Christ.
ma Eve (between six and seven, she thought ), she went with him
to the Three Kings Inn for five quarts of beer, which had been
given to him by the butchers as Christmas boxes. (He filled the
office of Inspector of Hides for this town.] As they were ...cling
in, they met a man in a light great coat at the door, who said,
"Ah Cobbing, ru have got your housekeeper with you ;" to
which he replied, ' Yes, I have;" and upon the person adding,
" Mind and take care of her," he retorted, " Whether I do or de
not, what's that to you, you humbug ?" The man then seized
him by the collar, and, the witness thought, knocked hint down,
for he tell as if he were struck. This was outside the door, across
the passage into the house. Gobbing got up, and the man seemed
to be gang away. hut he returned, and, stepping up to the de-
ceased, said. " What ! do you say lam a humbug?" Gabbing
answered, " Yes, you are." The man then shored him down, and
whilst he was on the ground, went to him, and put his hand out
as if he were going to pull :.ira about. She (the witness), was
frightened, and saw no more. The man went away, and when
Gobbing got up, he said, " How bad my thumb is.' They then
went in for the beer; they had a pitcher of their own, and a can
which they borrowed at the Woolpack. Gobbing carried both
!tome. When they got home she saw his thumb ; it looked a very
bad wound. It was in the under part of the thumb, hut :here
were two marks on the upper side, as if two teeth had tone in.
The eats they borrowed had a good deal of blood on it. He had
hurt his thumb some time before with a hammer, but it had been
well several months. That wound, she thought, was on the top
of his thumb. Ile went out that night and ittewed his thumb to
several persons, but no medical man saw it then. Witness dressed
it, and they went to bed between nine and ten. Cobbing passed a
very restless night, the wound being very full of pain.
Cross-examined.—The scuffle might last five or six minutes, or
perhaps not more than four. Nobody paased during the time,
though it was market day, and the Aim happened in the market
place. She did not see Gobbing put out his arm towards the man's
face, which she thinks she must have seen had he done so. Cob-
Ding was not so drunk but he could stand : he had a had little beer,
certainly. She thought the wound looked like a bite, beano. Gob-
bing said it was bitten : there were little marks near the bone, ea
if from teeth. She did not see the blood on the can till some days
after, when the deceased said it was from the bite.

M. J. Cottingharn, surgeon, deposed that the deceased went
to him on Christmas Day, and %hewed him an injury on the thumb
of his left hand, which he said had been severely bitten the night
before. When witness saw it, the part was at that time, only a
few hours after the accident, in estate of gangrene or approaching
mortification, which was rapidly communicating itself to the hand
and arm. There were marks or indentations on the upper part of
the thumb also. He gave directiais for it to be dressed by his bro-
ther, but said it was of no use, as nothing yea to be done for it.
Being ill he did not see the deceased again. He told him it was •
desperate cue.
Cross-examined.—He should not have known the wound was
from a bite, had he not been told, in consequence of the vesication
of the part. There were blue bladders formed. It was a counnson
occurrence for death to ensue from accidents to the fingers in con-
sequence of a nerve being injured, but it would not always bethe
can: much depended on the state of the constitution. He had no
doubt that the injury to the thumb was the cause of his death, and
the rapidity of the mortification was attributable to his bodily
habit; but the same effects might have been produced by the intro-
duction of the virus of a putrid skin, if he had injured his
thumb in marking it; or by a violent blow against a wall or a
Met.

Mr. Geo. Hubbard deposed that he was called in on the Tuesday
following, and found the thumb in a state of approaching mortifi-
cation. There were two black spots on the upper part of the
thumb, and the skin was a little broken ; the spots looked like the
marks of teeth, but the serious wound was underneath. On
Friday a locked jaw came on, which terminated his existence on
Sunday evening.
f:ross-examined—Witness apprehended danger when he first saw
the deceased, and utterly lost hope of him on Friday ; he thought
there might be some little chance on Thursday. The mortification
spread too rapidly to allow of amputation. A blow from a ham-
mer might have produced the same effects.
Mr. Hector Macintyre, assistant to Mr. Hubbard, deposed that
when he first saw the hand on Wednesday (the 31st) it wan in a
complete state of gangrene. He saw the patient two hours before
his death, and toll bon there was no hope of his living four hours.
Witness asked him if he still adhered to the opinion that his death
I was occasioned by a bite, as he had deposed. He replied that he
did, and if witness had the least doubt, he would swear it upon the
Bible.

Mi.: W'ing, attorney for the family of the deceased, now pro-
posed to put in a deposition taken on the Thursday by a Magis-
trate ; but

,
Mr. Leech contended that the dying declaration of the man
could not be connected with any previous deposition, and the depo-
sition in question was not received.
Mr. Macintyr• being re-examined, said—The deceased did not
at this last time mention any name: at the time the deposition was
taken he could not suppose he was dying; for he himself (111 r. AL)
saw no realign why he should not recover, if the gangrene was
checked. •

ilVM.Cobbing, son of the deceased, deposed—That within an
hour and three-quarters of his father's death, he asked him if he
had any doubt that Barham was the person who bit his thumb. He
replied, " As I hope to enter into the kingdom of Heaven, I have
no doubt—l'm surprised at your asking me, now you see I'm in a
dying ►tate—l'm surprised at your troubling menow. when I have
told you so often before. Let medic in peace." lie did not say it
was old Charles Barham ; but he had told him so several times be-
fore. At six o'clock on Sunday morning he said he was in such
agony he could not hold it lung, and witness then asked him to tell
the truth of the circumstance between Barham and him. His father
then gave the same detail as the first witness, and said that Barham
bit his thumb he saw his face under the lamp, and could not be
mistaken for he had known him above forty years. At the last
conversation his brother-in-law was present, but could not hear
what passed, as, from the state of the jaw, his father was only able
to whistler in the witness's ear.

The Rev. H. Basted deposed that he was with Cobbing on Sa-
turday night, and told him, what he seemed to be aware of, that he
was a dying man. Ile then asked him, as he might be called
upon, to detail the whole circumstances, and the deceased related
the same story as other witnesses had deposed to, saying that
Charles Barham bit his thumb, and that he could not be mistaken,
for he had known him forty years, from which the witness con.
eluded it was the elder Barham. Ile said he was a pig jobber in
Raingate-street.
Cross-examined.--He could not be certain that the deceased did
not say Barnard. LThe person alluded to is called by both names,
it seems.]
The hammer used in marking hides was then produced, and the
ends are certainly indented not unlike teeth.
Mr. Dalton surgeon, alt posed that he was ell in last Saturday
night. Mortification and a locked jaw had taken place. The
hammer produced might have inoculated the thumb with virus
from a putrid body, and produced the szniptoms.
Mr. Sturley Nunn deposed, that on Christmas Eve he was with
Mr. Barham at the Three Kings, about some pigs, and left him
there about five. On Friday morning he saw Cobbing in Angel-
lane, and seeing his arm in a sling, asked if he had met with an
accident. Ile replied, "No accident, Sir; I went up to the Three
Kings for sonic beer, and some young man (or young fellow)
knocked me dawn in a scuffle, and bit my thumb half off."
Mr. Fred. Nunn went to the Three Kings about five on Wed-
' nesdayevening, and saw there Mr. Barham, sem, who wens.emsy
about a quarter of an hour after. A person named Baker followed
him almost immediately. Barham did not return any more.
H. Pearson... landlord of the Tia.ie King*, tieposetitimt atas.
Barba; ;hi; tiner was at his house on Christmas Eve. Cobbing
came about six o'clock for five quarts of beer; witness matt him in
the passage. To the best of his knowledge Barham was then in
I the bar, which witness had just left. Ile would not speak posi-
tively. He gave Cobbing the beer. A scuffle could not have
taken place at the door between the time of witness leaving the!
bar, when he met Cobbing in the passage, and the time of his le-
turn, without his hearing it.
James Bird deposed, that about six o'clock he saw Cobbing, and
he told him he was then going to the Three Kings for the five
quarts of beer. Ile saw him again coming back, and he said
" some people" had ill-treated him. Ile was very much in liquor;
was alone, and had nothing in his hand. lie went through the
Traverse. Witness had heard a scuffle beyond the Three Kings,
and could distinguish Cobbing's voice; there appeared to be u
number of perms. They were above the Three Kings, opposite
Mr. Thompson's shop door, and not in the direction Barham
would go towards home.
John Baker, miller, deposed that he went into the Three Kings
with Barham about five, and staved half an hour. Barham left a
few minutes before him ; and when the witness went out, within
five minutes, he did not ser t'obbing„ nor hear any disturbance.
.Mr. Pearson, being recalled, said Gobbing must have waited two
or three minutes at least for the beer.
John Fakes was assisoult to Cobbing; he hail once known him
strike his thumb (last May) with the hammer in marking skins,
and had often told him of the danger of using a block without a
handle. (In Christmas-day Cobbing told him Charles Barham had
bit his thumb olf the night bettor, and it was about seven o'clock;
to which witness replied, that could not be, for Barham was at the
Three Cmwna soon after six.

At eight o'clock the proceedings were adjourned till next morn-
ing, when
Nathaniel Warren, of Bury, hosier, deposed that on Christmas
Eve, about a quarter before seven, he was standing by Mr. Bird's
stall, in the Traverse. when the deceased and his housekeeper
passed. After about the time that it could take for emit in walk
to the Three Kings, he heard the noise of voices. and a scuffle as if
between two or three men ; and could, by the light of Mr. Thomp-
goll's shop, distinguish the heads of two indisidttnls. About five
minutes after the noise ceased, he saw Charles Barham catalog
from the Three Kings ; be was sure it was his.
Upon his won-examination, Wittell3 said he could not say that