The Sun.
London, England, 1825-09-03 00:00:00

CORONERS' INQUESTS.

MELANCHOLY INSTANCE OF SUICIDE.
Yesterday morning an Inquest was held at the Greyhoud
Tavern, near the New Church, Kennington-common, before
R. CARTER; Esq., on view of the body of Mr. William
Webb, a respectable wine-merchant, who destroyed himself on
Wednesday night. The Jury, previous to the examination of
witnesses, proceeded• to view the body of the deceased, which
presented dreadful spectacle, the head being nearly blown to
atoms, in consequence of having the contents of a pistol dis-
charged through it. The first witness examined was Jane
Knowlton, who lived in the deceased's service for the last five
years, in Church-row, Lambeth. She deposed, that on Wed-
nesday night, about 11 o'clock, when the family were about to
retire to rest, the deceased called her, and inquired whether the
candle was extinguished in the kitchen. On being answered
in the affirmative, he said, " That's right," and walked back
into the parlour. Witness did not hear any more of him that
night. The following morning, about ten minutes before six
o'clock, on her coming down stairs from her bed-room, she
perceived her master's chamber door open, and being surprised
at the circumstance, she walked into the room, and looking
towards-the bed, discovered that it had not been slept in. She
then called her young master (one of the deceased's sons), and
informed him of the state in which she found the bed-room ;
1 the young gentleman immediately hurried on his clothes, and
they both proceeded over the house in search of the deceased,
t
for who. safety they had the most alarming apprehen-
sions. 1 ving ransacked the house, Mr. Webb was not to
be fount, and they then proceeded to the stable where
they both received a dreadful shock upon seeing him
lying on his back in the middle stall, with the greater
part of his head under the manger. The blood was flowing
from his mouth, and the entire face was so disfigured that not
a feature could scarcely be discerncd. There was a pistol ly-
ing close to his right side, which he had firmly grasped in his
right hand. Witness immediately went for medical assistance,
and a surgeon accompanied her back, who pronounced her
master to be dead: The witness added, that on the 10th of
March last two of her master's sons died, and lie had been in
a low and desponding state of mind from that period until the
time of his death, and more than usually •so during the last
few day ; and from these circumstances it occurred to her, on
finding his bed untouched, that he had destroyed himself,
whilst labouring under a temporary fit of insanity.
Mr. Bryant, the surgeon of Harleyford.:place, Kennington,
deposed, that on Thursday morning, about six o'clock, he was
sent for to attend: Mr. Webb, who he was informed had been
found lying in the stable as described by the witness who pre-
ceded him. Upon examing the body of the deceased; witness
found that life was completely extinct. There was a pistol ly-
ing by his side, which had the appearance of having been
recently discharged. On examining the injuries which were
the immediate cause of the deceased's dissolution, he (witness)
discovered that his upper and under jaws were fractured in a
dreadful manner, and the roof of . the mouth , completely
destroyed by the contents of the pistol which appeared to have
been discharged into the mouth, and which seemed to have
been loaded with a bullet. Upon being interrogated by the
Coroner, Mr. Bryant said that he had known the deceased,
who was a man of great respectability, for several years—that
within the last five or six months past, he had observed in him
a deep.rooted melancholy, so much so, that the moment he
(witness) was called to attend him, he was of opinion that the
deceased had destroyed himself; and from the observations
that witness had made respecting his appearance since the
death of his sons, he had no doubt but that he had destroyed
himself in a fit of temporary insanity, produced by the above
causes.

At the conclusion of the surgeon's evidence, the Jury, which
was composed of highly respectable men, observed that there
was no necessity for
_proceeding in the examination of the un-
fortunate gentleman's son, whose feelings they wished to spare
from thj recital of so melancholy a catastrophe as that. which
had befallen his parent. They (the Jury) were perfectly satis-
fied with the evidence already adduced, as to the state of mind
in which the deceased was when he committed suicide. Some
gentlemen who attended on the inquest addressed the Coroner,
observing, that they had known the deceased in his lifetime,
and that subsequent to the death of his two children they had
observed a total change in his disposition, which, from being
of an agreeable and lively turn,. had changed into that of
gloomy anti melancholy forebodings.
Mr. CARTER observed, that the evidence fully proved the
state of mind in which the deceasedvas-when he committed
sell-destruction.
The Jury, without hesitation, returned a verdict to the fol-
lowing effect That the deceased had destroyed himself
whilst labouring under a fit of temporary insanity."