The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-10-04 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY DEATH OF A MISER.

On Tuesday last an aged man, whose appearance betokened
the most abject state of human wretchedness, was brought to
the London Hospital, labouring under a sudden and violent at-
tack of hernia. When led to the ward, and stripped for the
purpose of being put to bed, he took the greatest pains and cau-
tion in taking off his clothing, if such a parcel of the most filthy
rags could be so called, and expressed the utmost solicitude to
have them placed under his pillow. Shortly after his admission
he was visited by Mr. Scott, one of the surgeons of the b..Pitalt
and that gentleman, after-examtnlngTinn, and perceiving -the
serious nature of the injury, at once decided, as the only chance
of preserving life, that an operation should be immediately per-
formed. The- patient most willingly assented, and at two o'clock
in the afternoon Mr. Scott performed the operation in the most
skilful manner; but from the extreme age-of the patient (83
years) and his emaciated state of body, as well as his shattered
constitution, he gradually sank, and expired in a few hours after.
Just as the operator had finished, the neeeased, finding him-
self much weaker, expressed a most. anxious wish to, see the
clerk of the institution, and on his being brought to the bed-
side, he requested that that gentleman would get pen, ink, and
paper, as he wished him to write out his will. This was done,
and on the clerk a second time. approaching the bed-side, the
deceased drew from his mouth nine half sovereigns, which he
must have had there during the performance of the operation,
and handed them to him. -He then appeared very uneasy, and.
though the act must have given him great pain, he raised him-
self to nearly an upright position in the bed. He then com-
menced searching through the bed-clothes, and after some time
seeing a tenth half sovereign among them, and which it ap-
peared had fallen froth his mouth, he made a dash with his hand
at it, and caught it with the same avidity that a hawk would a
sparrow, and handed it to the clerk. He then called for a knife,
and cut froui his tattered and filthy garments 96 more half-so-
vereigns, snaking altogether £53, and acknowledgments for
nearly £-100 placed to his account in the Bank of England, and
a bond of annuity for £67 per annum.
A will, according to his dictation, was then written. In the
first place he bequeathed three sovereigns to the nurse of the
ward in which he was, and-two servants of the Institution who
had attended him ; he left a sovereign to the beadle of Bethnal-
green, who brought him to the Hospital; he directed that £5O
should be expended on his funeral, and the remainder he left to
his nephew, a young titan named Mathews, a gardener, residing
at Cardiff, in Wales. When told that £5O was a large sum to
spend in funeral expenses, and that he could be very decently
interred for ranch less than half that amount, lie replied, that
he had made up his mind that the sum mentioned should be ex-
pended, adding, that he did not wish to be buried as lie lived—
a vagabond. He said that it was at first his wish to have his
body sent for interment to Lincolnshire, but to do the .thiug as
he wished, he felt satisfied that £5O would not be sufficient for
the purpose, and therefore he had determined on being buried
in Whitechapel church. When asked if there was any person
whom he wished, or would name to follow him to the grave?
He replied,nut ; that any one who wished might, and if no one
did, it was his wish thatiu lieu there should be plenty of horses,
so that the £5O might be expended. The only part of his his-
tory disclosed by the deceased was, that lie had formerly been
a sailor, that his name was Samuel Draper, and that for his ser-
vices he enoed a sml ension of E 7 er annum. The bod
of the deceajseyd still remains at the hospital to wait the arrivaly
of his nephew, who has been written for by the governors of the
hospital, who wish him to be present at his interment.