The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-10-15 00:00:00

REVERSE OF FORTUNE.

CORONER'S INQUEST.—On Friday an inquest was held
at the Horse and Groom public house, White Hart-lane,
Ratcliff, before Wm. Baker, Esq., on view of the body
of Horatio Phipps, an attorney, aged 65, who, it was
stated, a few years since kept his carriage, but who
died on Wednesday evening, wanting it is said the com-
mon necessaries of life. The jury having been sworn,
proceeded to the lodgings of the deceased to view the
body. It was deposited in a good coffin, but exhibited
all the appearances of death proceeding from starvation.
On the jury returning to the inquest room the following
evidence was produced:
Ml's. Harriett Milner deposed, that on Saturday week
the deceased took an empty room in her house, for
which he was to pay two shillings per week and find his
own furniture. He represented himself as a solicitor,
and said that he was practising with his eldest son, Who
had chambers in the Temple. In the course of the day
on which he engaged the room, he brought some trifling
articles of furniture, but no table or bed, and he slept
en an old pallet placed on the floor. He used to go out
every morning, saying he was going to the Temple on
business, and come at night, when he generally asked
for his candle, and went to bed. The deceased told her
that he had kept his carriage, and had brought up a fa-
mily of eight children, to all of whom he had given an
excellent education. On Saturday night last he came
home about nine o'clock and went to his room as usual,
and did not go out all day on Sunday, or on Monday
niorning, as he was in the habit of doing, and she in
consequence went up to his apartment to see what was
the matter with him; he then complained of illness, and
wished to .have a doctor, but not at the expense of the
parish. He admitted that he was devoid of the means of
proeurtng medical or other assistance, but said his chil-
dren were well able to do so, and he gave her (witness)
the address of his daughter, requesting that she would
send to her to get some assistance. Witness, after pre-
paring some gruel and other necessaries, and giving
them to the deceased, proceeded to the residence of his
daughter, at No. 4, Windsor-terrace, City-road, and on
seeing her, stated the destitute and dangerous state
which her parent was in. She replied that;he could not
afford to relieve him, that she was not in good circum-
stances herself, and had only a single sixpence about her,
but added at the same time that it would he useless to
send him anything, as he would only take it to the pub-
lic house and spend it. She further stated that her bro-
thers were well able to afford their pecuniary assistance,
and gave the address of one of them, who lived in the
City.

furor—Did the daughter appear to be in good circum
stances.

Witness—Yes, she had every appearance of comfort
and respectability. She, witness, then went and saw the
brother at the office of a merchant, in Copthall-buildings,
and told him the object of her visit. He appeared a good
deal affected; bnt said that, as he was out of a situation,
he could not give his father any assistance. His brother,
who he said lived at Hampstead, and was in the receipt of
I:200 per annum, would, he was sure, if she (witness)
called on him, send his father something. Witness said
that, unless some relief was afforded by his family, she
should be obliged to apply to the parish. The young
man told her. not to do this until she saw him in the even-
ing. On returning home she fonnd the deceased so ex-
cessively bad that she felt it to he her duty to apply to the
parish authorities to request that they would do some-
thing for him. She accordingly went to Mr. Wharton,
one of the overseers for the hamlet of Ratcliffe, and told
him of the state in which the deceased was, the refusal of
his family to do anything for him, and requested that he
(Mr. W.) would send the parish doctor to see him, and a
woman to nurse him. Mr. Wharton opened a book, and
asked her for the names and addresses of the children of
the deceased. After taking them down, he said he would
attend to the case on the following day ; but witness told
him that it would then be useless, as the poor man would
be dead; upon which he remarked, " I can't help it; I
can't keep the man alive." Finding that nothing would
be done by the overseer any more than the friends, she
(the witness) endeavoured to get a woman to attend and
nurse the deceased, but she could not get one, and she
attended to him herself until his death, which took place
about six o'clock on the same evening. After his decease
she went in search of his son at Hampstead, hut could
not find him.

Juror.—Are you aware whether the deceased had any
thing to eat on Sunday or Monday morning ?
itness.—l am not. He had no refreshments what-
ever taken in on Sunday, but on Monday I saw a small
pine of bread, an onion, and a small piece of butter in
hi% room. On my first going to his room, I said,
"I fear
,you had nothing to eat yesterday ;" but he
replied, 'Yes, I assure you I had." He appeared to
be a high-spirited and gentlemanly man, and I don't
think he would submit to an application for parish relief.
Juror.—Was there any money found on his person, or
in his apartment of death?
Witness.—Not a farthing, except three halfpence,
which were an the mantel-shelf.
The Coroner here remarked, that he considered it but
justice to Mr. Wharton, whose conduct had been so se-
riously alluded to, that he should have an oppotOnity of
attending before them, so that they might hear 4, expla-
nation he might have to offer; and he would therefore sug-
gest the propriety of adjourning the case to a futuie day.
The Jury concurred it this opinion, and the inquiry
was adjourned to Monday morning.
S'lrirley, the beadle said, that on Monday evening he
received instructions from Mr. Wharton, the overseer,
to visit the deceased, and on his going to the house of
the last witness, he found him (deceased) quite dead, and
he appeared to have been so for an hour.
Mrs. Milner said that it was more than three hours
after she had made application to the overseers before the
beadle came. In reply to a question from a juror, the
Witness said that the son of the deceased, whom she had
seen in the course cf the day, bad called at her house
after the death of his father, but he refused going to
where his body was, or at least did not do so.
The jury were unanimous in their commendations of
the humane,,atient iota cf the witness to the unfortunate
ii'reased.