The Late Thunder-Storm.
The Times, 1824-09-14T00:00:00

(From the Durham County Advertiser.) No case that has come within our knowledge, as resulting from the storm of Thursday, the 2d instant, appears to us so lamentable as that of the late Air. John Pinkney, and we therefore place it first in themelancholy catalogue. Alr. Pipkney was anagenttotheLon. don Lead Company, and emnployed in their mines, near liliddleton, in this county; he was also a local preacher in the Methodist con- nexion, and generally respected. In riding from t!te mines towards the town of Middleton, in Teesdale, in company with Alr. John Elliott, another agent, poor Pinlney and his horse were struck by the electric fluid, anid botlh instantly deprived of life. The fol- lowing particulars of the awfuil eveot were stated before the coroner by lr. Elliott:-Depsnent and John Pinkney were riding in com- pany towards Middleton, in the afternoon of Thursday, the 2d of September instant, about four o'clock in the afternoon ; deponent mounted on amule, and Pinkney (the deceased) on a bay mare. When abouttwomilesfrom iliddleton, athunder-storr.commnenced, which increased till thcy lbed advanced within half a mile of that place, when a remarkably vivid flash of lightning passed deponent's face so onear that he felt its great heat. xiis mule being alarmed, im- mediately scrang torward, and deponent, on looking back fbr de- ceased, saw lhim, together with his mare, lying on the ground. De ionent immediately alighted, and called for assistance, when John Bailes and Jamb Tarn, and a boy or two, came from a neigh. bouring house, and helped to lift deceased up. He appeared to be quite dead, and his mare also. The body of Pin-kney was soon afterwards removed to his owvn house. A short time before he was struck, deceased observed, in allusion to the lightning, that "he had never before scen any thing so bcautiful." [The hat of the unfbrtunate mran was produced before the Jury: it was much torn and jagged in the front of thc crown and brim, and a small pexforation appeared in the back part of the crown, showring that the electric fluid hadl passed through his head. The breast of the mare, it was stated, had a putrid appearance.1 The evidence of UI r. Elliot being deemed conclusive, no other person was examined, and the Jury returned the following verdict t-" TPhat John Pink. ney (thedeceased), on the2dday of Septemberinst., while ridling in comipany with one Joln llUiott, in a thunder-storm, was, by the visitation of God. suddenly struck with eleciric fluid, by aeans whereof lie received a violent shock in his head and diftereut parts of his body, which caused his instant death." Alr. Pinkney las left a widow, far advanced in pregnancy, and five young children, to mourn his melancisoly fate. At Barnard-Castle the poor-house was struck by the lightning, which passed through three or four rooms, the floor of one of which was partly torn up by it , and a girl in the same, or one of the other apartmentn, teceived so violent a shock as to deprive her of thepower of speech for some time afterwards. In the neighSaourhood of Piercebridge, two horses, which were drawing carts tinder the cha-ge of one driver, were both struck down, butsoon recovered. The driver received no injury. Near to MN1iddleton-one.row, a most remarkable instance of miraculous preservation is stated to have taken place. A boy, who had bee glcaning in a corn field, was returning homeward during the storm. mounted on an ass, gnd bearing hsis gleainings on hlis head, when a flash of lightning deprived his steed of its existence, and set the gleaningS on flute, without in any dge on nuyt the boy. ._dge ongijtyt TIlE LATE THIUNDER-STORMr.