The Dewsbury Chronicle, and West Riding Advertiser. — 1872-05-11 (Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England)

SUICIDE OF A WOOLLEN MERCHANT AT DEWSBURY.  On Thursday, an inquest was held at the house of Mrs. E. Ambler, Bellevue Hotel, Staincliffe-road, Dewsbury Moor, before Mr. T. Taylor, coroner, and a jury, of which Mr. Seeker was the foreman, touching the death of James Oldroyd, woollen merchant, Dewsbury Moor.  The deceased was discovered suspended by a bell rope to a double hook on the crown arch of a small cellar. On the other hook hung the shank end of a leg of mutton.  After the coroner and jury had viewed the body, the first witness called was  Emma Oldroyd, who said she was the wife of the deceased, James Oldroyd, aged 42, of Staincliffe-road, woollen merchant. He had been low and desponding for a few months back, but she did not know the reason why he had been so. -latterly ho had been worse, but be had attended regularly to his business in a warehouse at Church-street, Dewsbury. About seven in the morning of Tuesday last he went out, and she never saw him afterwards alive. He seemed so easy on Sunday and Monday night that she thought he was much better. He had not been accustomed to' go out so early in the morning, but on this occasion he had to go an errand to Mr. Richard Clarkson's' Heckmondwike-road, Dewsbury Moor. At that time he appeared "all right." Before going out in the morning, she got up and made him some rum with an egg in it. She left home to go to Dewsbury at nine o'clock, and' artived at home again about a quarter-past eleven o'clock. The witness called at his office in Dewsbury, but she was informed that her husband had,not been ; and when she arrived at home nobody had seen him that morning. It would be five minutes after she got home that she discovered him. She was preparing the dinner, and had occasion to go into the cellar for something, when the first thing that she saw was his face. He was almost sat on the ground. She gave an alarm. He had left a pocket-book, but she found no remarks entered in it. The entries were all regular. She expected him to come home to his breakfast, as he had promised to do so, and as he did not, she thought he had gone by the omnibus. They had been married 15 years, but had no children. She had never heard him threaten to commit suicide. He had had no losses in business.  Benjamin Knowles, hand-loom weaver, said that he worked for his father, and lived with him in a house belonging to the deceased. For about a week or so he noticed that the deceased seemed very queer and lowspirited. Mr. Oldroyd was a steady man, and had always seemed to be very comfortable at home with his wife. About 12-30 on Tuesday he was going past the house to go to dinner, when he saw the deceased's wife running out of the house and in again, screaming. He followed her, thinking that there was something wrong, into the kitchen. She said there was somebody in the cellar, but did not say who it was; he thought it was somebody • who was hid in the cellar. On arriving in the kitchen, by the aid of a candle, he could see the deceased hung to the hook in the crown of the arch by a bell-rope. He was dressed in his clothes, and his hat had evidently fallen to the floor. He went and fetched a man named Christopher Auty, who cut him down. The rope was very tight round the neck. Sarah Ann Lister said that she lived in one of the houses belonging to the deceased, on Staincliffe-road. Mr. Oldroyd was rather a nervous man, and had seemed to be out of spirits for some time, particularly of late. The witness saw him the last time on Tuesday, about 20 minutes past eleven, when he was passing into his 'own house. She' was, about an hour afterwards, beckoned to go into the house, where she saw Mr. Oldroyd dead, and sat upon the floor of tbe After hearing the above, the jury found a verdict tliat the deceased hanged himself while of uniound mind.  Six