Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1868-01-31 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

DESTITUTION AND SUICIDE.  On Saturday afternoon an inquiry was held at the Crown Tavern, High-street, Shadwell, by Mr John Humphreys, coroner, relative to the suicide of Mary Yeats, aged 30. Charles Yems, 6, Plough-alley, Wapping, deposed that he was a general dealer, and that the deceased was his wife. He last saw her on Monday afternoon. He had gone to market at eight in the morning, and he had stayed there till 12 o'clock; but be had so little money-4s 41—and things were so dear, that he could not find anything cheap enough to buy. He came home, and when his wife saw he had nothing, she said, "You have bought nothing !" He said, "My money would not allow me." She cried, "Oh ! what will become of us?" and went away, and he never saw her again. They had gone through great distress; they had four children, and for the last six months he could not make more than 6s a week. Out of the 6s they had to pay is 8d a week rent and is 3d for the hire of the barrow. They could not have lived but for two ladies, who were very good to them. "file coroner asked whether they had got anything from the parish. The witness said he had never applied. The deceased sometimes asked him to do so, but he said to her always, "Perhaps there will be better luck another day." A juror, who knew Yems, stated that all he said was quite true. The family were very hard-working and well-eonconducted. Mary Yelps, a girl, said that her mother returned to the house at half-past ten o'clock on Monday night, and made the bed and suckled the baby. She asked whether the rent and the barrowmen were paid. She then said she would go and get some fancy shirts, and would sit up all night to make them. She went away and never came back. She used to work at making slop shirts for a penny a shirt. For the better sort of shirts she used to get lid, 11d, and even 21. She had to find her own needles and thread. She could make three or four shirts a day. She used to work fur Mrs Pickering, of Red. Lion-street, Wapping. They used to get no meat sometimes for weeks. They lived on bread and chipping when they could get it. They could not get anything when her father had no work. He was kind to them, and willing to work when he could get it to do. The youngest child was eighteen months iffitness was the eldest. Her mother used often to say to her, "Oh my, Polly, ain't it dreadful I we have got nothing to eat again to-day!" Richard Hamel' proved that he found the body of the deceased in the Thames, near the entrance to the London Docks. She was dressed in clothes that denoted great destitution. The coroner, in summing up, remarked that the story, as told by the witnesses, was one of the saddest of the many sad oues he had to hear from time to time. The life of the poor woman, as she tried to eke out her husband's scanty earnings by making shirts at a penny a-piece, finding her own needles I and thread, was such as well might upset her reason, and cause her in a moment of despair to throw herself into the river. He was informed that the tostimony ot the juror as to the good character and industry of the family was borne out by that of the district visitor. Thejary returned a verdict of "Suicide while in a state of unsound miud through distress." The man nuns was recalled, and asked what he had had to eat that day. He replied," We have not had a bit to eat to-day (it was then half-past two o'clock). If you go to my place, you will had it is so." The little girl was recalled and asked the same question. She said that she had now been taken by a lady as a servant, and she had enough to eat, but her sisters had only a bit of dry bread and her father had nothing. The coroner and the jury made up a small subscription for the family.