The Sun. — 1862-09-16 (London, England)

TUESDAY EVENINC4, SEPTCVIBEN 16, 1862.  EX7RAORDINARY CASE OF DETERMINED SUICIDE.-A TRIPLE ATTEMPT.  Dr. Lankester, the coroner for Central Middlesex, held an inquest yesterday at the Swan with Two Necks, Finchley, on the body of William Eade, a postman, who was found dead in a pond at Finchley, under the following distressing circum• stances : Robert Tennant Eade deposed that he was the son of the deceased who was a postman, aged 53 years. His father had been in a desponding state of mind for the last fortnight or three weeks, which had been brought about by something belonging to his clab, which preyed upon his mind. He told him once that he would make away with himself, On Wednesday night last, between nine and ten, the deceased was found in a pond in Mr. Capper's field. The deceased had been ill in bed all day, but got up about three o'clock in the afternoon, and witness saw him go out at the back of the house between seven and eight. In the morning of that day he (deceased) went down stairs about four o'clock in his night shirt, and witness followed him to the back door. He went back and dressed himself, and on going into the garden saw his father's legs out of the upper part of the waterbutt. Witness got the head above water and held him till his mother and sister came, and he was then taken up stairs and put to bed. He was quite delirious, and it was necessary to hold him down. He had become Nery melancholy recently. When his father went out in the evening it was to give another postman a parcel, and when he did not return witness went to the waterbutt in the garden, and then to the pond, by the side of which his hat and clothes were found. After some search the body was found, and witness identified it as the body of his father. He occasionally got tipsy, and was so the night previous. Witness had no doubt that his father caused his own death. By a Juror—He was with his father in his bedroom all the day until he went out. Mr. Robert Peele, of Whetstone, said that he was in his garden on Wednesday night last, and observed a light near the pond in Mr. Capper's garden. It was then about half-past nine. By the side of the pond he found the last witness and his sister searching for their father, who they suspected had drowned himself. He assisted in dragging the pond, but they did not then find the body. He went to the house of the deceased, and found a piece of paper laying on the table. That paper he produced, and it contained a statement in the handwriting of the deceased, and referred to his probable speedy death. Witness then went to the police station, and, with a constable, returned to the pond, in which they ultimately found the body of the deceased. He was quite dead, and there was a piece of string tied tightly round his nack.  Thomas Sellwood, carpenter, of East Barnet, said that the deceased was secretary to a Foresters' Lodge, and a case had recently been heard before the county court in which the deceased was much involved. Although he had been much censured by some of the members of the lodge he had been re-elected to his post.  By a .Turor—Thero was no insinuation against his character. Deceased had given notice that he intended to resign.  The Coroner, in summing up; commented upon the extraordinarily determined character of the suicide, he having firstly attempted to drown himself in the water butt; and having been foiled in that attempt by the intervention of his family(who, strangely enough, allowed him to go out alone in the evening), he threw himself into a pond after endeavouring to strangle himself. The Jury, after a long deliberation, agreed to a verdict, "That the deceased destroyed his life by drowning while in an unsound state of mind."  --