Penistone, Stocksbridge, Hoyland & Chapeltown Express, etc. — 1899-01-13 (Penistone, South Yorkshire, England)

SUICIDE AT HIGH GREEN.  Owing to the fact that the children of MurtoJolley Parish were having a tea in the Church 'schools MU inquest which should have been held there on Monday was conducted in the Vicarage, which WWI kindly lent by the Vicar (the Rev. J. Rigby). The inquiry was with respect to the death of Sarah Ann Smith. aged 33 years, who had been housekeeper for Henry Yeardley, miner, of Potter's Hill, High Green, and who drowned herself in Holbrook dam last Saturday. Mr. A. Neal appeared fur the friends of the deceased.  Henry Yeardley, widower, said the deceased had been his housekeeper since last Julie. Fur • month he paid her a salary, and after that he gave her 011 an average Ll per weak. They had made arrangements to get married next Monday, and the Wane should have been published tor the last time last Sunday. Last Saturday the deceased did not get up until ten o'clock in the morning, a thing she had never dons before. He did not know why she did not get up earlier. She had breakfast when she got np, but she did not seem well; in fact, she had been for some time gradually getting worse. After dinner they had a dispute about some pots, and the deceased eventually lost her temper. She ran upstairs and put her shawl on, preparing to leave the house. Before she went out she said she was "stalled," and tired of it. He told her he had done nothing wrong to cause her to go, and was not going to fetch her back. He never saw her again alive. He went to his mother's and asked it they had seen the deceased. One of his nephews said be thought be had 'peen her going down the croft towards Holbrook dam. went to the dam and found a shawl and a pair of shoes on the bank, but cionld re no trace of the deceased. He then reported the matter to Sergeant Simpson, of Chapaltown. They did not drag the dam that night because it was too dark. and it would not have been safe to do so. The dam was about one foot deep where he found the deceased's shawl and boots. The deceased never threatened to commit suicide. She wrote a letter to her sister on Jsnupry sth, telling her that she was to be married on January 16th. She had received • letter from her sister, which had evidently crossed her own. This was read by the Coroner, sad referred to her condition, for the sister wtote of feeling deeply sorry, and said that under the circumstances she thought she would have to postpone a promised visit. Thomas Nixon said that on Saturday afternoon he saw the deceased running towards Holbrook dam with a shawl over her Lead. He could not say whether she was crying or not, and did not hear • cry later. He saw the body immediately after it was recovered from Holbrook dam on San day afternoon. Sergeant Simpson stated that he, with four other odious, recovered the body from the dam on Sunder afternoon. The deceased was at a spot where the dam was nine feet deep. There were , no signs of a struggle. Mr. A. Neal told the jury that he had been Informed that the couple would have been married before. only Yeardley wanted • year to elapse from the time of the death of his first wife before be married again. and the thought that the marriage might come too late had caused the deceased to be very depressed. The jury returned a verdiet 4 "Suicide during a state of temporary insanity." •