The Northern News. — 1896-07-11 (Carlisle, Cumbria, England)

EARL'S DAUGHTER DROWNED.  DISTRESSING SUICIDE.  Lady Mary Bligh, fourth daughter of the Earl of Darnley, was found drowned in a pond at Cobhqii: Hall, Gravesend, the family seat, on Sunday nigh. Deceased was twenty-eight years of age. An inquest wa.s held at the Hall on Monday. before Mr. W. J. Harris, one of the coroners for Kent.—Lor. Darnley, who was the first witness, deposed that Lady Mary Rose Florence Bligh was his daurd-i Witness last saw her alive shorty- after three o'cic.:l7 on Sunday afternoon. She had been in a state nervous irritation for a long time. When wit,' last saw her she was sitting on a garden bench the grounds, with her eyes shut. Witness 24.; her if her head ached. She made some ordin3 • reply, and witness thought no more about Coroner: Then nothing struck you as being p ticularly strange in her manner? Witness: Oh, no. —William Hever, the Earl of Darnley's valet, said he saw Lady Mary go through the dining-room ju=t after three o'clock on Sunday afternoon. She had her eyes fixed on the ground, and appeared downcast About half-past four witness heard she cou:d not be found anywhere.—The Coroner: Had you noticed her looking depressed lately? Witne : No, sir. Had she been low-spirited at all? N. Fin—Alice Stagg, personal maid to the deceased, said she saw her mistress alive for the last time at about twenty minutes to eleven on Sunday morning. Witness went in search of her in the afternoon, as she could not be found. Eventually, in the oompany of another servant named Mary Bartlett, she Discovered a Pile of Clothing whidh she recognised as her Ladyship's, on the bank of Waterhouse Pond. The garments were placed neatly one on top of another. She gave an aialei. When the body was taken out of the water life had departed. The body was clothed only in a combination garment.—The Coroner: Did you not'ce that she had been low-spirited?—Witness: No, sir; she had been very cheerful on Sunday morning. Lately, however, she had complained of pains in her head.—Mary Elizabeth Bartlett deposed to accompanying the last witness to Waterhouse Pond. A quantity of Lady Mary's olothes were lying on the bank. There were no signs of a struggle.—Elias Murgeam, labourer, living at Brewer's Gate Lodge, Cobham Hall, said he heard of the occurrence, and went to I elp to find the body. He and others dragged the pond with a boat-hook, and found the body in about 7ft. of water. It was twenty minutes past nine when the body was recovered.' It had the appearance of having been in the water for two or three hours.—The Coroner: You saw rip marks on the body?—Witness: Nothing.—Nothing suggestive of a struggle or foul play 7 No, sir.—The Coroner, in summing up, said the jury had only to consider three points—first, did death arise from drowning; second, was it deceased's own act; and third, what was the state of her mind at the time? He thought they would agree with him that no lady in a state of sanity would divest herself of tier clothing in the manner described.—The jury returned a verdict to the effect that Lady Mary Bligh had committed suicide by drowning herself during a fit of temporary insanity.  At Torpoint, Plymouth, on Monday, gunner Cummins, a native of Longton, Staffordshrie, was brought before the magistrates charged with causing the death of gunner Patrick Cox, of Durham, in a fight which took place in the 2nd Durham Militia camp on Saturday, and was formally remanded. The death has taken place of Mrs. Pawlett, widow af the Rev. Henry Pawlett, rector of Frankton, Warwickshire, in her 97th Year. She was a granddaughter of Sir Charles Wheeler, Bart., of Learninglon, Hastings, and her brother-in-law was a member ff the Supreme Council of India in the last century Ind at the beginning of the present. At his house in Park Place, which was a trysting place for AngloIndians, she had when a young girl often seen Warren Hastings.