Hereford Times - 3rd August 1833

KNIGHTON. An inquest was held on Saturday evening, the 20th ult., at the Swan Inn, in this town, before G. A. Macauley, Esq., Coroner, on the body of Sarah Florence, a female about 70 years of age, who was supposed to have come to her death from some unnatural cause. The following is the manner in which she was found :

                About 12 o'clock on the above-named day (Saturday) as some of the inhabitants of Knighton were standing together in Broad-street, they noticed two girls and a boy, of the Gypsy tribe, with a donkey, going past laden, as they supposed, with the apparatus such persons usually carry for tinkering. However, after they had gone a short distance, a little girl who was standing near observed to the party that she perceived the hands of a person hanging down on the near side of the ass; upon hearing this, they concluded there must be something wrong, and a young man then present pursued and overtook them at the end of the town; when, on enquiring what they had got on the ass, the eldest girl hesitated to reply, and appeared very anxious to go forward; he then removed a blanket that was thrown over, when, to his utter astonishment, he found the female in question laid across the back of the animal, with her face downwards, apparently dead; other persons then came up, and the poor creature was instantly set down, and a medical gentleman arrived on the spot in a few minutes, who, upon inspection, pronounced her lifeless, and that she must have been dead before she was found in the situation described.

                The body was then conveyed to the poor-house, the parties with the ass detained, and a respectable jury immediately summoned to inquire into the circumstances. Having met accordingly, and been severally sworn, Mr. James Jones, the young man above alluded to, who pursued the party, deposed to the above statement; Mr. Green, who was present at the time, bore testimony as to the way in which the deceased was found, to the same effect as the former witness. Several other persons were examined, who spoke as to seeing the old woman and the girls at Llandrindod Wells and other places, on the way from thence to Knighton, and that she was alive about three miles from this place, travelling in the same manner as before described.

                Hannah Florence was then called, who deposed as follows :—I am the daughter of the deceased Sarah Florence, who was about 50 or 60 years of age; I cannot read; I have been with my mother between two and three months; found her at Pontypool, Monmouthshire; she was neither very well nor very ill; we went from thence to Longtown, Kington, Penybont, and this place; slept last night in a barn, six miles from this town; my mother did not complain of pain last night, and was very well this morning; when we came here she desired to lie down, but I said it was too near the town; when the young man came to us to enquire what we had got, she was then alive, but do not think she lived above one or two minutes; I never applied for medicines for her; she has not tasted food for three or four days; she smoked her pipe when at the top of the hill a few miles off.

                 Mr. Thomas Smith deposed that he gave them leave to sleep in a barn belonging to him, on the previous night; saw them, on the morning of Saturday, strapping some person upon an ass; asked them where they were going; they replied, to Wolverhampton; asked them if they belonged to no parish; the girl said, they did not like to trouble a parish; they then went in the direction of Knighton; saw them no more.

                Mr. Joseph Froysall was next examined:- I am a surgeon in Knighton; have this day examined the body of an old woman, lying dead at the workhouse in this town; I found the body of the old woman extremely emaciated; there was a wound upon each hip; such might have been caused by lying upon the back during a long illness; there were no other outward marks, and no appearance at all of external violence; I opened the body, and found the contents of the abdomen generally healthy; in the cavity of the chest I found a quantity of mucus between the pericardium and the sternum, apparently the result of long continued disease; the lungs were adhering to the chest in every part; there was also a quantity of mucus in the air-cells of the lungs; the heart appeared healthy, and the pericardium contained about two ounces of water; I have no doubt but that the disease of the lungs, which I have described, was sufficient to cause her death; upon a minute examination of the stomach, I found it contained about an ounce of bile, mixed with mucus; the stomach was distended with wind; there was no food  in the stomach, neither was there any appearance of disease; I also perceived that cancer existed; that is a disease which generally exists for many years before it destroys life, and always causes great emaciation of the body, and terminates life by a gradual decay of the system, and diminution of the powers of life and from the examination I have now made, I believe that the deceased came to her death by the disease which I have now described.

                 This being the last witness, the Coroner summed up the evidence, and after a few minutes' deliberation they returned a verdict of "died by the visitation of God."

Sarah was buried in Knighton Churchyard. Location unknown.

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