Hillingdon

1/ Fatal Shooting at Uxbridge. June 1851

An unfortunate accident happened at Uxbridge when between four and five one afternoon, a soldier from the 4th Light Dragoons rested his gun against a cottage wall on Uxbridge Moor. Two boys were passing and one of them grabbed the weapon and fired at the other, not thinking it was loaded, shot him dead. The dead body was taken to his parents’ house where it awaits an inquest.

2/ Dead Child Found in Uxbridge. January 1900

A parcel was found in Long Lane near Hillingdon and when unwrapped and opened, it was found to contain a dead child. It was badly decomposed and doctors cannot determine whether or not it had been born alive.

3/ Uxbridge, June 1899

The Uxbridge Bench yesterday dismissed the charge against William Matthews and William Randall, labourers, of Uxbridge, of causing the death of George Stears by striking him and throwing him against a wall. The justices thought the evidence would not justify them in sending the accused for trial, as erysipelas from which Stears died, did not result from the blows, and there was no evidence that Randall struck him.

4/ Sipson near West Drayton, (Murder Confession) October 1885

mystery, Sipson

5/ Harefield Suicide, near Uxbridge, December 1886

The body of a single lady named Fanny Harriett Plaistowe was discovered in woods at Harefield. The 41-year-old went for a walk on the 13th of August and now over three months later, her decomposed corpse was found by a shooting party in some brushwood. Near to the body was an empty carbolic acid bottle, and her false teeth were lodged in her throat. Plaistowe had tried suicide in April and as the body was so decayed, the surgeon couldn’t find the cause of death. He also said that when a person killed themselves by ingesting carbolic acid, the body would coil up and convulse, but it never in this case. Despite this theory, the jury thought that she died by swallowing the carbolic acid.

6/ Checker’s Yard, Uxbridge, (Murder) August 1885

murder, uxbridge

7/ Uxbridge Manslaughter, August 1885

Uxbridge, manslaughter

8/ Hayes Suicide, August 1872

This is about the suicide of a 16-year-old who hung himself instead of getting caught for thieving. George James Dolby committed suicide in a coach-house, and a few weeks since, he had laid across the train tracks waiting for the engine to run over him but changed his mind in the end. Dolby then robbed the till at Mr Hewins shop, then realising that he would be arrested and jailed, he hung himself. He tied the cord around his neck three times then climbed a beam with a loft ladder, then jumped off. The father said he was desperate to go to sea but his mother wouldn’t allow it, and it could be this, that sent him off the rails, and then killed himself.

9/ Uxbridge Murder, January 1885

Uxbridge, murder

10/ Suicide at Uxbridge, March 1862

An inquest at the Hillingdon Workhouse on the death of Sophia Matilda Timpson, 30, a needlewoman, who committed suicide by slitting her throat while suffering from disappointment in love. About a decade ago she lived in Folkestone in Kent and became close to a young man named Cooper. Love blossomed and they were going to set a date for the marriage, but his friends told him not to marry her. Timpson became deaf and ill, and Cooper got restless and re-enlisted as a soldier, and went abroad. Timpson was distraught but looked for a job in Canterbury, despite her deafness. She turned to needlework to make ends meet and continued to correspond with Cooper’s friends, then moved in with her Mum at Uxbridge. While there she became delusional and complained of terrible headaches, and thought that she was going to be sent back to Canterbury by her own family, and Cooper’s friends. It kept plaguing her, so she went to an outbuilding in her mothers garden, took a knife, and slit her throat. Her mother was keeping an eye on her and found her with her hands around her blood-soaked neck. Timpson was taken to Hillingdon Union, where she passed away a couple of hours later.