Maidstone Telegraph, Saturday 12 May 1866.

Coroner's Inquest.

A coroner's inquest was held on Tuesday afternoon last, at the "Papermakers' Arms," Loose, on the body of Elisa Elliott, page 31. The coroner (N. J. Dudlow, Esq.), having sworn the jury, of which Mr. Cock was the foreman, they proceeded to view the body, and on their return the following witnesses were sworn.

Any Marrs:- I live on the Loose Road. My husband is a labourer. The deceased was a single woman. She lived with her sister, next door to me. Her sister's name I do not know. I have known her a year and a half. Her sister has not been there all that time. The deceased came back to her sister last summer. I saw her walk up to the door feebly. I have not seen her since then. Her sister, Mrs. Chrisp called me in to see her last Thursday. When Mrs. Chrisp called me in she said she did not know what to make of her. I went in and she appeared to me to be dead, and I told Mrs. Chris so. Mrs Chris said "Do you think so?" I went for a medical man, and he came. I did not see or hear what he said. I saw her last alive about three weeks or a month ago. She then said she felt very poorly. She said her sister had asked her to get up and walk about, and she told me she could not. The deceased said to me that she hoped they would not not take her away. I believe she meant the officers, who took her away before. She did not mention anyone's name. I thought she meant the relieving officer. She never complained of her sister's treatment, nor of the want of food. Her sister was always present when I saw her. I never saw anything harsh on the part of deceased sister towards her. Mrs. Chrisp used to tell me her sister was trying to her, but I don't know in what way. On the morning of deceased death I heard someone say, "You dirty devil." I was in bed at the time. It sounded like Mrs. Crisps voice. No one else lived in the cottage but Mrs. Chrisp, her husband, and deceased. Deceased never asked me for food, no complaint of the want of food. When I saw her 3 weeks ago she said she felt very poorly. Her sister told me she had a pain in the stomach, and that was the reason she wanted her to walk about. She used to tell me she did not want to go back to the union. I never saw any ill-treatment on the part of Crisp or the wife towards deceased.

Buy a juror:- I don't know whether she died in the room where you saw her. She was downstairs when I saw her 3 weeks ago.

By another Juror:- I felt her to know whether she was cold. It was 6 o'clock when I heard the expression, and 10 o'clock when I was called in.

Constructing Constable Okhill:- I saw the deceased on Saturday. I heard of her death by accident on Friday Night. On Saturday I went to the house. I there saw the deceased. She had a slight bruise on her shoulder. Mrs. Chrisp told me it was by her falling against the skirting of the room. I made enquiries into her death, in consequence of a report in 1858 that a person who was kept in a cottage, short of provisions. I made enquiries of Mrs. Chrisp. In 1864 I had an interview with the deceased and she then complained of being kept short. I have made enquiries now, and can hear nothing of the neighbours who she had been treated unkindly or kept short of food. She returned from the union in my last. That is what Mrs. Chrisp told me.

Buy a Juror:- Nourishment and provisions were put in through the window to her in 1864.

Mr. Duly, relieving officer at Maidstone Union:- I knew the deceased. She was taken by me into the union on the 16th September, 1864. My attention had been previously called to her on the 15th. I inquired of her whether she had enough to eat, and she said "Yes." I then told her I thought she had better go into the union. She first said, "Yes" and then "No." I told her sister I should bring a conveyance to take her next day. I did so. She remained in the union until the 7th October following, when I removed her to Willesborough union. On our way to Coxheath union I said "Is it true you have not had enough to eat," and she said, "Yes; only I did not like to say so before my sister." I said "I suppose they live as they do?" She said "No; she makes me sit up in the corner of the room all day long, and have nothing but bread and bread and butter." I said how does your brother behave towards you? She said she would serve him the same as me - thrash us both a like. I saw Mrs. Chrisp about deceased and she said she was an artful deceitful hussey. Some few months after I had moved her to Willsborough I received a letter, asking me whether she was not for for removal. he applied to me to know whether the sister was a proper person to have charger for her, and I wrote back "No." I wrote to Crisp, and he denied her treatment, saying that she faired as well as they did. When going to the Willesborough union she expressed her pleasure in going there. If she had applied to go into the Union, she would have been taken there, but she was a poor helpless creature, not fit to be removed. She was almost a skeleton when I took her to Willesborough. She seems to be suffering from disease and of week mind, at the same time she understood every question put to her.

Mr. Stokoe, surgeon of Coxheath Union:- On the 16th September deceased came under my notice at the union. I found her a very exhausted condition, and weak in the mind. On that occasion, or shortly afterwards, she stated she was in want of food. I found also from Mr. Duly that she was suffering from one of nourishment. After her admission she had wine and meat, and I found her improve. Three weeks after her admission I saw nothing of her until her death. On Sunday last, the 6th inst., I saw the deceased. She had been then dead three days. She was in an extremely emaciated condition. I questioned Mrs. Crisp as to the state of her health previous to her death, and she told me that it had been as good as as usual, and that her appetite seemed good, and that until that day before she died there have been no signs of approaching dissolutions. I questioned her particularly with regard to the symptoms of consumption and dietary disease, but heard from her that there was none. From what I consider that she had been suffering from want of food. Since then I have made a post-mortem examination, and found extensive disease of both lungs, sufficient to account for death, and also a slight softening of the brain. I think those diseases would prevent food from properly nourishing her frame. The disease appeared to have been of long-standing. I think the disease might possibly have existed since October, 1864. I did not attend the family, and therefore had no opportunity of knowing how she was treated. I think it very rarely such as extreme emaciation arises from consumption alone. It might accounted for from its long-standing. There was no food in the stomach, but she had evidently taken food within 24-hours.

By a Juror:- She might not have died so soon if she had proper stimulants. Being short of food in 1864 might of accelerated the disease.

This be in the last witness it was thought necessary to call, the jury consulted amongst themselves after which the foreman said that the jurors were of opinion that the conduct of Mrs. Chrisp, sister of deceased, was highly censurable, and thought it would be more satisfactory if she was called to give some explanation of this account.

Mr. Crisp was accordingly brought into the room, but not sworn.

The Coroner, addressing her, said that the jury were of opinion that she had a exhibited great inattention to her sister; and that it was her bounded duty to have called in medical assistance on the morning of her death, and before. She (Mrs. Chrisp) had been heard to say by witness, "You dirty devil." He wished to know whether it was correct and who she was addressing.

Mrs. Crisp denied using such expressions, and said that she had done her duty to her sister. She had supported her for 38 years, and never during that period had been short of food. She had had several doctors to her, and amongst others Mr. Monckton and Mr. Church. Last Thursday morning when deceased got out of bed she had a fit, and she sent for a medical man between 9 and 10 o'clock.

Coroner:- It appears when you waited until the deceased was in the agonies of death before you sent for a medical man?

Witness:- I did not know she was so bad, as I had slept with her, and gave her on Wednesday night a pint basin of gruel and toast.

A Juror:- Leicester Stokoe had said that he found no food in the stomach. I should like to know from that gentleman if deceased had had the gruel the previous night whether it would have been found in the stomach. Mr. Stokoe:- I think so - more especially in a person in her state of health.

A Juror:- There seems to be no evidence as to the state of the health of deceased when she was brought from the union to her sister's.

Another Juror (to Mrs Chrisp):- Where are you in receipt of parish relief?

Mrs. Chrisp:- Not for the last 2 years.

The jury then consulted together and return the following verdict:- "That the deceased died from consumption, accelerated by want of proper nourishment, for which great blame is attached to Mrs. Chrisp, sister of deceased."