South Eastern Gazette, 15 November 1853.

Coroner’s Inquest.

On Tuesday last an inquest was held at the "Running Horse Inn," Sandling, before J. Dudlow, Esq., coroner, to enquire concerning the death of a young female named Emma Collins, aged 17, whose body was found in a pond at Boxley, on the previous day.

Richard Waterman stated that as he was going to his work on the previous morning, he saw the deceased lying upon her back in Spratt’s mill pond. She was about sixteen or eighteen feet from the edge of the water. Her bonnet, which first attracted his attention, was lying a short distance from her. There was a path running along beside the pond, which, at the spot where he found the body, was about eight feet from the edge of the pond, and about a foot and a half above the water. With assistance he then got the body out.

Isabella Ann Dickson, wife of David Dickson, draper, of Maidstone, stated that deceased had been in her service about six months, She saw her last alive at about a quarter to eleven o'clock on Sunday night. She was then in the kitchen and witness told her to go to bed. Witness having friends staying at the house, the deceased, in consequence, slept in the kitchen. Witness had scolded her on that night for not coming home to her time. She ought to have come home at eight o’clock, but did not do so till nearly ten. On the previous evening and in the afternoon of Sunday the stayed out much beyond her time. Witness had given her warning, but that did not seem to affect her, and on Sunday night she told her she should acquaint her father of her conduct, to which the deceased answered that "a father and mother had nothing to do with a girl after she was 16 years of age." She also said she should not be a trouble to any one long, but witness did not infer from this that she had any intention of destroying herself, as she had previously talked about marrying a soldier, and going to India, where she said she should be a lady and have slaves to wait upon her. Witness had told her not to listen to such foolishness. She brought her box down on Sunday and put her things into it. Witness told her to take it back again. She refused at first to do so, but witness and her husband persisted, and she then took it upstairs saying it would not trouble any one long. She was missed next morning about seven o’clock. Witness believed she had encouraged soldiers to come and see her, but had no reason to suppose that she was not a virtuous female. She (witness) had seen her crying about the house lately, and had heard her remark, "He loves some one better than me, but never mind, I can get same one else." She had also observed a strangeness in her manner which would induce her to suppose deceased's mind at times was absent. Deceased could have opened the outer kitchen door, which was fastened, by pushing back the spring of the lock. Witness believed she went out with a soldier on Sunday evening.

Mr. Barham, surgeon, deposed that he had examined the body of deceased, and found no marks of violence or appearances of struggling of any description upon it. The cause of death was suffocation from drowning.

Two letters, found in deceased’s pocket, were produced by Lucas, the Boxley constable, and read, both of which were from a soldier in the 10th Hussars named Langford. One of them, dated October 21st, stated that he (Langford) on coming round on Sunday night met there another soldier of the 14th, who told him that he was waiting for the deceased, and that he had kept company with her for six months. Langford, in his letter, said if this were the case she must have been telling him a lie, and wished her to come out that night to explain it, or if she could not do so to send him a note. The second letter, which had no date to it, contained allusions to the couplc getting married and going to India, and Langford expressed his hope that she would not break her promise of meeting him on Sundays. Lucas stated that he had made enquiries at the barracks, and found that both the above-named soldiers were in on Sunday night at half-past nine o’clock.

The Coroner then summed up, telling the jury it was for them first to consider by what means the deceased came into the water — whether by her own act, by the act of another person, or whether she fell in accidentally, which, upon a dark night, she might have done at the spot where her body was found, as there was no protection there. If they were of opinion that it was her own act, it would be then for them to consider the state of mind she was in at the time. He did not think that there was sufficient evidence to show that there was such an aberration of intellect as that she did not know what she was about.

The room was then cleared, and after a lengthened deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of "Found drowned, but how or by what means she came into the water there was not sufficient evidence to show."

Kentish Gazette, 18 January 1876.

FOUND DROWNED.

An inquest was held on Monday afternoon at the "Running Horse Inn," Sandling, before J. N. Dudlow, Esq., coroner, touching the death of an old man, named Jonah Elcombe, whose body was taken out of the Medway on Sunday, by Abraham Vane, the Allington lock-keeper. The deceased was a native of East Malling, and it was stated that he was in the service of the Emperor Napoleon while a prisoner at St. Helena. He was last seen alive about three weeks ago at West Malling, and nothing was afterwards heard of him until he was picked out of the Medway, as stated. The body was identified by Robert Grayland, son-in-law of the deceased.

The jury returned an open verdict of "Found drowned."