Description:

Image of newspaper cutting dated 4 July 1851 reporting that W Carrick, Coroner, held an inquest at the Bush Inn, Longtown on the body of Mr Thomas Plenderleath, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, who had been strangled in a public house [also the Bush Inn] by William Kirkpatrick, well-known in Longtown as ‘the Pedlar’. John Ward, shoemaker from Longtown, gave evidence to the effect that Kirkpatrick had an altercation with Plenderleath who was alleged to have kept five shillings which Kirkpatrick had earned for taking the census. Kirkpatrick seized the victim by the throat and was pulled off. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder, but recommended mercy on the grounds that he did not intend to take the deceased’s life.

Observations:

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