Mexborough & Swinton Times — Friday, 28 October 1881

The Sad End of a Married Woman

To The Editor.

Sir,—As many exaggerated statements have been circulated the last day or two, with respect to the death of a woman, named Mary Spraggs, I think it well to give you a correct statement of the facts of the case.

She had been suffering from consumption for many months before coming to Mexbro’, and when she arrived here was in the last stage of that disease, which certainly caused, in a great measure, the wasting of her body.

Her husband is a collier, earning from three to four shillings per day, working at the Denaby Colliery Company’s pit, which is in full work, so that if he chose he might work six days a week. Under these circumstances, the Relieving Officer decided that it would not be just to the ratepayers to allow her relief from the poor-rate, as many of the ratepayers were themselves earning little more than her husband per week.

She, however, did not receive either the kind of food which she, in her delicate state, required, or a sufficient quantity of the coarse food she did procure. But, she was certainly not permitted to starve to death unhelped, as some of the newspaper paragraphs state.

Mr. John Watson, of Clayfield House, her landlord, was good enough to allow her milk on several occasions.

The Assistant Overseer gave her some money out of his own pocket, and another person entrusted a neighbour (Mrs. Hart) with 3s. or 4s., a fortnight before the poor creature died, to get her a little milk each day, and was prepared to have delivered the same sum again when the former was expended. The neighbours (as is often the case with the very poor) gave her such help as lay in their power.

With regard to the mode of burial, it was the only one which was legally possible. The husband declared his inability to procure a coffin, or to pay the necessary fees; and, therefore, when the body had lain unburied for four days, and it began to be a nuisance injurious to health, I gave a certificate to that effect (as directed by the Public Health Act), which was taken to a magistrate, who signed an order directing the removal of the body to the Public Mortuary.

Until it arrived there, the Overseers had no legal power to order a coffin; on its arrival a coffin was at once procured, and the poor creature was buried with all decency and reverence.

It was absolutely necessary (as the parish does not possess a shell or bier, which is to be regretted), to convey the corpse in the best manner possible to the mortuary; a door was therefore, I believe, obtained, on which the body was laid, placed in a light spring cart, and driven to the dead-house at the cemetery.

It then came into the hands of the Overseers, who, as I have said, at the earliest possible legal moment provided all that was necessary for the respectable interment of the woman, defraying all expenses of burial.

I am, sir, yours faithfully,

WILLIAM SYKES,
Medical Officer of Health, and Poor-Law Medical Officer for Mexbro’.