SUICIDE OF ANNIE HARTSHORN 1912

(Derby Mercury 19th Apr 1912 p2)

SUICIDE OF AN INVALID

SAD INQUEST STORY   

   A painful tragedy was enquired into before Mr Richard Sale, JP, Coroner, at Stanley on Monday, when he held an inquest relative to the death of Annie Hartshorn, aged 50, the invalid wife of a local farmer, who was found hanging in her bedroom on Friday.

   The husband, John Hartshorn, farmer, of Stanley Farm, Stanley, said he married 23 years ago. For several years past his wife had been an invalid, and had kept her bed for thirteen weeks, having suffered from a weak heart. He understood that she had rheumatic fever before she married. She had complained of internal pains, and the day before Good Friday she was unconscious for several hours. She was sometimes depressed on account of her illness, and on returning from Derby on Friday last, he was informed that his wife had hanged herself with a piece of rope which had been fixed for her to raise herself in bed. As far as he knew she had never threatened to take her life, and he could not account for her action, unless it was through her illness.

   Olive Harrison, servant girl, said she was with Mrs Hartshorn most of the time during Friday last, and she appeared fairly cheerful in the morning, having eaten well. Mrs Hartshorn was never left alone long, and when witness saw her about one o'clock she appeared to be asleep. However, ten minutes later she found her mistress hanging by the neck from a rope attached to a nail in the ceiling. The nail was not immediately over the bed, and the previous occasion on which witness had seen the rope it was near the fireplace. It had not been thought possible that Mrs Hartshorn had strength enough to get across the room or even raise herself without the aid of a rope. When the body was cut down by a man named Tom Frost, life was extinct.

   Dr A C Adams, of West Hallam, who had attended deceased since Christmas last, said that she suffered from organic heart disease, which was gradually getting worse. Although she would have been able to get up and about again, he had told her that her heart would never be quite right. She was depressed at times, but he did not think that there was anything the matter with her mind, and she had never given him reason to think that she would do herself harm. He allowed her to have the rope to pull herself up in bed, and he thought that she could have walked across the room to get the rope.

   The jury's verdict was "Suicide whilst of unsound mind."

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