City of Westminster Coroners:
Coroners' Inquests into Suspicious Deaths
CW | IC

7th January 1773 - 28th December 1773

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Image 519 of 75018th August 1773


City and Liberty
of Westminster
in the County of
Middlesex }
to wit.

An Inquisition Indented, taken for our Sovereign Lord the
King, at the Parish of Saint Anne
within the Liberty of the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster ,
in the County of Middlesex , the Eighteenth day of August in the Thirteenth Year
of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great-Britain,
France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth, before Thomas Prickard< no role > , Gentleman,
Coroner of our said Lord the King for the said City and Liberty, on View of the Body of
Joseph Smart< no role > then and there lying dead, upon the Oath of John Long< no role > ,
Docter Cowchor< no role > , John Grieve< no role > , Walter Williams< no role > , George Walls< no role > , Richard Whitehead< no role > , John Eichhorn< no role > ,
William Paull< no role > , George Dickenson< no role > , James Unsworth< no role > , Alexander Tate< no role > , Richard Barnett< no role > , Christopher
Cook
< no role > , Walter Bannister< no role > , and William Stevenson< no role >
good and lawful Men of the said Liberty, duly
chosen, who being then and there duly sworn and charged to enquire for our said Lord the
King, when, how, and by what Means the said Joseph Smart< no role > came to
h is Death, do upon their Oath say, That the said Joseph Smart, not being of sound Mind
Memory and Understanding, but Eunatick and Distracted, on the Seventeenth day of August in the Year aforesaid
at the Parish and in the Liberty and County aforesaid a certain Pistol charged with Gum powder and a leadon
Bullet which he the said Joseph Smart< no role > then and there had and held in his right hand to and against the
right side men the Billy of him the Said Joseph Smart< no role > did then and there short off and Discharge, by
means whereof he the said Joseph Smart< no role > did then and there give unto himself with the Leadon Bullet
aforesaid so discharged and shot out of the Pistol aforesaid by the force of the Gum Powder aforesaid in and
upon the right side near the Belly of him the said Joseph Smart< no role > one mortal [..] the breadth of
half on inch and of the Dypth of Lis inches or more of which said Mortal wound to the said Joseph
Smart
< no role > then and there in the Space of One Hour Died. And so the Jurors aforesaid upon their Oath
aforesaid do say that the said Joseph Smart< no role > not being of Sound Mind Memory and Understanding but
Lunatic and Distracted in manner and by the means aforesaid did Kill himself. In Witness whereof
as well the said Coroner as the Foreman of the Jurors aforesaid on behalf of himself and the rest
of the Jurors have to this Inquisition set their Hands and Seals the Day Year and at the Place
abovementioned.

Tho. Prickard< no role > Coroner

Jno Long< no role > Foreman




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