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Topic: So what was it about Henry Rayner? 16 Manslaughter charges, not proven (Read 285 times)
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Ouse who
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 48
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.natio
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The death registration of my wife's g g grandmother showed that she had died a violent death in St Pancras in 1861. The document indicated manslaughter against Henry Rayner. The Ancestry Old Bailey index showed a man by that name was aquitted of the manslaughter an un-named person and disharged.
The Old Bailey website had no mention of this at all, so we went to Kew to inspect the Indictment records for that period, CRIM/4/642 and 4/643 to try and shed further light on the case.
We were in for a big surprise. Henry Rayner 'late of St Pancras' was indicted in early September for the felonious slaying and killing of the following people;
Elizabeth Allen
George Henry Bolton
Clara Maria Clements
Emma English
Henry Greenwood (7)
Charles Greenwood (11)
Edward Hills
Rhoda Bowler Oliver
Benjamin Rushbrook
Charles Standring
Richard Saunders
Mary Sillis
Eve Stacey
John Yeomans
Apparently the cases were not found and he was acquitted and discharged. We didn't manage to find what happened in the case of Sarah Essex and Charles Cox whose names appear a few weeks later. Perhaps there are more names. 
Can anyone explain the circumstances?
Kind regards, O.
"Without prejudice" 
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Brightman, Bowler, Johnson, May, Maynard, Purser, Underwood, Young.
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Rockford
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 90
Smoky Rooftops, Luss
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Hi O.
Did the Key records provide any details of the circumstances? The Times and Scotsman Newspapers of September 1861 refer to a serious railway accident where a passenger train and a freight train collided in the Clayton Tunnel, described as being at Hampstead Junction.
Henry Rayner was a signalman at Kentish Town and there seems to have been a lot of discussion at the inquest - reported in the Times of 11 September 1861- whether there was a danger signal showing for one of the trains.
I can't find anything about the actual court case and the reasons for his acquittal, although Charles Cox was a witness at the inquest and was described as being in great pain - I assume he must have died from his injuries some time later.
Best wishes
Brian
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avm228
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5154
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Oddly the various modern references online to the 1861 Clayton Tunnel accident show it as having taken place 5 miles from Brighton (so not in the St Pancras/Kentish Town/Hampstead area) and the signalman to have been Henry Killick rather than Henry Rayner 
See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_Tunnel_rail_crash
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Ayr: Barnes, Wylie
Caithness: MacGregor
Essex: Eldred (Pebmarsh)
Gloucs: Timbrell (Winchcomb)
Hants: Stares (Wickham)
Lincs: Maw, Jackson (Epworth, Belton)
London: Pierce
Suffolk: Markham (Framlingham)
Surrey: Gosling (Richmond)
Wilts: Matthews, Tarrant (Calne, Preshute)
Worcs: Milward (Redditch)
Yorks: Beaumont, Crook, Moore, Styring (Huddersfield); Middleton (Church Fenton); Exley, Gelder (High Hoyland); Barnes, Birchinall (Sheffield); Kenyon, Wood (Cumberworth/Denby Dale)
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Ouse who
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 48
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.natio
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Hi Brian,
We only got as far as the Indictment records, but were planning to continue our search at Kew because there seemed to be so much info that was not mentioned on the Old Bailey website. I would strongly recommend that anyone who finds Old Bailey mentioned anywhere in their records, visits Kew; we would never have learnt what we did today by just going on-line.
We haven't looked at the newspapers, that was our next action; we guessed that that number of deaths could not have gone unreported. The death registration for my wife's g g grandmother 2 September 1861 says "died on the road to the University Hospital Saint Pancras". The inquest was held on 10 September.
A railway accident - we should have thought of that! I have ammended my post.
Thank you for that.
Kind regards, O.
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Brightman, Bowler, Johnson, May, Maynard, Purser, Underwood, Young.
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Ouse who
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 48
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.natio
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I have found another site, RailwayArchive - where the accident report can be downloaded:
http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docSummary.php?docID=349
No mention of Henry Rayner in that either. Need to explore more methinks.
Regards, O.
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Brightman, Bowler, Johnson, May, Maynard, Purser, Underwood, Young.
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avm228
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5154
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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It's clear from the Times inquest reports that the Hampstead Junction collision (2 September 1861, Henry Rayner the signalman at Kentish Town) was different from the Clayton Tunnel one (25 Aug 1861).
Incidentally, there is reference to some of the Hampstead Junction victims on http://thevirtualtourofhampstead.co.uk/timesarchive.htm
Anna 
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Ayr: Barnes, Wylie
Caithness: MacGregor
Essex: Eldred (Pebmarsh)
Gloucs: Timbrell (Winchcomb)
Hants: Stares (Wickham)
Lincs: Maw, Jackson (Epworth, Belton)
London: Pierce
Suffolk: Markham (Framlingham)
Surrey: Gosling (Richmond)
Wilts: Matthews, Tarrant (Calne, Preshute)
Worcs: Milward (Redditch)
Yorks: Beaumont, Crook, Moore, Styring (Huddersfield); Middleton (Church Fenton); Exley, Gelder (High Hoyland); Barnes, Birchinall (Sheffield); Kenyon, Wood (Cumberworth/Denby Dale)
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avm228
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5154
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Brief reference here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentish_Town_rail_accident
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Ayr: Barnes, Wylie
Caithness: MacGregor
Essex: Eldred (Pebmarsh)
Gloucs: Timbrell (Winchcomb)
Hants: Stares (Wickham)
Lincs: Maw, Jackson (Epworth, Belton)
London: Pierce
Suffolk: Markham (Framlingham)
Surrey: Gosling (Richmond)
Wilts: Matthews, Tarrant (Calne, Preshute)
Worcs: Milward (Redditch)
Yorks: Beaumont, Crook, Moore, Styring (Huddersfield); Middleton (Church Fenton); Exley, Gelder (High Hoyland); Barnes, Birchinall (Sheffield); Kenyon, Wood (Cumberworth/Denby Dale)
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jorose
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 4672
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http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/ - seems to have several entries on the trial of Henry Rayner. You'd have to pay to see the full details, but the snatches I see seem to suggest that the jury were predisposed to be lenient towards him because of his age (19).
I think he is in the 1861 census at 71 Union Street, Pancras, with his family. He was b. Abbots Langley, Herts, and his father Joseph was a railway porter (Henry is listed as 'railway servant').
In 1871 and 1881 it seems he's moved to Lambeth and married to a Sophia (an older woman). No children.
ETA: His name on these records is always spelt "Raynor", as it is on the Accident Returns linked from the wiki page. It seems from reading that those in charge of investigating the accident felt Henry, who was 19 and had only been working on the railway for eight months, should not have been in such a position of responsibility.
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Ouse who
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 48
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.natio
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Thank you all,
Definitely the Kentish Town accident.
I found a mention on http://news.google.com/archivesearch; an article referring to an accident on "The North London line", which mentioned one of the names on my list;
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=DSC18611203.2.17
The Accident report, which mentions young Henry Rayner:
http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_KentishTown1861.pdf
Kind regards, O.
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Brightman, Bowler, Johnson, May, Maynard, Purser, Underwood, Young.
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Rockford
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 90
Smoky Rooftops, Luss
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Hi
Apologies for mixing up the Clayton Tunnel and Hampstead Junction accidents in my earlier post. That's what I get for skim reading!
Best wishes
Brian
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Gregory [Bucks, Wales]
Vair [Melrose]
Bennett [Somerset, Wales]
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mc8
RootsChat Veteran
Posts: 935
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poor lad 
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Ouse who
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 48
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.natio
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I agree mc8.
I had no idea when I posted my enquiry what my wife and I were going to learn about her gg grandmother's death in 1861. Today we read several newspaper articles about the accident, the subsequent inquest and enquiry.
There was a surprising amount on the Internet about the accident, which according to the BBC website was the first major rail accident in London. It all made for pretty grim reading; some of the first newspaper reports didn't spare the gory details of the injuries sustained by the dead and the badly injured.
Thanks again for all the help, O.
NB. eBay had the page from Illustrated London News which had a litho-type print of the accident scene.
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