Anyone Disagree?

[joboy]

My 4th great grandfather was George WOOD who was a Hastings fisherman ...... probably born circa 1740 (place and date unknown).
He married Ruth PUMPHREY at All Saints Hastings on 12th June 1776.
They had a small family;
Mary1777
George 1780
William 1782
Ruth 1785
Ruth never saw her father because he was shot and killed in December 1784 as shown in The Hastings Chronicle.
http://www.hastingschronicle.net/1700-1799.html
His burial has not been properly recorded other than this;
Entry from Hastings St. Clement burials 1700-1863
    FORENAME      George   
    SURNAME      WOOD   
    BURIAL DATE      30-Dec   
    YEAR      1784   
    OTHER      +   
    PLACE      Hastings   
    LOCATION      St.Clement
and I have not been able to secure a coroner's report of the incident.... there may be such a thing I dont know.
Everything fits including family lore that he may have been a smuggler or just evading a tax or something similar.
I also have newspaper cuttings of the event that interested family historian helpers have provided during my search.
My 3rd gg/f was George baptised at All Saints Hasting 27th August 1780 son of George and Ruth.
Based on the above and because of lack of any other circumstance discovered over 5 years of hard digging I intend to claim the above burial as being
that of my 4th gg/f.
Would anyone disagree?
Joe

[fastfusion]

not everyday one sees a smuggler in the tree....   by all means claim it and have a tshirt made stating u are the proud owner of a once real to do smugglers burial plot.........

good luck in your quest to find more treasure

fast\
 

[joboy]

Thank you Fast ....... I take your response as 'agree'

[Ruskie]

It looks pretty good Joe.

I don't suppose there are any other George Woods in the area at the time who may also have died at the end of December?

Killed and buried on the same day? Very possible, but would it have been the done thing, especially as he was murdered?

Any George Woods buried in January 1785? As it would have been cold he may not needed to have been buried immediately. You would expect there to be some kind of official report of the incident, and it does make you wonder if they would hold the body a little longer before burial.

I don't know - just playing devil's advocate here. 

It does look very likely to be your George's burial though ....

[firefly74]

Not sure if you have this already, but just in case you don't there is an article in The Sussex Advertiser Monday 3 Jan 1785 which says it happened on "Monday last" which would have been 27 Dec, so a burial of 30 Dec makes sense to me It also says the the coroner's jury brought in their verdict of wilful murder.

Happy to transcribe the whole article if you don't have it.

Cheers
Helen

[joboy]

You just beat me to it firefly ...... I have that detail so 3 days between death and burial looks good to me.
Joe

[joboy]

My study of George was greatly impeded by the large number of ancestry subscribers who had claimed him making it irksomely difficult by having to check them all out.
I can understand how they settled upon this George because there were 3 George WOOD births in Hastings within a narrow period of three years so I had to check these out as well and what I got is;
Bapt SC    14.03.1779    George Wood, so George & Ruth
Bapt AS    27.08.1780    George Wood, so George & Ruth (replacement for George 1779 who died in infancy)
Bapt SC    11.03.1803    George Wood, so George & Mercy

There was another George Wood baptism outside the above field;
Bapt AS     29.07.1795    George Wood, so George & Sarah
but I did not put it into consideration.

The abbreviations are;
SC = St Clements
AS = All Saints

George Wood (1780) married twice;
1) Susannah Bevins who died in childbirth 1817 and their only son George (my 3rd gg/f) survived and married Mary Hollis.
Joe

[joboy]

Hi Helen ... something that I had not picked up on but had the detail from the press reports was from your reply #4;
'It also says the the coroner's jury brought in their verdict of willful murder'.
Now I have searched everywhere for a Coroner's Report and found dead ends with Librarians.
If anyone can provide detail here  would appreciate it.
Joe

[Ruskie]

Just wondering Joe, if the reason you have been unable to track down a Coroner's report is that it did not survive?