Saturday 19th August 1876

MANSLAUGHTER AT MITCHAM.

Mr. G. Hull, the Surrey coroner, has held an inquest at the Prince of Wales, Mitcham, on the body of Mary Elizabeth Harvey, wife of James Harvey, labourer. Jane Robinson, daughter of the deceased by her first marriage, said that on the night of the 8th inst. her mother returned home after being out work all day. Harvey was indoors, and immediately seized witness and turned her out, declaring that she should never enter the house again. She then heard him quarrelling with her mother about a shilling, and he came out again and pushed witness to the ground, when deceased came to her, and he struck her several blows and knocked her down, and she died in few minutes afterwards. Corroborative evidence having been given, it was stated that deceased was a hardworking woman, very fond of her children, who were ill-used by Harvey, and that the latter worked very little, and seemed to live on the earnings of deceased, who had said that she had kept him for thirteen years. The jury returned a verdict of “Manslaughter.”

Source: Aldershot Military Gazette – Saturday 19 August 1876 from the British Newspaper Archive (subscription required)