Submitted by:  "Anne Cole" <duncalf@one-name.org>

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From the Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury, Friday 5 October 1849

Suicide. - On Saturday last, Mr. Hitchins held an inquest at Newton-on-Trent, 
on the body of Mr. Bealby, who had hanged himself on the previous morning. 
It appeared that the deceased kept a thrashing (threshing) machine,
which was in daily request at the present season; that on the Wednesday,
he had promised it to his brother, but upon the brother's going to fetch
it, the deceased said he could not have it, as Mr. Balfour was going to
use it. The brother remonstrated with him, for promising it to him, and
then letting Mr. Balfour have it, and the deceased replied, "I owe Mr.
Balfour a little money; and if I do not work it out, he will turn me out
of the house". Afterwards his wife told the brother that he might have the
machine, but Mr. Balfour fetched it away. The nephew of the deceased
stated that he saw his uncle, who told him that Mr. Balfour had been with
him, and threatened to turn him out of the house, and that he should never
have another day's work, if he did not go and take up the machine again.
The nephew told the deceased it was a nasty action to let Mr. Balfour have
the machine, and that he should not have his horse to thrash with any
more: the nephew then procured another machine. On Friday morning,
deceased went and saw the machine in his brother's yard, and returned to
his own stable and hanged himself to the rack. Naturally he was a very
weak-minded man.

The coroner, in summing up, remarked that, though there was no evidence to show
a disposition to insanity, yet Bealby being of weak mind, being threatened on
the one hand that he should be turned out of his house and have no more work, 
and on the other that if he procured more work he should not have a horse to 
work with, added to the fact of his having seen a fresh machine introduced into 
the village, might cause temporary insanity. 

The Jury differing in opinion, the following verdict was, on the suggestion of 
the coroner, returned: "That the deceased destroyed himself by hanging, but in 
what state of mind he was at the time of committing the act, there was no 
satisfactory evidence to show".
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*** Revised 5-January-2007 ***
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