The Observer, 12 January 1817
POLICE INTELLIGENCE
MELANCHOLY AND INHUMAN CASE
MANSION HOUSE. —Yesterday a statement was made to the Lord Mayor1 that James Johnson, a poor black sailor, who had been refused admission into St. Bartholomew’s Hospital on Friday evening, had died in the Giltspur-street Compter2 yesterday morning.
The poor man, it appeared, was one of those wretched individuals found wandering about the streets, and had been brought before the Lord Mayor, some days since, as a vagrant. His Lordship discovering that he had some claim to a parish, ordered him to be sent in the usual way to Bridewell for seven days, in order to his being passed. The time having expired, he was on Friday brought before the Lord Mayor to receive his pass; but his Lordship perceiving that he was more fit for an hospital than a travelling cart, ordered him to be removed with his (the Lord Mayor’s) complements, to St Thomas’s, in the Borough, for admission. Wm. Allen, the person entrusted with the message, stated, that he went to the hospital, where he saw one of the porters, of whom he enquired for the Stewart. The man, in an insulting tone, replied, that the Steward was not to be seen at such late hours, and demanded his business. Witness informed him, repeated the recommendation of the Lord Mayor, & strongly urged the dangerous condition of the dying seaman. The porter, however, to all this, commenced a volley of abuse upon the witness and the Lord Mayor pronouncing upon the latter a plentiful supply of maledictions. The witness, however, continuing to press an answer from the Steward of the hospital himself, he was shewn to his apartment; but here he was also unfortunate, and met only with jeers and abuse. The Steward was not to be found, and his servant distinctly assured the witness that it was all in vain to think of any person being admitted into the hospital at so late an hour. Witness next enquired at what time the reception of patients was limited? The porter tauntingly answered, “ask the Lord Mayor; that is his business, not ours.” —He then continued to pour forth abuse as before, and said, that if even twenty Lord Mayors were to send at such an hour, an admission could not be gained. He afterwards pushed the witness, and literally forced him from the place. Witness returned to the Compter, where the poor man was lodged, and where every attention was bestowed upon him by Mr. Teague, but he died yesterday morning.
The Lord Mayor expressed his indignation at hearing the tale, and directed Allen to go to the office of Sir John Eamer3, and obtain a warrant against the porter of the hospital for the assault; and as the other part of his unfeeling conduct, he would take care to have it investigated in a public Court. Being a Governor of Saint Thomas’s Hospital, the Lord Mayor said he would exert himself to bring to punishment or disgrace, persons placed in situations for the purposes of mercy, but who, nevertheless, trifled with the lives or accelerated the death of his fellow-creature.
The Observer, 18 January 1817
Stubblefield, the porter of St. Thomas’s Hospital, of whose improper conduct the Lord Mayor so justly complained on Saturday last, has been suspended from his situation, and been held to bail for the assault on Wm. Allen, the person ordered by his Lordship to conduct Johnson, the black sailor, to hospital.
CORONER’S INQUESTS.
An inquest was held on Monday, upon the body of Johnson, a man of colour, who, after being conveyed (at the desire of the Lord Mayor) to Saint Thomas’s Hospital, in the Borough, where he was refused admission, under the peculiar circumstances stated in last week’s Observer, was carried to Giltspur-street Compter, where he died. The inquest was held at the latter place. Joseph Sivear, assistant surgeon, said he was called at seven on Friday evening, to visit the deceased, who appeared to be in the last stage of a decline; he was put into a warm bed, and medicines sent to him. but he died the next morning. Jane Garnet, nurse to the sick in the Compter, deposed that when the deceased was put to bed, she gave him tea and toast, which he eat and drank very eagerly; she then brought him some broth, and he said he was better and could take nothing more; when asked what ailed him, he said, “I am bad all over;” he complained of nobody. Mr. Stirling, the Coroner, said, that Allen, the person who had conveyed the deceased to the hospital, not being present, the Jury could not take into account either what they had heard or read on the subject in the Observer. No doubt but the porter at the hospital, who is an ignorant person, had acted wrong. —He would postpone the investigation, if they thought proper to obtain the evidence of Allen; but, in his opinion, as the deceased eat and drank so heartily, he came by his death naturally. The Jury declined postponing the investigation, and returned a verdict of —Died by the visitation of God.
Hampshire Chronicle, 20 January 1817
The number of discharged seamen who for some time have been seen in such crowds in the metropolis, daily increase. The evil in fact has arisen to such a degree, as to put at defiance the usual remedies. From thirty to forty poor wretches present themselves daily to the Lord Mayor, who either are foreigners, or not being able to claim a parish, are again sent wandering before the public. The major part of the cases relate to foreigners who have served in the navy. Many of the cases which present themselves to the Lord Mayor, are of a most pitiable nature. On Thursday, one unfortunate man being told by the Magistrate at Guildhall, that having no claim to any parish, he was at a loss to know how he could relieve him; the seaman declared that he still had a resource left – he was frost-bitten, cold, naked, and nearly famished, but he had still strength sufficient to commit a robbery.
1The Lord Mayor was Christopher Smith.
2Giltspur-street Compter was based in Smithfield, opposite Newgate Prison. Compters were small prisons for minor transgressors such as debtors, religious dissidents, drunks, prostitutes, homosexuals and asylum-seeking slaves. London Historians Blog has more information.
3Sir John Eamer: a former Lord Mayor of the City of London.
NOTES
Foreign black sailors were recruited as there was a shortage of British impressed men. Black Salt: Seafarers of African Descent on British Ships by Ray Costello (published by Liverpool University Press in 2012) promises more, and interesting, information on this topic.
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