TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR, —My attention has been drawn to a paragraph in The Sun newspaper, headed ‟Shocking case of destitution and starvation at Buriton, near Petersfield.”
As this statement is incorrect in several particulars, I beg you will do me the justice of inserting the following statement.
Thomas Searle, of the parish of Buriton, was taken ill on Friday the 29th of April. I visited him on the next day, and he was also on that day attended by the medical man, and plentifully supplied with animal food by his employer.
On the following Tuesday he died suddenly in a fainting fit, produced not by starvation, but by exhaustion, resulting from improper exertion while labouring under influenza, complicated by subacute inflammation of the lungs.
Thinking it a proper case for inquiry, I sent to Mr. Fey, the Superintendent of the Police at Petersfield, suggesting the propriety of an inquest being held on the body, in order to ascertain the precise cause of death.
The verdict was, as you have correctly stated, ‟Died by the visitation of God.”
When in work, Thomas Searle was in the receipt of nine shillings per week; when sick, he had ten shillings per week from a benefit society of which he was a member, receiving at the same time eight loaves of bread from the parish.
With regard to rent, it is now nearly three years since he has paid any.
It may not be superfluous to add that, a week before he was taken ill, he had received fifteen or sixteen pounds of mutton from a relative living at Portsmouth.
The statement circulated by you in reference to my ecclesiastical income and preferment is incorrect in every particular.—I am, sir, your obedient servant,
JOHN M. SUMNER.
Buriton-rectory, Petersfield, May 23, 1853.
(See also
20-May-1853)
Ancestry shows
