Preece Family Tree

OLD LADY'S DEATH

Cruel to Remove Her From Honiton Clyst

AN EXETER INQUEST

An inquest was held at the Court House, Exeter, on Saturday, touching the death of Mrs. Sarah Ann Moxton Sweetland, aged 91, late of Thorndale, Honiton Clyst, who died at a nursing home in Exeter on Thursday.

The body was identified by Charlie Edwin Hawkins Moore, of Thorndale, Honiton Clyst, as his mother-in-law. He said that she had been living with him for between three and four years, and had enjoyed remarkably good health for her age, but during the last six months she was helped about by his wife.

In answer to the Coroner's (Mr. W. Linford Brown) question concerning the health of his wife, Mr. Moore said she had been failing for about six months, and now she was completely run down. That was the reason he had had his mother-in-law removed to Nurse Gale's House in Blackboy-road on Wednesday last.

The Coroner: Did you ask a doctor whether it was well to move her? - No, sir. She didn't seem to want it.

On witness saying that neither he nor his wife had gone out to see the old lady off, the Coroner remarked that it was rather a cheerless going away. Witness replied that his wife was broken down, and he was with her in another room.

He came to Exeter on Thursday, and was told by his brother-in-law, who lived at St. Sidwell's, that the old lady had passed away.

The Coroner: When was the last time the old lady went out? - Oh, when the cold weather began, about September.

Do you think it a right and proper thing to remove an old lady, who had not been out of the house since the cold weather began? - Yes, sir. My wife was broken down.

At the conclusion of the witness's evidence, the Coroner remarked that in his opinion the man had been very cruel to his mother-in-law.

Dr. P. Grey said deceased's heart was greatly enlarged and excessively fatty, and the arteries were thickened. That, he said, was due to senile decay. He attributed death to heart failure.

In reply to the Coroner's question as to whether he considered her removal justified, the doctor said she must have been very near the end.

Nurse Gale, 114, Blackboy-road, to whose house deceased was taken, said until very near the end, and even in the ambulance, deceased was very bright. She passed the first night comfortably. About 9.30 a.m. witness saw she was crying, and fetched Dr. Dodd.

Sergt. B. Arnold, St. John Ambulance Brigade, said he brought deceased to Exeter, and she seemed very bright. He would not have undertaken the removal on his own authority, however.

The Coroner, in returing a verdict of "Death from natural causes, due to fatty degeneration of the heart," said it appeared to him that more care should have been taken. It seemed very unkind to the old lady so far. "I hope," said Mr. Brown, "I shall not get any more of this sort of removal case."