The Curious Death of John Maugham.

In Sheffield in November of 1872 there lived a widow called Ann Smith who made a living from running a lodging house in Harvest Lane. Generally speaking, she had few problems with her lodgers, as she was well able to keep them under control. However, over the last few months one particular man had been causing her particular headaches. Fifty five year old labourer Peter Williams thought nothing of getting drunk every Saturday night and using bad language in front of his landlady. However when he started to do it in front of her children, that was a completely different matter.

On Saturday night 22 November the lodger came in roaring drunk and when one of Ann’s sons remonstrated with him, Williams lashed out at the child. The boy had simply told the drunken man that ‘he ought not to conduct himself in such a manner.’ As Williams lifted his fist, Ann stepped between the pair and as a result received a violent blow in the mouth for her trouble. Only when she took down a heavy pot basin and threatened Williams with it, did he finally sit down and become quiet again. Ann had just began to relax, when glancing out the window she spotted another lodger called John Maugham standing in the yard.

There had already been some sort of feud between Williams and the sixty one year old carter, Maugham, so she went outside and begged the man to go away. He played little heed and the poor woman went back into the kitchen, and taking down the key she firmly locked the door. However Maugham had already seen that the landlady’s face was bleeding, and seeing Williams inside, he knew who the person was who had initiated such an injury. Maugham kicked at the locked door and demanded that Williams come out and fight ‘like a man’. Hearing this the lodger forced the key out of Ann Smiths hands before unlocking the door and going outside.

However, once outside and being confronted by the larger man, Williams took to his heels and ran down Harvest Lane. Maugham was having none of this and he ran after and caught hold of him before the two men immediately began to struggle fiercely together. Thankfully, two other lodgers saw what was happening and quickly separated the pair. Nevertheless during the short struggle, the two men and their landlady quite clearly heard Maugham say that Williams had bitten him. As they dragged the two men apart, it was clear that Maugham’s thumb was bleeding. Thankfully, that seemed to be the end of the argument, and matters soon settled down at the lodging house.

Nevertheless, the condition of Maugham’s bitten thumb did not improve and steadily got worse. Only after Ann had nagged at him for a full three weeks, did he finally take her advice and go to seek medical advice. He went to see Dr Kemp at the workhouse hospital on 12 December. The surgeon saw that the man’s whole arm from his hand to his elbow was now swollen and inflamed. Dr Kemp diagnosed ‘erysipelas’ and did what he could to save his patient, but almost from the beginning he knew the wound was a fatal one. Sadly Williams condition was so frail by this time that four days later, on 16 December 1872 John Maugham died from his injury at the Workhouse hospital.

As a result, an inquest on the body of the deceased man was opened at the Alma Hotel by the Coroner, Mr J Webster two days later. However only evidence of identification was taken, before the inquest was adjourned until Wednesday 22 January 1873. On that day Ann Smith found herself the first witness at the resumed inquest, as she described the fight between the two men. The landlady told the inquest that both men were quiet, inoffensive kind of persons until they had been drinking, when they would both become quarrelsome.

Surgeon, Dr Kemp described his treatment of erysipelas for the deceased man at the workhouse hospital and admitted that he knew from the start that the case was a hopeless one. He told the coroner that by the time he saw that man’s injured thumb, he was in such a poor physical condition that he could not even contemplate having the infected arm amputated. Other witnesses gave evidence of the two men struggling together in the street. After hearing all the evidence, Mr Webster told the jury that the only question they would have to decide was whether Peter Williams was guilty of manslaughter or not.

The coroner gave his opinion that he did not think that the prisoner was guilty of manslaughter as it was clear from the evidence of witnesses that he was not the aggressor in the case. He pointed out that it was John Maugham who had followed Williams after he had run away and forced him to into the fight. However, some members of the jury disagreed, and felt that they were of the opinion that Williams had not needed to fight, if he had not wished to do so. Hence they returned a verdict that Peter Williams was guilty of manslaughter. As a result on Friday 25 January, the prisoner was brought before the magistrates at Sheffield Town Hall.

The details of the case was gone into once more, before Williams was asked if he had anything to say in his own defence. He simply shook his head, before the bench found him guilty and remanded him on bail for a week, in his own recognizances of £40 and two other sureties of £20 each. Finally, Peter Williams was brought before the Leeds Assizes on Thursday 27 March 1873 to take his trial. He was charged with the manslaughter of John Maugham before being placed in a cell.

However, before the trial could begin the judge, Mr Justice Denman opened the assizes and gave his address to the Grand Jury. He made a particular mention of the case of Peter Williams, as he told them that the case would require more than the jury’s ‘ordinary attention’. He told them that they had to decide whether Maugham’s death was from the erysipelas or the bite from the prisoner. Thankfully the following day the Grand Jury threw out the case against Peter Williams and he was discharged. There is little doubt that he returned back to Sheffield a wiser and more careful kind of man.

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