The Tragic death of a Court Crier
Hugh Newman (1778-1827) was the fourth son of John & Margaret Newman. He was six when the family moved to London. In 1805 he married a young widow, Ann Mathews, who bore him one son before her own early death. Hugh was employed as Porter and Court Keeper (Crier) of the Rolls Court in Chancery Lane, Westminster but lived with his infant son, George, in the same house as his brother-in-law, William Leedle, in Gibraltar Row, St. George's Fields, Southwark.
On New Year's Eve, 1826 Hugh was mugged and robbed by two men which left him very nervous, depressed in spirits and trembling. He was known as "a man given to liquor", so possibly they took advantage of his inebriated condition. Early in the morning of 4 January 1827, Elizabeth Leedle - who slept with her husband in the next room - heard a cough and a gun shot. Upon investigation she found that Hugh had shot himself through the head. An inquest found that he had done this in a fit of insanity, so he was buried in the Borough churchyard.
In his will, with personal bequests amounting to the not inconsiderable sum of £1000, Hugh left genereous bequests to the Leedles, whose care for him after his wife's death, was deeply appreciated.
