Coach Accident

A most distressing accident occurred at Harlow, on Friday night, about seven o’clock. The two-horse coach, on its way from London to the Green Man, whilst turning a corner within a very short distance of that Inn, was upset, and the coachman, John Doye, was killed upon the spot. Mr Church, a respectable farmer, at Matching, an outside passenger, was taken up in a state of insensibility, and expired at the Green Man yesterday morning. Two other passengers were bruised; but a female who was sitting on the back of the coach, and who was thrown into a ditch, escaped without the slightest injury. The cause of the overturning of the coach is not known – by some it is supposed that it came in contact with a post which stands upon the causeway; by others it is thought that the wheels went upon the path, and the sway of the coach, in turning round the corner, overbalanced it, and thus occasioned the melancholy event. A most respectable Jury, of whom Mr Crane, of the George Inn, acted as foreman, sat before R. Bartlett, Esq., coroner, at the Green Man.

After the evidence of several witnesses had been heard, the coroner, in summing up, remarked that the melancholy affair could only be attributed to accident, and as it did not appear that it had resulted from any negligence on the part of the driver, or from the unsteadiness of the horses, in either of which cases it would be their duty to fix a sum as a deodand upon the coach, he concluded they would agree to a mere nominal one. The Jury acquiesced in the opinion of the coroner, and returned a verdict, in each case, “Accidental Death,” – deodand 6d.

Mr Doye formerly drove the Stortford coach. He completed his 30th year on Sunday last, and has left a widow and three children, residing at Bishop Stortford. Several of the Jury who know him spoke of him in highest terms, as being of a steady and obliging disposition. Mr Church has left a widow and nine children. He was a stout made heavy man, and about 58 years of age.