CHARLES WEBB

“WOMAN DROWNED LAST NIGHT – Last (Friday) evening Mrs. Sarah Webb, of Willow Cottage, Willow Street, met her death by drowning. It appears that some boys were near the lodge in Willow Street between five and six o’clock, when they raised the cry that Mrs. Webb had fallen over the low parapet into the river. The current was strong and the body was borne rapidly away, so that though help was speedily forthcoming, the woman was soon carried down the stream and all hope of saving her quickly vanished. It was known that she could not pass the hatchway at the mill in Abbey Street and after a time the body was found floating near the mill, and was got out with celerity by the mill hands, but life was extinct. The ambulance was procured, and the body was conveyed by P.Cs’ Murray and Hatcher to the mortuary to await an inquest. The deceased was about sixty years of age, and a strong, powerful woman. She was rather addicted to drink, and on Monday last was bound over for being drunk and disorderly in Bridge Street on Saturday night.”

CHARLES WEBB

“SAD SUICIDE BY DROWNING AT READING. Recommendation by the jury. An inquest was held at St. Giles’ coffee-house on Saturday, before Mr. W. Weedon, coroner for the borough, on the body of Sarah Ann Webb, when the following evidence was adduced:-

Charles Webb said: I am a bargeman, living at Willow Cottage, Coley. I have just seen the body in the mortuary; it is that of my wife, who was, I think, fifty-six years of age. I don’t know of her having any trouble or worry. She constantly took too much to drink. About 5.30 last evening some lads came and told me Mrs. Webb was in the water. I was then having tea with my son and daughter-in-law. While at tea the deceased got up and walked out not saying where she was going. She had had then plenty of drink.  She has been very strange in her habits since Monday last. She was locked up on Saturday and Sunday last for drunkenness. Since then she had not been sober. I have never known her attempt or threaten to commit suicide before. When told she was in the water I came out  to see for her, and my son went to Soundy’s mill.

Annie Nickless said: I am the step-daughter  of Jas. Stephenson, of 74, Brook-street West. I have known the deceased some time. Last evening, about 5.45, I saw her come straight from her own house and get into the water, the Holybrook. I went to the spot at once, but could see nothing of her. Very soon some more persons came and Mr. Webb was told of it. The deceased was quiet from her house to Holybrook Bridge, but when there she cried out “Murder!”. No one came from the house with her.

Charlotte Sparkes said: I am the wife of Francis Edward Sparkes, of 28, Brook-street West, a carpenter. I have known the deceased between five and six years. At times she was very intemperate. She told me the loss of her little boy was the cause of her taking to drink. She always spoke of Mr. Webb as being very kind to her. A week ago yesterday she told me she had spent the pleasantest week she had for a long time; she had had very little drink and things had gone on very pleasantly. About 5.40 last evening, on passing her house, I heard her speaking and all seemed quiet and peaceable. When sober she was a very kind-hearted woman. She wanted for nothing. On again passing her house about 6.50 I heard she had drowned herself.

Harry Webb said: I am the son of the first witness, and I was the one having tea with him when the news came that my mother was in the water. I ran out at once to search for my mother, and at last went to Mr. Soundy’s mill, where I found her. She was dead. I went for the police, and when they came they worked her arms, but it was no good. The police brought the body here on the ambulance. I poured out a cup of tea for mother, but she refused it and went out almost directly. I thought perhaps she was going to my place and took no notice of her.

The verdict of the jury was, “Committed suicide by drowning during temporary insanity.”

Berkshire Chronicle 19 December 1896.

Violent Assault a Wife.—Separation Ordered. —Charles Webb, boatman, was brought under a warrant charged with violent assault on his wife, Sarah Webb, on Saturday night.

Mr Sidney Brain appeared for the defendant.

The complainant said the boat was in the Kennet, opposite Messrs. Messer’s wharf. She got on board about half-past eleven o’clock on Saturday night, and found her husband in bed in the cabin. He accused her of picking his purse of a sovereign. He got out of bed, took up the tiller and threatened to beat her brains out and murder her before the night was out. He found he could not use the tiller, and then he picked up the hatchet. She got close to him, and he struck at her with the hatchet, and hither on the forehead with it and cut her arm. She wrenched the hatchet from him. She became insensible, and when she came to her senses be was beating her with a poker when the policeman came in. He said before he would work for her the bottom of the boat should rot. He hit her on tho head and on the body with the poker. Some gentleman and two policemen came into the boat. She was quite sure she was sober. She had no mote to drink than what she had with her husband.

Cross-examined : She was on tho boat between nine and ten. She was sober then. She had two or three glasses of stout with her husband. She only took 3 1/2d. out of his pocket. She was not so drunk that she fell down into the barge. No one but her husband was on the barge. Her son was not there. She had been here before for assaulting her husband, and he had been charged with assaulting her. She had been charged with being drunk several times.

Inspector Toulman said that about half-past eleven on Saturday night he was in the charge room the Police Station and heard a woman crying "Murder ” near the river. He went out and met P.C. No. 14, and they went together. He recognised the complainant’s voice. He saw the complainant stepping from the barge. The prisoner was in the companion hatchway of the barge. Mrs. Webb was covered with blood, and she said her hnsband had done it with the hatchet. The defendant said she fell down in the cabin coming board. Witness asked him bow she came partly undressed ? She had her dress in her hand, and there was no blood on that. Webb made no reply but that she fell down in the cabin. Witness and tuc constable took her away, and washed her head and found deep cuts on the forehead and on the left eyebrow. They were flesh wounds. Her face and arms were also bruised. Witness sent the woman to Mr, Maurice’s surgery. She came back with her head bandaged, and he thought it prudent to let her stop the police station all night. There was doubt she was very much the worse for drink.

Cross-examined : The woman had given way to drink for the last seven years. There had been repeated complaints by the man and his wife against each other. Witness had not been on the barge or seen the hatchet or tiller.

Mr. Walter Smith, dispenser to Mr. O. C. Maurice, said the wounds were not dangerous, unless erysipelas set in. The wound across the left eye was a clean cut wound, and would not have been done fall.

Cross-examined: Some of the wounds on the head might have been caused falling against something. The woman was not sober.

By the Bench It was very unlikely that the clean cut wound would have been produced fall.

Mr. Sidney Brain addressed the Bench for the defence, submitting that the woman fell headlong into the barge whilst drunk, and caused the injuries herself. If tho prisoner had given her a blow with the axe the wound would have been much more severe. If the magistrates were convinced that there was an assault it was through her provocation. He had telegraphed for the son, but he had not arrived.

The Chairman said they had the power to send the defendant to prison for six months, but in consequence of the provocation they would only send him for one month. There had been constant disturbances between the man and wife, and the magistrates would make an order for their separation, the man to allow the woman 7s. per week.

 Found Drowned the Kennet. —An inquest was held on Wednesday at St. Giles' Coffee-house, by Mr. W. Weedon, on the body of an unknown man who was found in the Kennet the previous morning. Evidence was given by Fanny Waite, wife of Thomas Waite, a tinman, living at 41, Lower Brook-street She deposed that on Monday night, about 11.45, she left her sister's house in Wolseley-street, and at Howards-corner she was addressed by the deceased. Witness turned down by the Salvation Army barracks. There were three other men following the deceased, and when witness got home she heard a noise like that of a man who was being strangled. She recognised the deceased his clothes. Mr. O. C. Maurice, surgeon, deposed that there were no marks of violence on the body, and that the cause of death was drowning, the body not having been hours in the water. P.c. Elsbury stated that he was on duty in Bridgestreet on Monday night about half-past twelve, when the deceased came to him and asked to taken to the station to sleep there. Witness told him he could not do so. They walked to Canal House, and deceased then turned towards Willow-street. He made no complaint to witness, who believed he said he came from Bristol or Bradford. Witness saw no other men near. Charles Webb, a bargeman, living in Willow Cottage, Coley, deposed to finding the body about eight on Tuesday morning, off the wharf where the barges unload. The water waa less than 4ft. deep. The jury returned a verdict of " Found drowned in the Kennet."