Emma Elton

She was born e. 1831 in Newbury and her early life was spent in the Newbury Union Workhouse with her father William Elton and her siblings Arabella, Will and Henry. She is recorded in the 1851 Census working as a House Servant in the household of John Moss and his family. John Moss was a Schoolmaster who established in 1825 the Newbury Academy for daily and boarding pupils which removed in 1851 to Albion House, Oxford Street. From the inquest report (see below) she went for a walk with her brother Henry on the Woodspeen Road when she was knocked into a hedge by a cow. She died some five weeks later at the home of James and Elizabeth Kent in Cheap Street, possibly from an internal wound.
She died on 24 January 1854 aged 23 and she was buried on 27 January 1854.

Her father William Elton was buried on 20 April 1871 aged 77 years (according to burial register) or 73 years (according to death index), and her brother Henry Elton was buried on 29 August 1873 aged 43 years.

Sources: 1841 and 1851 census; Death Index 1Q 1854; Reading Mercury 28/1/1854.
Obituaries & Newspaper Announcements Article Source: Reading Mercury Date: 28 January 1854

An inquest was held on Wednesday, the 25th inst., at the Three Tuns Hotel, by Joseph Bunny, Esq. Borough Coroner, on view of the body of Emma Elton. From the evidence of Elizabeth Kent, wife of James Kent, of Cheap-street, Newbury, it appeared that on Monday last, the deceased applied at her house for a bed; was let in, and she went to bed immediately; she took nothing. About one o'clock on Thursday morning, the 24th inst., deponent's niece, Rachel Kent, came to her room, and said, deceased was very ill. She complained of being ill, when she came in the evening before, and said she had been "hunched" by a bull belonging to Mr. J. Fidler, of Northbrook-street, about five weeks ago, and traced her illness to that cause; gave her a little tea and peppermint water, and then left her. Early in the morning, she had a little brandy and water, and about half-past nine o'clock in the morning, began getting up; was again called up by her niece, to deceased, who was dying. Sent for Dr. Carter, but she died before he arrived. Henry Elton, brother of the deceased, stated, that on December the 20th, he was walking with his deceased sister on the Woodspeen road, to Boxford; when between Hunt's Green and Boxford, she was knocked into the hedge by a cow. The head of the cow was tied down to its leg. Deceased said, she was not much hurt, and walked on to the Bell public-house, at Boxford, a distance of a quarter of a mile. The cow struck the deceased with its head, and not with its horns; he left her at the Bell, at Boxford. Had not heard anything of her, until Monday, when she came to the Greyhound, in Newbury, where he lodged, and complained of a pain in her side; she said that she had left her situation, because she was not equal to it; did not see her alive again; did not know of any illness that deceased had had. — Verdict — "Died from the visitation of God, from natural causes."

Author: D Duff
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