Wellers of Glynde Sussex tragedy - and Charles Dickens
tifrap
yet figured out how to add to a thread - so if this ends up as a new
thread, my apologies.
On Jun 19 2009, 9:26 pm, Richard Weller <meg...@talktalk.net> wrote:
> Welcome Tiff,
>
> Your message reminds me of another WELLER from the Lewes area who I
> have wondered about, and are worth mentioning, if only for general
> interest. The Times newspaper of 26 Jun 1863 had the following item
> in 'News in Brief.'
>
> THREE DEATHS FROM LIGHTNING. On Wednesday Mr WELLER, a shopkeeper in
> Glynde, a small village in East Sussex, accompanied by his wife and
> another woman, went to Brighton, about 11 miles distant, in a light
> cart, to transact some business. On their return in the evening they
> were overtaken by a severe thunderstorm that prevailed for several
> hours, and it is supposed that the cart was struck by the electric
> fluid, and the three inmates almost instantaneously killed, as their
> lifeless bodies were discovered at an early hour yesterday morning by
> a person who was returning from Glynde to Lewes.
>
> From the PRs of Glynde, I found that on 28 Jun 1863 were buried in the
> churchyard: Henry Mockett WELLER aged 51, Mary WELLER, 48, and
> Elizabeth BINGHAM, 34.
>
> The 1861 census shows that living at Glynde Place were Henry, a
> Butcher and Grocer aged 49, born West Firle, his wife Mary, his father
> Alexander WELLER, widower aged 78, Master Wheelwright, born Waldron,
> Sussex, and nephew Thomas WELLER, 6, scholar, born Brighton. Next
> door were William WELLER, Widower, 71, Master Bricklayer, b. W Firle,
> son Thomas, 26, Journeyman Bricklayer, and daughter Winnifred, 25,
> housekeeper, both born Glynde.
>
> All good wishes,
> Richard.
I too came across this Weller tragedy - having a lot of Kent
(Upchurch), London (Wandsworth) and Sussex (Ringmer) Wellers in my
family tree.
I did a bit of digging on this as it is very local to where I live - I
often pass the spot where it happened.
Anyway, I found that Charles Dickens became interested in the case,
and apparently visited the scene of the accident (possibly his
curiosity was aroused by the name as he was romanticly involved with a
Weller).
Not only did he visit the scene, but he published an account. Here it
is.....
(Excuse the bad formating, it is from a character recognition scan).
----------
Dickens Charles
Leaving Seaford and East Blatchington, with the widow and three
children of poor John Dancer, and going up the valley watered by the
Ouse towards Lewes, we approach the scene of another deplorable
calamity. Ranscombe Brow, a bold hill skirted by the road from Lewes
to Glynde (the village of the glen), is situated about a mile and a
half from Lewes, and commands, even from the road, an extensive view
of the valley, both inland and seaward. The road winds through a
wooded dell, and is darkened by very high and very tliick hedges on
both sides. Nothing can be seen except the sky. But, on issuing from
between the hedges, and rounding the brow, an extensive flat landscape
of pastures, watered by the Ouse, startles the view. The effect is
striking, even on a fine summer afternoon, and must have been
appalling in the night and the early morning of the 25th of June, when
the darkness of night increased the gloom between the hedges, and when
continuous lightning was enkindled all over the extensive view.
Shortly after eleven o'clock on Wednesday night, a tradesman of
Glynde, Mr. Henry Mocket Weller, aged fifty- Conducted by one Mary his
wife, aged forty-nine ; and a young woman, Elizabeth Bingham, about
thirty-five years of age; drove along this road from Lewes in a one-
horse cart. Elizabeth Bingham was about to be married to Mrs. Weller's
brother, "after," as the local phrase describes it, "they had walked
out together for ten years," and she was going to Glynde to make some
preparations for her wedding. As he passed a policeman while leaving
Lewes, Mr. W eller said, " Good night ; it is very rough." At the
Southerham tollbar-gate, Mrs. Weller and Miss Bingham were alarmed,
and Mr. Weller was pacifying them. He was over-confident in the
steadiness of his horse. Mr. Weller sat on the right driving, his wife
sat next him holding up an umbrella, and the bride on the left of the
scat in the cart. . On issuing from between the dark hedges and
reaching the brow, they must have seen the whole landscape, the sky,
the distant hill-tops, the pastures, the river, a-blaze witli
continuous lightning. I read the story of the catastrophe in the fresh
marks on the spot. The horse, seized with maddening panic, had
suddenly started away from the view of the lightning, wheeling the
cart very sharply round, and springing up the steep embankment.
The marks of the wheels and hoofs on the grass of the embankment, show
that a terrible struggle ensued between horse and driver, the horse
wildly plunging anywhere away from the storm, and the driver pulling
the right rein to bring the horse down into the road. All three had
tried to get down from the cart on the right side, together. The horse
then fell over, capsizing the cart, and entangling all three under it.
They were killed by the fall, the wheel, and the kicking horse.
For hours the four victims of this thunderstorm lay dead or dying
during that fearful night : John Dancer on the beach under Seaford
Cliff, and the Wellers and Elizabeth Bingham on the road, under
Ranscombe Brow. What a touch of pathos is added to the terror of these
storms, when we remember their wrecked victims, the hopes they
destroyed, and the homes they desolated ! How are we to characterise
the fool-hardiness which neglects all the known precautions against
their dangers ?
More than three hours after the catastrophe at Ranscombe, a Lewes
tradesman was driving home in a four-wheeled chaise. It was the
darkest, coldest, most eerie hour in the morning, about half-past two
o'clock. On the road at Ranscombe Brow, his horse shied. He applied
the wip gently, but the horse would not advance.
His son jumped down and tried to lead tue horse, and then both father
and son tried to lead the horse ; but he would not pass something on
the road. It was very dark. They could see nothing. At last a flash of
lightning showed a cart turned on the axle, and they discerned a woman
lying close under it. The woman did not answer when spoken to, and
they discovered she was dead. Another flash of lightning revealed
another woman rather more under the cart. After procuring a lantern
and assistance, and while drawing the cart away from the horse, a man
was seen under the wheel. The forepart of the cart was kicked in.
These three victims of this storm were buried in the churchyard of
Glynde on the following Sunday. A long funeral procession, with about
thirty couples of mourners, followed them from the village to the
churchyard. The coffins, according to ancient Sussex custom, were
carried on the shoulders of sixteen men, attired in long white smock-
frocks, with black neckties. One large grave received all three, and
they were laid down in the order in which they travelled. From a
thousand to fifteen hundred persons were in the churchyard ; and a
crowded congregation listened in the church, in tears, to a discourse
reminding us that in the midst of life we are in death. This great
storm left its mark at other places. At Maidstone and Herstmonceau,
hailstpnes, or rather bits of ice, of oblong shape and broad as
pennypieces, fell, breaking skylights. A policeman on duty at East
Peckham was struck by lightning and seriously injured on the left
side. A retriever dog was killed bv his master's side at
Hurstpicrpoint. A poplar was shattered into splinters in the village
of Kemsing. At Cuckfield, the lightning entered a cottage by the
chimney, burned a small hole through the bedroom floor, passed through
the sitting-room below, and left by the door, which happened to be
open. At sea, four sailors were knocked down on board the Britannia
collier, lying off Brighton. At Wilmington, the Eagle beerhouse was
set on fire and gutted, the inmates escaping for their lives. At
Spring Cottage, Fount Road, Tunbridge Wells, a man and liií wife were
struck in bed, the latter lying for some time insensible. None of the
furniture in the room in which they were sleeping was injured, but the
stone sink in the kitchen was shattered to pieces. In Ely Laue,
Tunbridge Wells, the lightning struck a cottage, breaking pictures,
damaging ceiling, and smashing panes of glass and a chimney mirror A
horse grazing upon the rocks at Denny Bottom either fell, being
frightened, or was knocked or swept down from the rocks, and was
fatally hurt. The lightning over the whole range of the storm scorched
flowers, corn, especially oats and barley, although the damage was not
considerable; and it positively benefited the hop bines, by
debarrassiug them of noxious insects.
----------
interesting eh?