Joseph Honeyman of Hutton Rudby, dies of cholera in 1848

York Herald, 4 November 1848

CASE OF CHOLERA, AND CAUTION TO DRUNKARDS

On Tuesday last, an inquest was held before Mr John Settle, at the Angel Inn, in Stranton, on view of the body of Joseph Honeyman, a native of Hutton Rudby, in Yorkshire, and who was a seaman on board the brig Zephyr, then lying in the West Dock, at Hartlepool, on board of which the deceased was viewed by the jurors.  

From the evidence, it appeared that the deceased had been drinking for several days, in London, previous to the vessel leaving the Thames, and that he had got quit of about nine sovereigns in eight days, during which time he had been drunk every day.  

When off Flambro' Head on Saturday last, the deceased was suddenly attacked about five o'clock in the afternoon with illness.  He was sick and vomited very much, he was purged and subjected to cramps, and was also cold at the extremities.  He lingered about thirty hours from his first being seized, and died on board the Zephyr, at the harbour of the West Dock.  

Dr Green, of Hartlepool, attended the deceased on the arrival of the ship, and, at the inquest, he stated that deceased's was a case of malignant Asiatic cholera, the exciting cause being drink.  Deceased was 24 years of age.  Verdict, "Natural death, from Asiatic cholera."

On the Hartlepool History Then and Now website you can see a Public Notice dated 8 August 1848 warning the inhabitants of the cholera:

From information received almost daily in this country, from many parts of the Continent, it is manifest that, that dreadful scourge of human life, the CHOLERA, is spreading its devastating influence over many parts; and, from all accounts, the inhabitants of this country have the strongest reasons for dreading its quick approach to these Isles; and of all the towns in the kingdom, none can have greater cause of fear than Hartlepool ...

The same website has a picture of the West Harbour and Dock dated 1848.

A few weeks before the death of Joseph Honeyman, the Darlington and Stockton Times of 14 October 1848 had carried the report that "considerable apprehension and alarm" had been excited in Hartlepool the previous Saturday when a rumour spread that a young passenger on the Highland Chief out of South Shields had died of the cholera.  

It was Dr Green, with a police officer, who went aboard to establish the facts, and he decided  that it had not been a cholera case.  The belongings of the poor young man, Isaac Forsyth Arthur, were removed ("his trunk, portmanteau, &c") and the Highland Chief continued on her voyage to Naples.  The jury decided that he had died from exhaustion, caused by sea-sickness.  He was about 20 years old, and had been a student in the Free College at Edinburgh.

This was the second visitation of the Asiatic cholera to the United Kingdom.  Hutton Rudby itself had suffered in the first terrible epidemic in 1832.  For a full account see 'The Year of the cholera', chapter 11 of Remarkable, but still True, my book about the Rev R J Barlow of Hutton Rudby.

Already in 1832, a link had been made between alcohol and the disease.  To quote from that chapter:

The abuse of alcohol was frequently linked with vulnerability to cholera, by the newspapers and the doctors.  It struck a chord with the public, as this was the dawn of the temperance movement, and alcohol now carried increasing associations of poverty and lack of self-control.  Moreover, the usual medical advice was to abstain from strong liquor during the epidemic and take wine in moderation.  In fact the gastritis and malnutrition caused by excessive use of alcohol did favour the disease.

And the unfortunate young man at the heart of this story –

There is one Joseph Honeyman in Hutton Rudby in the 1841 Census who was of the right age.  Joseph, aged 17 or 15 (it is hard to tell whether 7 or 5 was the correction) was the son of Thomas Honeyman, weaver, and his wife Ann, and he was in 1841 a cartwright's apprentice.  He must have left the village for a more exciting life ...