The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 49 No.4 | March 2023

Searchers/Member’s article

I have not been able to identify the Platoons that he may have served in and would welcome any suggestions on where to look for the information. David Lindsell (Member #15906) Contact Details:- 58, South view Gardens, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 2AQ Email trained@tiscali.co.uk

Death in Dorset

The 13th of April 1840 edition of The Salisbury and Winchester Journal reported on the inquest held on Wednesday 8th April on the death of Thos. SWENY in the “Black Dog” in Stoke near Wareham. He was a dealer from Portsmouth who got into a fight the previous day with William CLAPCOTT who lived in Stoke. They were presumably gambling with cards when a quarrel started over some comments made by SWENY on the way that the game was being played. As a result of the subsequent fight Thomas SWENY died. The verdict of the jury was manslaughter which resulted in William CLAPCOTT being committed to Dorchester Gaol to await trial. His confinement didn’t last long because a report in the same paper two weeks later on 20th April confirmed that at the Dorset Sessions he was found not guilty. Unfortunately the report did not reveal any

details from the trial other than that he was acquitted. Whilst looking for any further information on Thomas SWENY I couldn’t find any details of his burial in Dorset but as a long shot I did look in the HGS Burial Index. This resulted in a curious find of a burial of Thomas SWEENY, aged 23, that appeared in the St Mary’s burial register on 7th April. If this was the same person there is no way that he could have been buried on the same day that he died in Dorset. So were there two Thomas SWENY s living in Portsmouth at the same time who and died within a few days of each other, or did somebody somewhere get one, or both, of the dates wrong? Roy Montgomery (Member #3759) Sources – The Salisbury and Winchester Journal April 1840 HGS indexes

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