On Monday 10th June 1889 an inquest was held at the Nags Head in Sawley on the death of Henry Cook, who’d been found dead at his aunt’s house two days earlier.
The coroner was W.H. Whiston and the inquest jury were W. P. Bennett (chair), Joseph Birkin, Percival Bosworth, William Ward, Edward Kilbourne, Benjamin Allen, George T Lodge, John Bromley, Henry Bonser (landlord of the Nags Head), Albert Robinson, Reuben Bailey and Thomas Ironmonger.
They heard that Henry Cook (25) was separated from his wife. Lately he’d been lodging with his aunt and grandmother in Hey’s Buildings in Sawley. He was out of regular work but had been doing odd jobs and gardening.
HIs aunt, Emma Smith, identified the body. She said that there had been some ‘unpleasantness’ in the village which had disgraced the family. And as Henry couldn’t pay his way, she’d told him on the Wednesday that he’d have to leave the house.
He told a friend, John Staples, that he’d got himself in trouble and didn’t know how to get out of it. He was tired of life, and he’d bought small amounts of laudanum (a tincture of opium and alcohol) at different chemist shops in Nottingham. On the Thursday night, he’d gone to the graveyard by Sawley Church, laid beside the graves of his parents and taken a heavy dose of the laudanum, hoping to die. But he survived the night and woke up around 5am. He then jumped or fell into the river, although he knew he could swim.
He was brought back to the village on Friday morning. Hugh Montgomery stated at the inquest that he didn’t believe Cook had taken laudanum, as he was in an excited but exhausted condition, so he gave him a stimulant. But on the Saturday morning he saw Cook was dying, and he was found dead at around noon.
The doctor who examined the body was sure the death was due to poisoning. On being questioned by the police inspector, the doctor said that if the victim had been drinking whisky, this could have delayed the effects of the laudanum. The verdict was that he’d poisoned himself whilst of unsound mind.
Henry Cook had been born in Sawley in 1863. His parents were Robert Cook (a railway labourer, originally from Gainsborough) and Mary (nee Smith). They married in 1863, and both had died in 1870. Henry, who was an only child, then lived with his (Cook) grandparents on Cross Street. His grandfather – John Cook – was a sheet dresser at the sheet stores and by 1881 Henry was doing the same job. During the 1880s he’d become a clerk at Nottingham Post Office, but had been required to leave at some point before the events of June 1889.
