Weaste Cemetery

Biographies of people buried between 1870 & 79

Eliza (nee Monson) Tomlinson (1844 - 1878)


 

Eliza Tomlinson was a housewife and mother living in Hulme, Manchester. She died on 11th July 1878, aged 33 and was buried at Weaste Cemetery, Salford. However it was reported to the police that her husband had beaten her, so her body was exhumed and her husband was put on trial.

 

She was born in 1944 in Ireland. Her father was James Monson (born 1815 in Ireland) and her mother was Maria Monson (also born in Ireland). In 1851 the Monson family lived at Boyles Court, Manchester, where Eliza had 2 sisters and 3 brothers. On 31st July 1871 Eliza married Edwin Tomlinson (born 1838) at Manchester Cathedral. They had 2 sons born in Hulme, Manchester: William (born 1876) and Edwin (born 1878). Eliza died on 11th July 1878 aged 33, and was buried on 13th July at Weaste Cemetery in a common grave B24/CE/4525.

 

On 3rd August 1878 the Manchester Weekly Times read: "The Alleged Manslaughter at Hulme. At the City Police Court yesterday, Edwin Tomlinson, bricklayer of 8 Stott Street, Hulme, was charged on remand with the manslaughter of his wife Eliza Tom-kinson. On 4th June the deceased, who had just recovered from her confinement, went out for a walk, met two of her neighbours, and went with them into a public house, where, as she was in the act of paying for some whiskey, her husband came in, and ordered her to leave the place. She returned home followed by the prisoner, and as soon as they got indoors he accused her of being drunk, and struck her so violently as to render her unconscious. Soon afterwards the nurse came in, and the prisoner helped her to carry his wife upstairs and put her on the bed, again striking her several times. The woman was confined to the house for some days, being insensible nearly all the time, and was afterwards sent by the prisoner to some friends at Patricroft. In a day or two she returned home very ill, went to bed, and died on the 11th July and her body was interred at the Salford Cemetery on the 13th.

 

Some days later, a letter signed by "Mark Price" was received by the police, alleging that the woman had died from the ill-treatment of her husband. The body was exhumed and an Inquest returned a verdict of manslaughter against the prisoner. Mr F A Southam, surgical officer at the infirmary said he made a post-mortem examination of the body, which was too much decomposed to show any marks of external violence. The cause of death was apoplexy, the result of extravasation of the blood into the substance of the brain, which might have been due to natural causes or to violence. The prisoner, who reserved his defence, was committed for trial at the Assizes."

 

The Manchester Evening News of 28th January 1879 reported on the trial. "Edwin Tomlinson aged 40, bricklayer, was indicted for the manslaughter of his wife at Man-chester. The case for the prosecution was to the effect that on the night of the 6th June last, the prisoner, who resided in Stott Street, Hulme, assaulted his wife so severely, that on the following morning, Mr Hartham, surgeon, was called in and attended up to 11th July, when she died, death being attributed to inflammation of the brain. The Jury found that the prosecution had failed to make its case and the prisoner was acquitted."