Bloomsbury Searchers (Middlesex)

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Transcription and conventions used

This database contains 9,163 records from the records of the searchers in Bloomsbury. The role of the searcher was to view the recently deceased to ensure there was no cause for further action.

Each record has the following information:

  • Date - in dd/mm/yyyy format
  • Name - forenames and surnames with any pre- and post-nominal information
  • Age - in years unless otherwise indicated. 1/2 indicates ½ and 1/4 indicates ¼ etc.
  • Disease
  • Abode
  • Buried
  • Entry Notes
  • Reference - from London Metropolitan Archive (LMA). This is the original register reference, not a film reference (these begin with an X).

These books may not have been filmed by the LMA.

Andrew Roberts quotes from Morris, Arthur D. (Cambridge, 1958) The Hoxton Madhouses about how the searchers went about their work as follows:

The Select Committee was particularly concerned with the deaths of naval patients in Mile's madhouse. The members enquired closely into the procedure following a death. A death in the parish had to be notified immediately to the Parish clerk, who, as was the custom in those days, sent the parish searchers to view the body and report to him on the cause of death. Two female searchers employed by the parish of St Leonard's, Shoreditch, Martha Wall and Margaret Slater, were summoned, and appeared for examination before the Committee on the 8th May, 1815.

Martha Wall was questioned and answered as follows,

Q. "What duty have you to perform?"
A. "When we go to search, that is, to view the bodies that are deceased; to the best of our judgment, we are sworn to give a true report to the Parish Clerk."
Q. "Of every person who dies in the Parish?"
A. "Yes."
Q. "And you do, whenever you hear of a person dying, call at the house to view the body?" ;
A. "Yes."
Q. "And are you always admitted to see it?"
A. "Yes; if we are not admitted, we endeavour to find out where it is removed to, if it has been removed without our knowledge."
Q. "In the parish or out?"
A. "Yes, in or out of the parish."
Q. "If it has been buried before you hear of it, you proceed no further?"
A. "We proceed as far as to make a report to the magistrate, whom we are sworn before, to see the corpse;"
Q. "If you are satisfied with the appearance of the corpse you proceed no further?"
A. "Yes, without particular grounds for it."
Q. "Do you make a report to the parish clerk whether there is anything particular or not."
A. "Yes in all cases the disorder of which the person has died is represented to the parish clerk."
Q. "Is Sir Jonathan Miles' madhouse within your parish?"
A. "Yes."
Q. "Are you called upon when lunatics die there, to view the bodies?"
A. "Yes, none pass there without our seeing them to our knowledge; and I believe, of late years they have been very particular."
Q. "You see all the bodies that die there you think?"
A. "Yes."
Q. "Where are they put?"
A. "There is a place set apart for them to be removed to, where we see them."
Q. "Have you any reason to believe any lunatics have died, whose corpse you have not seen?"
A. "Not to our knowledge; we have them brought back."
Q. "You have not reason to suspect you do not see them all?"
A. "No."
Q. "Have you an account of the number that have died there?"
A. "We could make an account of all of them."

Weir was recalled on the following day, and examined concerning the deaths of naval lunatics in Miles' establishment.:

Q. Do you know if every naval maniac who died at Hoxton is examined by the searchers of the parish, previous to the body being interned"
A. "I have been informed by the superintendent that the searchers of the parish examine every naval maniac that dies at Hoxton previous to the body being sent to the undertaker."
Q. "Where are the officers and seamen buried ?"
A. "The undertaker informs me that the seamen lunatics are buried in the pauper burying ground at Shoreditch, and the officers in Shoreditch churchyard."

Coverage

Burials were in many places in many counties, although most were in the City of London or Middlesex.

Checking

All the transcript entries are fully checked.

Grouping

There are no record groups in this database.

Abbreviations and Codes

The Chapman County codes have been used. The code for Middlesex is 'MDX'.

Contact details

Please contact Middlesex records via FamilyHistoryOnline contact page.

How to buy

There is no alternative purchase option for this information and it is not included in the National Burial Index.

The second edition of the National Burial Index with 13.2 million burials and a flexible search program is available in a package of four CD-ROMS from many family history societies and GENfair, the online bookshop of the Federation of Family History Societies (Publications) Ltd.

Copyright and disclaimer

© June Daborn who is also the maker of the database and holds the Database Rights.

While every care has been taken in the preparation of the index users are advised to view the originals of the appropriate registers (or facsimiles thereof, e.g. microfilm) and to form their own interpretation. Neither Middlesex Records nor June Daborn accept any liability for any errors or omissions that remain (although they would welcome notification of alternative interpretations of the registers.)

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