Mary Jane Bulleid (1828-1838)

St John the Baptist, Hatherleigh, Devon

Many of my ancestors and relatives are simply names, dates and places on a page. Occasionally, however, I learn something more.

The British Newspaper Archive is a new online resource for genealogists and historians. According to its website, "the British Newspaper Archive is a partnership between the British Library and brightsolid online publishing to digitise up to 40 million newspaper pages from the British Library's vast collection over the next 10 years." Over three million pages are currently available. Searching the archive is free, however, there is a small cost to view individual pages.

As a researcher whose primary interest is Devon, I was happy to discover that several historical Devon newspapers have been scanned, including the Western Times and the North Devon Journal. So far I have focused on finding articles relating to my COOKE, LOVEBAND, and BRAGINGTON ancestors and relatives, however, a quick search for BULLEID uncovered the following:

Western Times, Friday, Aug 31, 1838

INQUESTS HELD BY H.A. VALLACK, ESQ. CORONER.— At North Lew, on the body of Mary Jane Bulleid, aged 10 years, daughter of Mr. Bulleid, of Hatherleigh. The deceased had been incautiously and ignorantly placed by a servant man on a horse with her foot in the stirrup leather—the result was, she fell from the horse, and being entangled in the leather, the animal became frightened, and ran off furiously for nearly a mile to the house of his owner, by which time the head of the poor child was fractured, and the scalp entirely gone. Verdict 'accidental death.'

Mary Jane BULLEID was the niece of my ggg-grandmother Mary Field BULLEID (1809-1894). Her parents were Samuel BULLEID (1803-1875) and Patience TUCKER (1804-1885). Samuel had been born in Dolton, Devon but moved to Hatherleigh and established himself as a butcher. Mary Jane was the second eldest of seven children. Her gravestone in the churchyard of St John the Baptist records her death as well as the deaths of three of her siblings.