« 
1804.] 
The domeftic misfortunes of this family are 
worthy of remark: the fifter was burnt to 
death; the father dropped down dead; and 
the deceafed, a young man, was in perfect 
health the preceding night, 
At Clapton, Ifaac Clarke, efg. 
In Thornhaugh-ftreet,. Bedford-fquare, ¥. 
Barton, ¢f9. of Penwortham, Lancathire, bro- 
ther-in-law to E. M. Mundy, efq. M. P, for 
Derbythire. 
Mrs. Hays, a very refpeCtable lady, above 
80 years of age. She had refided upwards of 
thirty years in Pall Mall Court, Pall Mall. 
She retired to her chamber’ about ten 
o’clock, her ufual hour of reft, attended by 
her fervant, who put her to bed. About an 
hour afterwards the fervants heard a dreadful 
Crafh, anda groan at the back of the houfe, 
where they found their miftrefs faftened upon 
the iron fpikes of the railing which had en- 
tered her thighs. Her back was likewife 
broken, and her full frafured in two places. 
On being carried into the houfe fhe imme- 
diately expired. Her chamber was on the at- 
tic ftory, and it is fuppofed that being alarmed 
in her fleep fhe opened the window and threw 
herfelf out, 
The Rew, William Tindall, M. A. F.S A. 
and chaplain of the Tower. He thot himfelf, 
with a mufguetoon ftrongly charged, at his 
houfe on the parade in that fortrefs. He had 
in the morning waited on the governor to re- 
queft his permiffion of abfence from chapel, 
on account of indifpofition ; which was grant- 
ed, under circumftances of polite, and even of 
kind confideration. No immediate caufe feems 
to have inftigated the act. The condu& of 
the unfortunate gentleman was ever marked 
by much eccentricity and abftraétion of mind, 
tinctured with a confiderable portion of me- 
Jancholy ; but, latterly, it appeared to his 
friends to have taken a more ferious and aps 
prehenfive form. His inoffenfive manners 
and polite acquirements had gained him efteem 
in a moft refpe@table circle of relations and 
acquaintance ; and he was known as the au- 
thor of fome flight literary compofitions, and 
recently of a fhort heroic poem. In the fifter 
arts of mufic and painting, he was generally 
confidered as a fuccefsful amateur. Colonel 
Smith, major of the Tower, ftated to the 
Coroner’s jury, that on the morning he was 
waited on by the deceafed, to requeft leave of 
abfence, he complained much of an indifpo- 
fition, which he defcribed as a moft unaccoun- 
table fenfation, fuch as he had never before ex- 
perienced. Hechiefly complained ofa great de- 
preifion of {pirits, and an unquenchable thirft; 
and faid he was going to the country, which, 
he was fure, would be of great ufe to him. 
The colanel defcribed him as a man of the 
moft exemplary piety, amiable manners, and 
upright principles. He was an affeétionate 
hufband, and a fincere friend, efteemed and 
refpeéted by a large circle of friends and rela- 
tions ; he was not more beloved for his private 
character, than admired for thofe elegant ace 
Marriages and Deaths in and near London. 
55 
=r) 
quirements which always grace the gentleman, 
Fie was about yo years of age, and had ‘been 
five years chaplainto the Tower. The colonel 
further faid, that a moft fcandalous and mali-« 
cious mifreprefentation of the caufe of this 
melancholy cataftrophe had been fpread abroad 
by fome ill-natured perfons, who imputed it 
to mifconduct on the part of Mrs, Tindall; a 
more grofs falfehood could not be imagined. 
She was a woman of the moft amiable difpo- 
fition and manners, and, in every refpect, of 
the moft unimpeachable character. She and 
the deceafed lived together in the moft cors 
dial affection and harmony; nor were ‘there 
the flighteft grounds for fuch vile infinuations. 
At the time this fhocking event took place, 
fhe was at her aunt’s, about a mile from Exe- 
ter, which place he was to have fet out for, 
to join heron that day. A female fervant of 
the deceafed ftated, that fhe had obferved her 
mafter much agitated on that morning ; he 
committed many inconfiftencies, and talked 
very incoherently ; he went out, and return 
ed very frequently in the courfe of the mor- 
ning, He wasto have fet out for the country 
after dinner, and had his clothes packed up 
for that purpofe ; the carriage was in waiting; 
and, while the dinner was preparing, about 
half paft two, he went up to his bed-chame 
ber; fhortly after fhe heard the report of 2 
piftol, but as no one was in the houfe at the 
time, but herfelf, the waited till fome perfon 
came in. They proceeded to the room, where 
they found the body lying contracted on the 
floor; the fcull, from the top of the nofe to 
the back part of the head, was entirely blown 
off, and the fragments of bone and brains were 
fcattered to the extremities of the room. When 
the jury went to examine the body, the piftol 
was difcovered onthe hearth, ata confiderable 
diftance from the body; it was whatis generally 
termed a mufquetoon, the barrel made of 
brafs, and fhaped like a blunderbufs; it had 
been heavily charged with flugs, a number of 
which were found about the room, and fome 
had penetrated the ceiling. The jury, withe 
out hefitation, brought in a verdict of Lunacys 
Mr. Tindall was of Trinity College, Oxford, 
M. A. 1-78, and fellow curate to the late 
Rev. Martin Stafford Smith, rector of Flad- 
bury, Worcefterthire, where he compiled The 
Hiftory and Antiquities of the Abbey and 
Borough of Evefham, 1794, fuggefted by a 
defign of fome other perfon to publifh a fketch 
of it, 'to which he engaged to write a preface. 
This gradually induced him to take upon 
himfelf the entire conduct of the work, which 
grew upon nis hands to the bulk of a quarto 
volume, in confequence of which he was 
elected F.A.S. He had publifhed, in 179r, 
Juvenile Excurfions in Literature and Criti- 
cifms, a 12mo. vol, which does him confidera-« 
ble credit as a polite {cholar. He has, fince 
that time, written Plain Truth ina plain 
Drefs, and fix pamphlets; and, this year, 
The Evils and Advantages of Genius con- 
trafted, a Poetical Effay, in Three Cantos, in 
342 Blank 
