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Lisle, William

Miller and shipowner
Middleton-mills Stranton Hartlepool
U.K.
10/8/1801
8/5/1874

William Lisle was born at Newton Bewley on 10th August 1801 to parents Elizabeth (nee Lister) and Thomas Crawford Lisle. He was a miller at Middleton-mills in Stranton, Hartlepool and must have been successful as he purchased shares in early shipping companies and ships.He married Ann Farrow at Billingham on 16th May 1832.The couple had four sons and four daughters. Ann died in 1868.

William drowned aged 73 in the River Tees on 8th May 1874. In his will he left effects of under £3,000.

York Herald – Saturday 11 May 1874

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF A HARTLEPOOL MAGISTRATE. INQUEST AT MIDDLESBROUGH. On Saturday, as the steam-tug Dauntless was proceeding down the Tees from Middlesbrough, the captain discovered a body floating face downwards between the fourth and fifth buoys. He at once hauled it on board, and returned to Middlesbrough, where it was conveyed to the dead-house. Just afterwards it was recognised by P.C. Jepson as the body of William Lisle, Esq., one of the magistrates of Old Hartlepool. The authorities at Hartlepool were at once communicated with, and in the afternoon the friends of deceased arrived to claim the body. An inquest was held in the afternoon, before Mr. J. Dent, the deputy coroner. The captain having described his finding the body, Dr. O'Donnell said there were no marks of violence on the body. His opinion was that death was by drowning; but he was at a loss how to account for the body having floated so soon after death. If the deceased had been last seen alive at nine o'clock on the previous night it was one of the most singular cases on record that the deceased should be found eight miles up the Tees only twelve hours afterwards.— Mr. John Shiels, chief constable of Hartlepool, said the deceased had retired from business, and was in his 74th year. He was on the bench on Tuesday discharging his magisterial duties in the usual manner He learned that deceased was last seen about ten o'clock on Friday night at the end of Durham-street, from which there were two roads, one leading to the docks and the other in the direction of the sea, on the embankment of which there was no fence. The roads were very dangerous to go along after dark. He had no reason to believe that deceased had any cause to put an end to his existence. Elizabeth King, housekeeper to deceased, said his wife had been dead six years. Within the last three weeks she noticed that he appeared to be low-spirited. He was a man of very temperate habits, and was accustomed to retire to bed at ten. On Friday he kept in the house till nearly nine o'clock, when she heard him go out. He always carried his watch with him, but they found that he had left it and his money behind him. The jury returned a verdict of " Found drowned,” but added that there was no evidence to show how he had got into the water.


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