Derby Mercury - 8 January 1851
MELANCHOLY EFFECTS OF INTEMPERANCE.
On Monday last, at Shirley, an inquest was held before H. Mozley, Esq., on the body of William Greatorex, bricklayer, of that place. The deceased was a man of about 37 years of age, and appeared to have borne an excellent character as a workman and neighbour, but was unfortunately at times addicted to great intemperance. It appeared that he had received payment of few pounds on the previous Saturday for work he had lately completed; that he commenced on the Monday with drinking; that he had scarcely been out of a public-house, taking the round of the neighbouring villages, drinking at each of the public-houses, and finishing with that in his own parish on the Friday night. He was found on the following morning in the stable of the Saracen's Head, in Shirley, where it is supposed that he went to sleep for the night, but he was seized with a fit of apoplexy, and though he was not dead when found at 10 o'clock the next morning, so entirely had state of collapse taken place, that no human aid could restore The evidence of the medical man who was called to attend him and who was present at the inquest, with other witnesses, left no doubt that the poor man's death was caused by apoplexy brought on by a course of three or four days drinking. The jury returned a verdict of "Died in a fit of apoplexy." This is another of the melancholy effects of drinking which have occurred during a short period in the neighbourhood of Ashbourn.