The accident excited the greatest interest in the sporting world; and although the inquest was held at an earlier period than was expected, the jury room was crowded to excess to hear the evidence.
The jury proceeded to view the bodies of the deceased persons, which laid adjacent to the house in which the inquest was held. On their arrival an appalling spectacle presented itself: the Gas-light Man laid on his back, and had it not been known that it was to that individual the accident had happened, it would have been impossible, from the mutilated state of the head, to have recognised him. His head was literally crushed to atoms.
Mr. Rowe was also dreadfully crushed about the head, but not so sadly as Hickman.
On returning to the jury-room the following witnesses were called:—
Chancy Barber, of Finchley, bricklayer, said, Before eleven o’clock last night I was in bed at home, when the alarm came for a light; it was then starlight. I got up and went along the road to where the deceased persons were; they were put into their own chaise-cart, and were both dead. They were brought to this house. A medical gentleman, assistant to Mr. Hammond, was at the door nearly as soon as the bodies arrived, and examined them. They exhibited no symptoms of life after I saw them. There was a wagon standing by the chaise, and a cart behind the wagon, when I got up. I examined the spot where the accident took place this morning. The wheels of the chaise had been on the footpath; the chaise had nearly gone the whole width on the footpath where it was overturned. The wagon was going towards town. The chaise was going the same way; the chaise was on the near side; the wagon was nearest to the near side of the road. The track of the wagon appeared to have proceeded in a direct line, and there was no room for a chaise to have passed on the near side without going on the footpath. There was more than plenty of room for one or two carriages to have passed on the off side without injury. I think the wagoner could not be in any manner to blame, as he appeared to me to have been unconscious of the chaise being there.
James Ball, of Whetstone, servant to Mr. Sutton, said, I was coming towards Whetstone, and met the wagon and chaise. I saw the wheel of the chaise on the footpath, immediately before it overturned towards the wagon. I saw the men fall out. I think the wagon wheel did not go over them, but that the drag-cart did: the drag-cart was loaded. Hickman was run over by the wheel of the drag-cart; Rowe’s head was struck against the cart wheel. The wagoner was not to blame: he was driving in a regular and steady manner. Verdict—Accidental Death.
Between the hours of eleven and twelve on Thursday, December 19, 1822, a vast concourse of people assembled in Aldersgate Street and Jewin Street to witness the funeral of Hickman. At twelve o’clock the funeral procession commenced from the Adam and Eve, in Jewin Street, the house of Hickman, previous to which the interior exhibited a most melancholy scene. The pall was supported by Josh. Hudson and Shelton, Tom Belcher and Harmer, and Randall and Turner. The father of the Gas, his brother, and some other relatives were the principal mourners. The procession was filled up by Mr. Warlters, Tom Owen, Scroggins, Parish, Oliver, Jem Burn, Purcell, Powell, Bill Davies, Baxter, and Pierce Egan. The plate on the coffin stated Hickman to be in his twenty-seventh year. He was buried in the churchyard in Little Britain. On the ground were Bittoon, Bill Eales, Jack Carter, George Head, etc., who were not in time to join the procession. The crowd in the streets was immense.
The prize ring expressed its high respect to one of its bravest members; and, as Randall said over his grave, “It would be a long time before we should see his fellow!” The whole of the boxers (the mourners), on taking leave of the widow, promised her their support at her house, and that they would exert themselves to procure a good benefit for herself and two fatherless children.
The Champion of England was prevented from attending as one of the pall-bearers in consequence of a restive horse, on the preceding evening, near Stockwell, having thrown him off and fallen upon him.
Mr. Rowe, the unfortunate companion of Hickman, was interred in the same burying-ground on the preceding Sunday morning.