Downton Abbey-ish Family History, and Little Miracles

So, a lot of months ago I stumbled upon this teaser in
"The Hertford Mercury & Reformer" dated 24 Oct 1846:

"Mr John Hughlings, Chemist, of Hertford, said the deceased came to his house and asked for two penney worth of arsenic to poison rats.  Witness refused to let..."

That was it.  The teaser.
  I would have to pay to get the rest of the story.

 A death?  Arsenic?  John Hughlings involved?
(An earlier post shows a picture of his possible Chemist shoppe in Hertford.) 

This felt a little like Mr Bates being accused of poisoning his wife with arsenic.
(A reference to Downton Abbey for those of you who are confused.)

It carried on for months, with me unable to figure out getting a copy without paying....
until I asked a friend who happened to have a subscription to the site I needed.

And the answer is.....

He was found innocent!!!!
  Thank heavens he covered his bases and made her bring in a witness saying she was using the arsenic to poison rats.  I feel sad for her friend who vouched for her.
She was wrong.  She must have felt terrible.
The verdict was "suicide while in a state of temporary insanity".

One day I will ask him if this influenced his leaving his occupation
as a Chemist to become a Scripture Reader.

This John Powell Hughlings is the brother to our Ann Hughlings Pitchforth.

If you can't read this and want to, go to:

http://whitefamilytrees.org/showmedia.php?mediaID=806&medialinkID=1343

Yup, that's my Family History website.
You ought to check it out.
whitefamilytrees.org

Have I ever said that I love Family History?
  Well, I do.

 

And I love miracles.

 

One evening while serving at the Hyde Park Stake Family History Centre, I was searching on a 19th Century British Newspaper site that I can access there.  Suddenly I stumbled upon this:

 

Under Marriages it says:

 

BOWES-HUGHLINGS--Dec. 18, at Holy Trinity Church, Southport, by the Rev. O.S. Hope, Councillor I Bowes, of Pendleton, Manchester, to Harriet, widow of Professor Hughlings, of Elphinstone College, Bombay.

 

WHAT?

 

Professor John Powell Hughlings had been married?

(He is the son of the above storied John Powell Hughlings.)

 

I'd finally found an obituary which extolled all his wonderful virtues,

and not one word about a spouse.

 

And why in the world would his widow's re-marriage say so much about him?

 

Just a week or two before I had thought I was finished with JPH and filed all his paperwork.

He had taught many years in India, gotten sick,

and died in Australia where he went to recuperate.

After all my searching, I had determined he never married.

 

But he had.

This record needed to be found.

So Harriet could be found.

And their marriage record found.

And their sealing reserved.

Now I think I can file away John Powell Hughlings.

 

 

 I love this quote by Melvin J Ballard:

 

    "You may be confident that your deceased people know where their records are, and you can obtain help through inspiration from them in locating these records...  And there are thousands of them, hundreds of thousands and millions of them in the spirit world who long to receive this gospel and have been waiting hundreds of years for their deliverance....  They know where their records are, and I testify to you that the spirit and influence of your dead will guide those who are interested in finding those records...  If there is anywhere on earth anything concerning your kindred dead, you will find it."  

                                                      Sermons & Missionary Services of Melvin Joseph Ballard, p 230