John Lynn doesn’t seem to have troubled the records anywhere much, except in tragedy. There’s no sign any present-day relative is searching for him or knows he existed.
But it seems sad not to tell his story, even if though it’s a short one.
The names of the inquest jurors may be of interest to family historians.
Who was John Lynn?
It’s not a Cumbrian surname. Northumbrian, perhaps, or East Anglian.
But in November 1744, there were two John Lynns in Askham, Westmorland: a father and his newly baptised son. A John Lynn had married a Margaret Judson in Askham in 1741
In 1753, there was a ‘presentment’ in the Appleby Michaelmas court sessions that likely relates to the father (unless other Lynns did live locally at the time).
It was alleged that:
‘Richard Alderson late of Orton yeoman together with divers other persons unknown made an assault and affray on John Lynn of Helton, Askham and struck him on the breast with a certain whip which he the said Richard Alderson held in his right hand.’
The complaint went nowhere (‘no bill’).
The inquest
On December 28, 1769, 12 ‘good men’ gathered at Nunnery Newhouses, in parish of Ainstable, to formally hold an inquest into the death of John Lynn.
There’s nothing to say if it was the father or the son, but as the victim was from Askham, it’s again likely to have been either the 25-year-old or his father.
John had been to Penrith market about two weeks before Martinmas (November 11) and had a good time there, for he was ‘very much in liquor’ when he set off to return home.
Whatever his business had been at the market, he can’t have been prosperous. For while he’d had the money to get drunk, he was:
‘riding upon a Bad blind horse.’
It was a fateful combination, for while it’s only about five miles, neither truly knew their way home.
Somewhere along the way, they missed their turning and ended up ‘above Lowther’ – on the wrong side of the river. Which was running high when John decided to ride across it.
John Lynn – what inquest records:
‘The said John Lynn was by the rapidity and force of the flood of water in the said river carried down and was then and there by the water in the said river instantly drowned.’
What happened to the poor old nag isn’t recorded. But John’s body was carried down the river Lowther for something like 16 miles, and into the river Eden, until finally being washed up in the Nunnery grounds.
The inquest says ‘diligent search’ had been made for him for several days (after he failed to arrive home). The inquest date (November 28) suggests it was at least two weeks before he was found and identified, as inquests tended to be held very quickly.
The verdict was what today we’d call a narrative verdict: that John Lynn had come by his death in the manner described in the report; rather than just ‘found drowned’.
The coroner and the inquest jury
The coroner at the inquest was Thomas Dixon, gentleman.
The jury foreman (who also signed the document) was James Wasdale, of Ainstable.
The other jurors were:
John Bishop
John Dixon
George Serjeson (sic)
Thomas Dodd
Henry Bishop
John Pearson
John Gowling
John Richardson
Lancelot Warton (sic)
Thomas Wilson
Joseph Wilson.