Mr. Rowe left an amiable wife and three small children to lament his loss.
Immediately after the fight between Hudson and Shelton, Hickman said that, on his own account, he was sorry Hudson had lost the battle, it being the intention of the friends of Josh., in the event of his having proved the conqueror, to have backed him against Hickman for £100 a-side; and he laughingly observed, “Blow my Dickey, if I shouldn’t like it vastly.” It it rather a curious coincidence that, on the same day a twelvemonth previous, a report reached London that Hickman was dead, in consequence of the blows he received in his battle with Neat.
On Wednesday, December 11, 1822, an inquest was held at the sign of the Swan with Two Necks, Finchley Common, before T. Stirling, Esq., coroner, on the bodies of Thomas Hickman and of Mr. Thomas Rowe, silversmith, of Aldersgate Street, St. Luke’s.
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.