Ann Eliza Mance

Ann Eliza Mance was found dead in the Lavant Course at Westgate Meadows, Southgate Fields in Chichester on 16 January 1904.

An open verdict was returned.

She was a married woman but had been living with another man at the time as his wife.

She had gone out on the night of 15 January 1904 and never came back.

The man that she had been living with said that he didn't closely question Ann Mance's reasons for going out at night and was noted for, even the following morning after she didn't come home, only enquiring with his next door neighbour about her before going off to seek work.

He was noted at the inquest for having said that she was his wife, when she was in fact not, and that she in fact had a husband who she had left in Southampton 14 years earlier. The man was warned by the Coroner that he could be prosecuted for perjury.

The man said that he knew that Ann Mance had been married and that she had kept a public house in Southampton but thought that her husband had died four years earlier. He said that he had known Ann Mance from Southampton.

The police later said that Ann Mance's husband had left Southampton 14 years earlier and was thought to have gone to Dorsetshire.

It was heard from a man whose business took him many hours in South Street, who said that Ann Mance was accustomed to accost passengers in the street and make use of the fields, he imagined, for immoral purposes. The man added that Ann Mance had even been in the street accosting people on the night she was thought to have died.

Another person gave evidence stating that they heard a woman protesting outside his premises, and then a rush round to the back followed by a scream.

A police sergeant that examined both sides of the stream at Westgate Meadows said that he could find no trace of a struggle whatsoever. Her body was found in the stream by the fields at Southgate behind the Goods Yard.

Her body had been under water, as had been her head and face, with the exception of one place at the back of her head that had lodged on a twig. It was noted that that part of her head had been raw, and was just above the water. The police sergeant said that he thought that the wound had been caused by rats, noting that they could have easily walked along the trunk of the tree and gnawed at the portion of the exposed head. It was further noted that it was well known that the goods station was infested with rats.

Her feet had been lying upstream.

The police sergeant said that when her body was searched, they found a shilling and six coppers in her pocket. She also had a brooch on a blue wrapper round her throat.

He said that when he later searched a little further downstream on the Sunday that he found her hat lodged up in some bushes beyond the railway, some 400 or 500 yards down from where she was found, noting that it was where the course got behind a man's greenhouse.

It was heard that at around the time that she was thought to have gone into the stream that a rush and a scream was heard which was said to have been uncommon.

An initial post mortem was carried out by a doctor but the Coroner arranged for a second one to be carried out.

When the first doctor asked the Coroner why another post mortem had been carried out after he had carried one out, he was told that because of the evidence of the scream being heard that it was thought that all possible evidence on the matter should be found. However, the doctor said that the matter was liable to damage his reputation, but the Coroner said that he was not prepared to discuss the matter with him, merely stating that it was desired to get as much evidence taken down as possible as to whether any violence had taken place.

The doctor said that there was no evidence of violence, referring in part to the wound to the back of Ann Mance's head. However, when the Coroner said, 'That is a matter of argument, is it not', the doctor replied, 'Not at all'. However, the Coroner then said, 'I am taking evidence, and nothing but evidence, and am not going to have any discussion'.

The doctor then said that if the doctors could not get fair play that he would take steps to report to the Home Office. The Coroner then told him that there was no suggestion of anything requiring fair play to which the doctor said that he had argued the question of why he required a second post mortem round and round but that he had not given him an answer.

When the doctor gave his evidence, he said that he had been called to examine the body of Ann Mance on 16 January 1904 whilst she was lying on straw at the Globe. He said that there were no marks of violence and that her clothes were intact. He said that the following day he carried out a post mortem examination with his son and formed the opinion that Ann Mance had not drowned, but that she had had a fit and fallen into the water. He said that he formed the opinion from the effusion of water on the brain.

He said that a portion of her scalp had been eaten away and that there were marks of teeth there. He said that he had examined the banks of the stream with the police sergeant and imagined that Ann Mance had slipped in near the Globe, noting that if she had fallen in higher up that her body would have been stopped by some stones.

He added that he was prepared to say that Ann Mance did not die from drowning and that he thought undoubtedly that Ann Mance died from a fit, in spite of the fact that she was found in the water.

He said that if Ann Mance had been pushed in that she would have drowned. He added that he did not think that she had had a fit in being pushed in or from freight, but thought that she had died as she touched the water. He said that if she had been chased that he thought that there would have been signs on the bank, and that he imagined that she had had a fit and rolled over into the water.

He added that he did not make up his mind until he made the post mortem examination.

He added that if she had been struck over the head that there would have been a scalp wound and contusion of the scalp, but that there were no signs of violence whatsoever.

The doctor that carried out the second post mortem examination on Tuesday 19 January 1904, said that he agreed with the evidence of the first doctor in the main, saying that he found no evidence of drowning, or violence in the head, or anywhere. He  further added that he found from the state of the brain that Ann Mance had had a fit, and considered that some sort of fit was the chief cause of her death.

He said that he thought that it was quite possible that she might have had a fit and upon becoming comatose, had rolled over into the water and died from the cold and exposure. He added that he thought that the 'wound' appeared to be solely caused by rodents.

However, he said that he could not say whether her body had been placed in the water before or after death.

After hearing the evidence from the two doctors, the coroner noted that that was all the evidence they could possibly get to explain somewhat uncommon conditions. He noted that the evidence of the first doctor had been in effect supported by that of the second, with the exception of their views on the probable cause of death, and said that there was no direct evidence as to how Ann Mance actually died.

He said that the reason for the inquiry was to state how she came to her death, and that if anyone was a party to that death, and whether any person was liable.

He noted that considering that she was last known to have been accosting people in the street nearby for immoral purposes at about 9pm, and that she was later found in the stream at a secluded part of town, that he felt that there were grave reasons for the most careful inquiry as to how she came to be in the water.

He added that the evidence of the man that had heard the sound of a woman protesting and then followed by a rush and a scream suggested that there was a need for more time for the police to carry out further inquiries, which they had done, in case they could trace anyone that new more about the matter, but noted that the police had  failed to find anyone else with any more information.

He added that in ten years’ time that someone could come forward and say that they had had something to do with her death, and that it would be disastrous for them to have not got on record  whether or not it was a case of possible violence or not. When he related to the expert opinion as to her cause of death, he said that he did not think that they could have the slightest doubt that the evidence showed, at the least, that Ann Mance had not drowned.  He added also that they had also disposed emphatically of the question of the hole in the head. He further added that the medical evidence pointed to death from a fit, and therefore natural causes, but said that if the jury felt that someone had something to do with her death that they could leave an open verdict, and say that they were not satisfied as to the cause of death.

After the jury retired, they returned to state that they were of the opinion that there was no direct evidence as to how Ann Mance came by her death, stating that she was found dead in the water and that they could not say how she came to be there, and in consequence returned an open verdict.

Ann Mance had been from Southampton.