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The Strange Death of Mr George Steer - Sheffield November 1827
In 2016 I posted an article to this site that referred to the cricket ground in Darnall, Sheffield and a terrible accident that occurred there on the 27th August 1822.
Ten tears later in 2026, I revisited the article when I received additional information relating to the sale of the cricket ground in March 1828.
The Sheffield Independent dated 28th March 1828
The auction refers to the whole of the premises "were late in the occupation of Mr. GEORGE STEER deceased, I decided to see if I could find some more details about George as he figured prominently in the articles on the cricket ground at Darnall.
The first piece of information I found was that George was buried in the churchyard at St Pauls Church in Pinstone street Sheffield.
Name
George Steer
Death Age 63
Record Type Burial
Birth Date abt 1764
Death Date 1827
Burial Date 19 Nov 1827
Burial Place Sheffield, St Paul, Pinstone Street, Yorkshire, England Parish as
it Appears Sheffield At St Pauls.
The church was totally demolished in 1938. As for the churchyard, the headstones were removed and placed initially around the churchyard walls. They have since disappeared. As for graves themselves the situation was more complicated. No burials had occurred in the churchyard for over 80 years and so given the nature of the site and the circumstances surrounding the demolition, it seems as though the Church went for the most practical (and economical) means of "disposal" which was to exhume what ever remained, and re-inter them in just fourteen graves in Sheffield's Abbey Lane Cemetery. Once interred a large stone cross was placed in memory of all those who had been buried in St Paul's churchyard.
Working back I found this notice in the The Sheffield Independent dated 24th November 1827. They certainly were very keen to clear up George's estate. George was only buried three days earlier.
On the same day as the above notice was placed in the press, I found a report that was a surprise to say the least - it was a report of an inquest that was held in the Town Hall into George's death. It is from the Nottingham and Newark Mercury.
The Coroner returned a verdict of "found drowned." It was a stark verdict but it was factual. It may have been suicide, foul play or an accident but there was no conclusive proof to support on particular cause of death. However the editor of the Sheffield Iris newspaper must have alluded to these possibilities and provoked a stinging response and rebuke in the letters section of the Sheffield Independent.
And the fact is I cannot find out was the editor of The Sheffield Iris published. The British Newspaper Archive only carries 470 issues from 1835 to 1843 and does not cover the year 1827. Reading the letter from F it seems as though the editor of the Sheffield Iris had concluded that George had committed suicide which was treated as both a crime and a sin. This is not what the Coroner stated in his verdict and the writer F certainly reminds the editor of this.
Sources
Sheffield Indexers
Sheffield History Forum
The Sheffield Independent dated 24th November 1827
Nottingham and Newark Mercury dated 24th November 1827
Ancestry - UK Census
This page was last updated on 18/11/24 14:57