Visitation of God

On April 12 1856 details of the death of Mary Spencer was reported to local readers. The report stated how during a service at St Bartholomew’s Church the previous Sunday, Mary Spencer, the wife of a cow keeper in Prince Edwin Street, suddenly collapsed mid-service falling forward in her pew. The sermon was brought to an immediate halt as fellow parishioners rushed to her aid, but she was already dead. An inquest returned the rather appropriate verdict of, ‘died by the visitation of God.