The Late Mr Sinclair.
The Inquest.
An inquest was held at Wainuiomata on Monday last, before Dr Wilford and a respectable jury, upon view of the body of Hugh Sinclair, an old and much-respected settler of the Valley.
Dr Norris had been summoned from town to make an examination of the body, as there was considerable doubt as to what could have caused the death of the deceased. It was evident that he had not fallen from his horse, as was at first supposed, from his being found some little distance from the road, lying in a perfectly natural position, without so much as a scratch or bruise about him, or even dirt from the road upon his clothes. This led those who found him to suppose that, feeling unwell, he had descended from his horse and lain himself down in a sheltered spot for a time, where he had expired.
The evidence brought before the jury substantiated this supposition, more especially the medical evidence, and in accordance therewith the jury brought in a verdict of “Died from congestion of the brain.” Deceased had been subject for the last year or two to severe attacks of giddiness and seldom went from home alone.
Mr Hugh Sinclair’s death will be regretted by a large circle of friends, as he was a very old and well-known settler; in fact, with one or two exceptions, the oldest in the neighbourhood of Wellington, having arrived here with J. C. Crawford, Esq., R.M., in a small coaster from Sydney in 1839, two months before the arrival of the Aurora in January 1840. At the time of his death, he had completed, to within three days, a residence of 32 years of uninterrupted energy and exertion as a settler in the province of Wellington, from which he was only absent during a seven-month stay in the Chatham Islands during that period.
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