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Surnames: Jocelyn, Wright
Classification: Obituary
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/3h.2ADE/2058
Message Board Post:
from the
Daily Ledger Standard
New Albany, Indiana 12 Feb 1881
Hannah Jocelyn’s Death
Her Paramour, Joseph Wright, Accused of Murdering Her
The Physicians and Coroner Say Blood Poisoning
Hannah Jocelyn was the daughter of the late Augustus Jocelyn, of this city. Some
three years ago she left the city with a man named Joseph Wright, but to whom she was not
married. This man Wright is a bad man and a thief. He is wanted at Louisville for stealing
a skiff. He is well known to the police of this city as a “crooked rascal.” This morning
marshal Carpenter received a letter from the chief of police at Evansville, making
inquiries as to Wright’s antecedents, saying he had him in hoc and believed he had caused
the death of his paramour, Hannah Jocelyn.
Wright and Hannah Jocelyn lived wretchedly on a little boat that laid at the shore at
the foot of Oak street, in Evansville. On the 24th day of January she gave premature birth
to a child. Before her death she told persons who came to the boat that she was dying from
the cruel treatment she had received from Wright. She also gave her name to these persons
and her residence when at home at New Albany. These facts becoming public after her death,
coroner Hermeling, of Evansville, examined into the case.
The examination of several witnesses, among them being two doctors, developed the
fact that the woman died from blood poisoning. One of the witnesses testified that the
woman was not Wright’s wife, but Hannah Jocelyn, and that she had lived with Wright for
three years without being married to him. The same witness said that Wright was cruel to
her and about three weeks before her death, while their boat was lying at the mouth of
Green river, he seized her by the hands and drew her over a small door, injuring her back
so severely that she was confined to her bed for some days. This statement was
substantiated by others, who said that the woman complained of her back up to the time of
her death. The coroner thought seriously at one time of arresting Wright for having caused
his paramour’s death, but on hearing the testimony of the doctors that she had died from
blood poisoning, he returned a verdict to that effect.
The chief of police of Evansville, however, thought there was enough in the case to
justify him in arresting and holding Wright until he could hear from New Albany. Marshal
Carpenter has taken such steps in the case as are necessary.