Henry Hill (1826 — 1889)

Henry Hill was born circa 1826 in London, possibly Clerkenwell. In the 1851 census Henry was living in Speen with James Botham and his wife and two others, both Henry and James were recorded as bakers. James birthplace was recorded as London. No trace of Henry in the 1861 census, he was not recorded in Newbury or Speen. In the 1871 census Henry was living by himself in Speenhamland and recorded as a journeyman baker who was born in Clerkenwell. Ten years later in the 1881 census Henry was still living in Speenhamland and recorded as a baker and born in London. 
Henry died on Thursday 28 November 1889 while living by himself at Ashdown Court in Newbury. An inquest was held on 30 November at the Jack Hotel. It was recorded he was a journeyman baker and for many years was in the employment of the late Mr Heath of Cheap Street and subsequently worked for Mrs Heath. He was unmarried and lived alone in the little cottage. He had had no employment for two years or eighteen months and his disregard of personal cleanliness made him an undesirable person in a bakehouse. Earning no wages he had to depend on the charity of friends and local bakers, who always gave him a loaf when he asked. He was extremely reluctant to ask for assistance and confident he was a good worker could never understand why he was refused employment. He also steadfastly refused the advice to seek the shelter of the workhouse and this unfortunate pride cost him his life. Living alone he refused the help of kindly neighbours to perform any house hold duties and as a consequence his home became filthy and obnoxious. 
Henry was last seen alive on Wednesday evening when he asked a neighbour for a cup of tea and told them he was almost starved and perished. When he had not been seen the next day, the neighbours become alarmed. They knocked on his door but receiving no answer entered and found him in a reclining position in a chair before a fireless grate, he was quite dead and cold. 
One of the witnesses at the inquest was Charles Henry Osgood a cellarman and cousin of the deceased. 
At the inquest the jury inspected the deceased's cottage. The jury returned a verdict of "deceased came to his death through want of the common necessaries of life, accelerated by pleurisy". The foreman spoke of the extremely unsanitary condition of all the cottages in Ashdown Court, and remarked that it was a wonder a fever epidemic had not been started under such •dreadful conditions.

Henry was buried at Newtown Road Cemetery on 5 October 1915. 

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