On this day in Oxfordshire

On 10 April 1819 a couple of young bloods from Bristol went into Mrs Wilkinson’s gunsmith’s shop in Saint Thomas’ Street in Oxford. They asked if they might see some pistols and Mrs Wilkinson handed them one. One of the gentlemen, after checking the pan, pulled the trigger. A shot rang out and Mrs Wilkinson instantly fell down dead. The customer had not spotted the powder in the pan, and consequently Mrs Wilkinson had (“dreadful to relate”) received the full force of the shot in her chest at close range. A coroner’s inquest was held and the jury, after examining the evidence, unanimously returned a verdict of accidental death. Reporting the tragic incident, the Oxford University and City Herald intoned: “It is our painful duty to record another fatal and most melancholy instance of the imprudence, not to say impropriety, of keeping loaded fire-arms.” Evidently it had happened before.