From 'The Yorkshire Gazette', December 28th, 1833

In many ways, this is probably the most authorititive of all the contemporary accounts. It names the farmers the Singers were yet to visit, some of the search parties dragging the river, and this particular journalist seems to have tracked down Richard Toes, the survivor who did not appear at the inquest, for his account. It relates in a very personal and immediate style, the journalist's walking through Stillingfleet within hours of the disaster. All the newspaper accounts are anonymous. There is no sense of a 'by-line'. We can never know whose words these were.

Melancholy & Afflicting Accident.
ELEVEN PERSONS DROWNED
IN THE RIVER OUSE, NEAR YORK

A most lamentable accident occured on the evening of Thursday last, strongly illustrative of the remark, that "in the midst of life we are in death"; and which, in a moment, converted the sounds of glee and merriment into those of mourning and grief. It has indeed never fallen to our lot to record a more awful catastrophe, than the one we are about to narrate, and which has plunged the once happy village of Stillingfleet into the deepest affliction.

On Thursday noon, about half-past one o'clock, the singers attached to the parish church of Stillingfleet, and who consist of the most exemplary persons of the village, left their happy homes for the purpose, as is usual at this season of the year, of visiting the principal farmers within the parish, which includes the villages of Stillingfleet, Moorby, [sic] Acaster-Selby, and Kelfield. They had been to Moreby and Acaster, and were proceeding at half-past four o'clock, in a boat to Kelfield, when, by one of those mysterious visitations of Providence, which occur to warn, or to alarm us, the boat was swamped, and out of a party to fourteen, no less than eleven human beings, five men and six young women, were drowned. The particulars, so far at least as we have been able to receive them, from our reporter who is now on the spot, are as follows.

On our arrival at Stillingfleet, we waited on the clergyman of the parish,, whom we found much afflicted with the melancholy loss of his parishioners, - whom he described to be the best of people. The young women, had been educated in his school, and were the most exemplary in their lives and conduct. On Christmas day, as was usual, they were all at the house of God, and sang the Christmas Hymn. On the same evening, they all took supper at the Rectory, where they sang some suitable Hymns. On the next day they went to Acaster, and from thence were proceeding to Kelfield. At a place called Mill Mouth, about a quarter of a mile from Acaster, they met a vessel, coal-laden, coming down the river, - hauled by a horse. The party in the boat called out to Stephen Green, the hauling man, to hold the line tight, so as to allow them to go under it. Green replied, he would not do that, - for if he attempted to do so, he should sweep them out of the boat. He therefore slackened the rope, to let the boat go over it, - when one of the men in the boat seized the rope, and attempted to throw it over the boat; - in this he failed, and the line catched the stern of the boat, which being thrown on her broadside, instantly filled with water, and capsized. Green saw most of the men in the waterm shouting for assistance. Unfortunately the boat attached to the vessel had got loose, and the men on board were unable to render any assistance, except to two men named Toes and Fisher, who had seized hold of the hauling rope: -another, named Eccles, saved himself by swimming supported by the oars of the boat. Toes was insensible when got out of the water, but by proper application animation was restored. The others quickly disappeared, in spite of every effort to save them.

Within a quarter of an hour, and not more than a quarter of a mile from the fatal place the body of Miss Sturdy was picked up, when floating, by a vessel in the river which was coming up shortly after. She was quite dead.

Drags were got, and the next morning at twelve o'clock, the following bodies had been found.

Henry Spencer, Christopher Spencer, John Turner, and his daughter, and Thomas Webster - Christopher Spencer was first found, about ten o'clock; Turner and Webster were soon after brought up by the same drag, and about twelve o'clock, the other two, Henry Spencer and Turner's daughter, were brought to the surface by drags. The latter was found by Mr. Masters and H. Dupre, Esq., from Nun Appleton, who, with a boat and a party of servants from Sir Wm Milner's, were dragging the river. Seven other boats were also employed in the same manner: but when our express left Stillingfleet, nothing had been seen of the other sufferers. A shawl, belonging to the daughter of Eccles, was brought up with a drag, about half-past eleven.

The following is a correct list of the sufferers: - Henry Spencer, labourer, aged about 50; and his two daughters, Sarah, aged 16; and Bessy, aged 15; Christopher Spencer, brother to Henry, labourer, aged about 40; John Turner, fisherman, and common carrier, aged about 59; and Jane Turner, his daughter, aged 16; Thomas Webster, labourer; William Bristow, officiating parish clerk; Sarah Eccles, aged 16, daughter of George Eccles, one of the survivors; Elizabeth Buckle, aged 15, daughter of Mr.Buckle, innkeeper; Clara Sturdy, aged 17, daughter of Mr. Sturdy, schoolmaster.

The following are the names of the three survivors - George Eccles, Richard Toes, and John Fisher, - all agricultural labourers, with wives and families. Eccles has a large family of seven or eight children; Toes has a wife and four children; Fisher has a wife and two children.

The men who have suffered, have left the following families: - Christopher Spencer, a wife and four children; Henry Spencer, a wife and eight children - five of which were under his parental roof, and were dependant [sic] on his labours for support; John Turner was a widower, and has left two daughters - one married and the other single; Thomas Webster, a wife and one child; Thomas [sic] Bristow, a wife and three children.

The excellent minister of Stillingfleet, the Rev. D.F. Markham, ever since the accident, has been constant and unremitting in his attentions to the families of the sufferers; the whole of the night of Thursday he spent in affording them consolation, which only a beloved spiritual pastor can give upon such an occasion; and whatever the kindness of his heart could devise to alleviate the sufferers, was furnished with the utmost alacrity. The whole village participates in the grief of the relatives; and the melancholy event has spread a gloom over the surrounding district.

FURTHER PARTICULARS

The boat in which the sufferers had embarked was one of rather small dimensions. The current was running at the rate of five miles an hour, - the boat consequently going at a rapid pace, and in about the centre of the river. The vessel had the current against it, and was on the off-side; and the party in the boat unhappily came inside. When the line got under the boat, one of the men attempted to clear it, by throwing it over the boat. After the boat was swamped, the unhappy people; as they were carried down by the current, in the most heart-rending manner, called for assistance, but in vain. The boat belonging to the vessel had been lost from its moorings; but by what means the sailors could not explain; it is most probable, that they had unfortunately let go the painter, by mistake, in their endeavours to throw out lines, to save the sufferers. - Turner's boat had turned keel uppermost, and was found at Cawood, by George Liddle, waterman, and Thomas Smith, labourer. When found, she was floating rapidly down the river, and on being righted, the fishing-net belonging to its owner was found in it. At the time of the accident it was quite dusk, and it was with difficulty that the towing rope could be seen. From what we can learn, Green appears to have thrown out plenty of line, but the current running very strong, prevented it from sinking. Immediately after the accident the watermen run their vessel on shore, in order to render all the assistance they could to those in the water.

On Friday morning, about four o'clock, several parties came to the fatal spot from Cawood, Lower Acaster, Nun Appleton, and the neighbourhood, in boats, and commenced dragging the river, - but without success, until about ten o'clock, when Christopher Spencer was found, in a place called the Willow Hole, about half a mile from where the accident happened. Turner and Webster were found soon after, a little lower down the river, and were brought up by one drag. It is supposed that they had been clasped together, and sunk in each other's arms. About half-past eleven o'clock, a shawl was found belonging to Sarah Eccles; and shortly after the bodies of Henry Spencer, a fine robust man, - and Jane Turner were found. A little after two o'clock, Bessy Spencer, one of the daughters of Henry Spencer, was found. This family was sorely afflicted. The disconsolate widow, who has a child at the breast, is left with eight children, and is herself in a delicate state of health, having recently been a patient in the County Hospital. At the same time that Bessy Spencer was found - another body was also found, which turned out to be that of the parish clerk, Wm. Bristow. Both bodies, as well as all the others, were conveyed to their respective homes.

P.B.Thompson, Esq., who is an extensive landowner in that neighbourhood, and under whom several of the deceased lived, - arrived on the spot about eleven o'clock yesterday morning, and visited the families of the sufferers, We understand, that he has humanely undertaken to defray all the expenses attending the funerals of the deceased.

The Rev.D.F.Markham, has been most indefatigable throughout the day, in visiting his bereaved parishioners, and in rendering them every assistance in his power, by supplying them with such necessities as their afflictions might require. The state of the village was most heart-rending, - not a dry eye was to be seen, and the dreadful shrieks and sobs of the bereaved widows and the fatherless, in passing the habitations of the sufferers, were such, as to beggar all description - truly it was the scene of desolation. - It was with some feeling of gratification, amidst this scene of affliction, we heard a mother, who had lost a daughter, exclaim: "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the Name of the Lord." It appears from what we could learn from the survivors, that the party did not intend to go to Kelfield by water, but to land at Stillingfleet ferry, and go from thence to Mr. McVicar's and Mr. Parker's, two respectable farmers, who live a little beyond Stillingfleet, and so would cross the fields to Kelfield. It is very highly satisfactory that we can state, that all the party were perfectly sober;and Toes, who appears to have but an imperfect recollection of what took place after he was in the water, gives a very similar account to that of the watermen. He gave it as his opinion, if Fisher had not seized the rope, the accident would still have happened. - It appears that Fisher and Eccles, were pulling the oars at the time of the accident. When the boat was struck, Toes says, he had a small violin in his hand, and after being some time overhead in the water, he found, the rope in his hand, which he grasped firmly, and was in that way pulled on board the vessel.

Mrs Sturdy, mother to one of the young women who unfortunately suffered, was in York on the night of the accident, where she had been attending the funeral of a nephew, when the afflicting news was made known to her.

The men employed in dragging for the bodies worked incessantly until after dark, last night, when they discontinued their search, still leaving two bodies in the water, - namely Sarah Eccles, and Sarah Spencer. - Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon these individuals, whose exertions to find the bodies were great indeed. - The search is to be renewed this morning.

Early in the morning, Green, the hauling man, came to Stillingfleet, and immediately rendered every assistance in his power. In the afternoon, the captain and mate of "The Perseverance", the vessel through which the accident arose, arrived to give their evidence before the Coroner.

[There follows an account of the Inquest which is, verbatim, identical to the others already in 'Articles'].