Person:Richard Johncock (1)

Edinburgh Advertiser September 3rd 1822 Awful Catastrophe - About 4 o'clock in the afternoon of Monday se'nnight the village of St Nicholas, in the Isle of Thanet, was visited by one of the most tremendous storms of thunder and lightening ever known in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, in the course of which two men, named George BEDDINGFIELD and Richard JOHNCOCK, who were at work in a field, near the village, were instantaneously struck dead by the electric fluid, which was observed to descend to the earth at within two feet of BEDDINGFIELD, whose clothes were torn in pieces, and his body rendered a shocking spectacle, his head being dreadfully burnt, also one of his legs. The body of Richard JOHNCOCK was also much discoloured and blackened. They were both married men, and beside a wife, JOHNCOCK has left six children, and what adds to the calamity, his wife had been delivered of a the youngest only a few hours. Two other persons were knocked down and injured the same moment. The bodies were conveyed to the church to await a Coroner's Inquest and the sensation occasioned in the village by this dreadful occurrence is indescribable.

1. ↑ Birth Certificate.
2. ↑ .

   on-line transcript of Parish Register of St Nicholas at Wade.

3. ↑ .

   LDS film 1836280 items 10-15, parish register

4. ↑ Parish Register.

   Parish Register at time of baptism of child in 1813, Elizabeth.