{"id":3679,"date":"2014-05-28T10:53:43","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T09:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/footprintsoflondon.com\/?p=2867"},"modified":"2014-05-28T10:53:43","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T09:53:43","slug":"raise-a-glass-to-william-seelie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/footprintsoflondon.com\/live\/2014\/05\/raise-a-glass-to-william-seelie\/","title":{"rendered":"Raise a Glass to William Seelie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rob uncovers a sad story from a gravestone.<\/p>\n

\"2014-05-27<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the things that amazes me about London is how an ordinary thing that you might overlook can reveal a story. Yesterday I was walking through Christ Church Greyfriars Garden, near St Pauls and paused to look at the flowers. The path included an old gravestone, and I wondered if I could find out more about the person it belonged to. I ended up uncovering a very sad story.<\/p>\n

The gravestone belonged to Mary Seelie who died in 1829 and her husband William who died the year after. I found the following in The London Star newspaper for October 25th 1830<\/p>\n

“A Melancholy Suicide.\u2014An inquisition was yesterday afternoon taken at the Shakspeare Tavern, Great Marlborough-street, before Mr. Higgs, on view of the body of William Seelie, aged 53, the landlord of the above house. Mr. Joseph Seelie, a son of the deceased, stated that about twelve months ago he had the misfortune to lose his mother, which circumstance affected his father\u2019s mind to such an extraordinary degree, that he frequently burst into tears and wished himself in Heaven with his dear departed wife. In consequence of his not coming down at his usual time, and his door being locked, a panel was broken in, when the deceased was seen hanging against the door on the inside, having suspended himself by tying his handkerchief and a towel together, which he threw over the door, and fastened one end to the lock on the other side.\u2014Verdict of \u201c Temporary Insanity.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not clear how Mary died, but it obviously hit poor William very hard. Joseph\u00a0took over as\u00a0the landlord of the Shakespeare Tavern, and remained\u00a0for another twenty years, though it must have been hard running a place with such unpleasant memories. The pub was rebuilt in 1927 as the Shakespeare’s Head, and its still one of Soho’s busiest pubs. Next time you are there raise a glass to\u00a0William Seelie’s memory.<\/p>\n

Our next Soho walk is Joanna’s Foodie History walk<\/a> on May 31st<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rob uncovers a sad story from a gravestone. One of the things that amazes me about London is how an ordinary thing that you might overlook can reveal a story. Yesterday I was walking through Christ Church Greyfriars Garden, near St Pauls and paused to look at the flowers. The path included an old gravestone,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRaise a Glass to William Seelie - Footprints of London<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/footprintsoflondon.com\/live\/2014\/05\/raise-a-glass-to-william-seelie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Raise a Glass to William Seelie - Footprints of London\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rob uncovers a sad story from a gravestone. 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