Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

The following very melancholy accident happened on Wednesday evening last: a waggon hired by the Henley carrier, returning from Reading Fair heavily loaded with cheese, &c. in going down a hill near the Plough at Shiplake, in Oxfordshire, the linch pin of one of the fore-wheels came out, owing to the axle-tree being split, and the wheel flying off, the waggon pitched forward, and turned quite over; two women, a boy about 12 years old, and a child, that were riding at the top, were buried under the goods, and instantly crushed to death; two other woman and a man that were also on the waggon, finding themselves falling, leaped off, and fortunately escaped unhurt. One of the deceased women was wife to a journeyman shoe-maker, and was going to Henley, with her child, to see some relations; the other woman was a native of Henley; and the boy belonged to the charity school there; but what renders it still more shocking is, that both the women were far gone with child. The coroner's inquest sat on the bodies the next day, and brought in their verdict, accidental death.