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Record #3931
Name :
: Charles BRADBURY (1883 - 1897)


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 1883 (approx.)

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
: Feb 1897   Notes : Wound to Throat and Smoke Inhalation
Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland
Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialCanada, York
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 7 Jul 1895
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Sardinian

Placement Family
: Blain
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Barnardos
NotesIn 1895, Charles Bradbury, 13, arrived at Montreal, Quebec, Canada, along with a group of Barnardo boys en route to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

On February 3, 1897, the Winnipeg Free Press reported:

BARNARDO BOY BURNED

Set Fire to a House and Perished in the Flames--A Peculiar Story.

Toronto. Feb. 2--Last night at York mills fire destroyed the farm building of John and Stewart Blain of York Mills, near this city. When the smoke cleared away the remains of a Barnardo boy, Charles Bradbury, aged 14, who had been working for the Blains, were found. The boy is given an excellent character by the Blains and others, but the Blains state they had a disagreement with him shortly before the fire and one of them had knocked him down and kicked him. The brothers were then leaving the house. Half an hour later the fire occurred with the above result. The Blains say the lad probably fired the building in a passion and willfully or accidentally was burned to death in the fire. An Inquest is being held.


A death registration was found for Charles Bradbury, 16 years, at Lot 12, Con. 2, York, Ontario, Canada. The cause of his death was a wound to the throat and smoke inhalation.


Hamilton Spectator

BRADBURY (Toronto) Feb. 3 - Yesterday afternoon Coroners Armstrong of York township, and Aikins, of Toronto, opened an inquest on the charred remains of a lad, Charles Bradbury. The inquiry was held in the house of Edward Hunter, lot 12 third concession of East York. Only the evidence of one witness was taken, and an adjournment was made.

Remains of the lad Bradbury are now in a barrel, on the doorstep of a house on this farm. He was a Barnardo boy, and eighteen months ago he was turned over to Stewart and John Blain, who were lessees of 100 acres from Edward Hunter. The Blain men lived in a small house with the boy and looked after themselves. There were no women employed in the house.

On Monday evening the outhouses, stables and barn rented by the brothers were burned. It is claimed that the dead boy set fire to the premises in a fit of revenge or an imagined injury. The story is that about 6 o?clock, John Blain had some words with the boy who was in a sulky fit. The young fellow threw himself on the ground and refused to get up. Blain gave him a slight kick, and Stewart Blain carried the boy into the house. They had supper and the two Blains drove away to a neighbours a mile away.

At 7:30 o?clock, A.E. Hunter, a son of the owner of the farm, saw that the cow stable rented to the Blaines was on fire. He gave the alarm but was too late to save from burning the seven head of cattle stabled there. The fire spread rapidly and the neighbours came quickly and with willing hands rescued the horses from the adjoining stable.

The fact that the coroner has commenced an investigation appears to be sufficient grounds for all kinds of rumours. The body of the boy was found on Tuesday morning, in a box stall in the stable which was burned. How it got there is the mystery. If the theory of the neighbours is correct, the boy after being chastised set fire to the premises out of revenge, and then our of fright buried himself in the straw in the stall, and remained there to be burned. Others think that is not the case, and a thorough investigation should be held.

The loss amounts to $3,000. The buildings were insured for $1,100. The Blains had no insurance on their property and they refused to estimate their loss.


Hamilton Spectator

BRADBURY (Toronto) Feb. 5 - Yesterday afternoon County Constable Burns arrested John Blain at his residence, east of York Mills and brought him to No. 1 police station. The information was laid by Alfred B. Owen, the Toronto agent for the Barnardo home, and the charges that he assaulted and did actual bodily harm to Charles Bradbury. Bail was applied for and refused.

At 9 o?clock yesterday morning County Constable John Smith, of York Mills, while turning over the ashes and debris in the box stall where the charred body of Charles Bradbury on Tuesday morning, discovered the remains of a razor. It was a blade without a handle, but with the rivet, and on the blade were stains which had the appearance of blood. The razor was found about eighteen inches from where the body was discovered. Among other things found in turning over the ashes were a brace buckle and several human bones. Constable Smith handed over the razor to County Constable Burns.

At the inquest on Wednesday John Blain was asked by County Crown Attorney Dewart when he had last seen the razor and replied he had not seen since Sunday. The fact that the razor was missing from the case was discovered by Mr. Ball, a reporter, who pointed out the circumstance to County Constable Burns on Wednesday. On the floor of the living room of the residence half a dozen spots of various sizes and some as large as a penny were noticed. Shavings of the floor were taken, and the spots will be examined under the microscope.

The discovering of the razor near the body indicates the probability that the razor had been used to end the boy?s life, and explains what had been a mystery before, namely, why the boy did not call out or escape before the fire reached the place where he was.

If the boy?s throat was cut in the living room there should have unquestionably be traces of blood between that place and the box stall, a distance of 200 feet. Its seems most improbable that the tragedy was enacted in the house. Is it a case of suicide, or what is it?

The cow barn was full of chaff, Saturday and Monday. The fire started there and burned freely. The body was found 100 feet away and the first person to arrive found the door of the stable fastened on the inside.

How is the fire in the bed room to be accounted for? When John Blain went into the room he said he found smoke there, and the quilts, sheets and mattresses on fire smoldering. Very little damage was done. Less than a square foot was burnt or singed.

If the boy fired the bedding as well as the barn, why had the fire in the house made so little progress? It must have been lighted more than 30 minutes previously, and unless the fire was smothered by the quilt and blankets it ought to have burst out into a flame even though, as was stated by the witness, the door was shut.


Hamilton Spectator

BRADBURY (Toronto) Feb. 6 - John Blain was yesterday taken before Magistrate Wingfield on the charge preferred against by Alfred B. Owen, the Toronto agent of the Barnardo home, of doing grievous bodily harm to Charles Bradbury. High Constable Jones and County Constable Burns had charge of the case, in the absence of the crown attorney. No evidence was taken, and the case was remanded for a week. An application for bail was readily granted by the magistrate.

Blain?s relatives are most respectable people, and in York Mills and the neighbourhood there is considerable indignation at the arrest having been made. The general motion is that it would have been quite sufficient in the interests of justice if John Blain had been kept under surveillance. Coroners Johnson, Thomas Armstrong, and Drs. S.R. Richardson, and W.R. Walters (Little York) yesterday held a post-mortem on the remains of the boy. Their examination was a careful one. They found the limbs had been burned from the trunk, that the boy?s throat had been cut before the fire, the cut being clearly perceptible, and the back part of the throat full of blood. They have taken away the heart and lungs for further examination. The inquest will be resumed on Monday.


Winnipeg Free Press
February 9, 1897

Verdict in the York Mills Tragedy

Toronto, Feb. 8.--The inquest was resume this afternoon on the body of the Barnardo boy, Charles Bradbury, whose body was found in the ruins of the farm building burned at York Mills recently, and belonging to his employers, John and Stewart Blain. Medical evidence showed the throat of the lad to have been cut and that subsequently he had inhaled some smoke showing the deceased was not dead when the fire started. The evidence tended to show that deceased had inflicted the wound on himself and also had started the fire, both presumably from unhappiness generally, and partly from a desire for revenge against one of the Blains who had ill-treated him shortly before the fire started. A verdict was returned to the effect that the wound was self-inflicted.


This obituary has been taken from the Ups and Downs Barnardo magazine:

A MYSTERIOUS FATALITY

A more painful duty has seldom devolved upon us than we have to perform in referring to the awfully sad and mysterious death, on Feb. 1st of Charles Bradbury, who was for nine months at the Stepney Home before coming to Canada in July, 1895. On his arrival from England he was placed with a farmer named Blain, residing about four miles north of Toronto. Mr. Blain was well recommended to us, and we had every reason to believe that we had placed Charles in good hands. From the day he went to Mr. Blain until his death not a word of complaint reached us; but, on the contrary we heard of Charlie's being happy and contented in his home, and that he bore a good character and was well spoken of in the neighbourhood. On the first of February he was visited by Mr. Webb, whom many of our boys have seen at the Home, having occasionally been employed in various ways, when we have required additional help. Mr. Webb found everything very satisfactory, Charlie looking the picture of health, well clad and evidently contented and happy, Mr. Blain giving a very good report of his conduct, and expressing himself as well pleased with the boy in every respect. Within a couple of hours of Mr. Webb's leaving the premises there appears to have been a dispute between Charlie and Mr. John Blain, the cousin and partner of his employer, which led to high words and ended in Charles receiving some rather rough handling. Almost immediately after, the two Blains drove away to spend the evening at a neighbour's house, leaving Charlie alone on the premises. Half an hour later the buildings were in flames, and next morning among the ashes the ghastly discovery was made of the remains of a human body, which can only be supposed to be that of the unfortunate boy. A still more horrible disclosure was revealed when the blade of a razor was found close at hand, afterwards proved to be the razor belonging to the Blains, and when the post mortem examination showed that the throat had been cut across the windpipe. The verdict of the coroner's jury suggested suicide as the cause of death. We cannot here enter into all the details of the case as elicited by the enquiry, but having heard the evidence and very carefully weighed and though over all the facts that have come to our knowledge, we have no hesitation in expressing our opinion, and, indeed, our absolute conviction that death was NOT self-inflicted, and that it is preposterous to suppose that a young boy of 14, in the full enjoyment of health, and in all the vigour of life, who was in possession of all his mental faculties, and who had never shown himself to be the victim of morbid or vicious tendencies, should have, merely to gratify his resentment at having received a rather rough castigation, in the most deliberate and carefully designed manner destroyed his employer's property, and then inflicted upon himself a cruel, painful and horrible death. We refuse utterly to credit the assumption, but beyond this is not for us to go; neither do we wish to offer theories or suppositions as to the cause of death, or what is really the solution of this most painful and ghastly mystery. Some clue may offer in time that will clear up what is now so mysterious; but meanwhile we can only ask our readers to join with us in sympathy for the relatives of him who is gone, and upon whom this awful occurrence has fallen as a stunning and terrible blow. May He who is behind the darkest cloud of human grief and suffering hideth the face of infinite compassion and mercy, reveal to them His presence in this hour of trial and be their support and comforter in their affliction and bereavement. 
ContributorsCreated : 2008-07-27 17:58:53 / From original database

Last Updated : 2012-06-08 11:09:53 /

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Surnames starting with:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  11 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
23999 BRADBURY, Alex1907ENG,     Jun 1916 : Scandinavian CAN Middlemore  
22670 BRADBURY, Arthur1890ENG,     May 1905 : Southwark CAN Fegan Homes for Boys  
3931 BRADBURY, Charles 1883ENG,     Jul 1895 : Sardinian CAN Barnardos  
22850 BRADBURY, Claude1899ENG,     Apr 1915 : Hesperian CAN Dakeyne Boys Farm  
22080 BRADBURY, Ernest1881ENG,     Apr 1897 : Labrador CAN Barnardos  
7704 BRADBURY, Herbert1893ENG,     May 1908 : Tunisian CAN Catholic Emigration Association  
24000 BRADBURY, James1903ENG,     Jun 1916 : Scandinavian CAN Middlemore  
8169 BRADBURY, Joseph William1913ENG,    , Macclesfield May 1930 : Aurania CAN Church of England  
22941 BRADBURY, Percy1891ENG,     May 1903 : Kensington CAN Fegan Homes for Boys  
24001 BRADBURY, William1905ENG,     Jun 1916 : Scandinavian CAN Middlemore  
7703 BRADBURY, Winifred1896ENG,    , North Manchester May 1906 : Tunisian CAN Marchmont Homes (now Barnardos)