WORBOYS, Arthur (Grimwade pp.710,772)

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dognose
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WORBOYS, Arthur (Grimwade pp.710,772)

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WORBOYS, Arthur (108)

Some scant details of tragic death of the London silversmith Arthur Worboys are detailed by Grimwade, but here is a newspaper report that was published two days after the fire that provides a little more information:

"Saturday morning, between two and three o'clock, the inhabitants of Fleet-street were alarmed by the watchman's rattle, and the cry of fire. In a few minutes the house of Mr. Worboys, silver-smith, near Bride-lane, was entirely in flames, and the fire raged for near half an hour with the utmost fury, before the engines could be brought into play. In that time the firemen and engines attended in such numbers, and poured on such an amazing quantity of water, that the fire was completely got under before four o'clock. The ajoining houses of Mr. Kempson, linen-draper, and the late Mr. Sangster's stick shop, are greatly damaged, and will most likely come down. Mr. Aspry's lace-shop, and the Bell public-house have also had their roofs damaged, and suffered considerable injury.-- Only two persons, Mr. Worboys himself, and a servant boy, were in the house where the fire began; the boy escaped naked over the top of the house, but Mr. Worboys is supposed to be burnt. It is very remarkable, that the constable and watchmen declare, they could clearly discover every floor on fire immediately on the alarm."

Source: The World and Fashionable Advertiser. Monday 23rd July 1787.

Trev.
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