Source: Leeds Times
Date: 1869 09 11
Subject: Two Lovers Killed By Lightning
 Last Saturday the Leeds and Bradford district was visited by a violent storm of thunder and lightning, the rain pouring down in torrents. An accident of a most painful nature occured near Farsley. A young couple, Thomas Hardaker, 21 years of age, son of Mr. Joseph Hardaker, cloth weaver, of Pudsey, and Emma Carrick, aged 22, and the daughter of Mr. Henry Carrick, basketmaker, of Stanningley, were out courting, when they were struck down by the electric fluid and killed on the spot. It appears that the couple, who were Sunday school teachers, had kept company for two or three years, Carrick being employed as a weaver, and her sweetheart travelling about the country with his brother, James Hardaker, in charge of a toy and fancy bazaar, their journeys extending from Hull to Manchester. Last week being Farsley Feast, the bazaar was pitched there, and Thomas Hardaker availed himself of the proximity of his sweetheart, Emma Carrick, to visit her occasionally. The bazaar was got ready on Saturday night for removal to Holbeck at six on Monday morning; and as the couple were to be married in November, they were anxious to be together as much as possible before Hardaker went away. They took tea at her father's house, and afterwards went on their way to Stanningley. They took the path across the fields, and were last seen alive in conversation in a "snicket", a narrow road between two walls, terminating the footpath in the direction of Stanningley. They appear to have retraced their steps towards Farsley, and to have taken shelter in the shadow of a wall, on the footpath leading to Mr. Butler's house, near to a stile road, protected by iron railings. On the south side of the wall is a plantation of young trees, and some fifty yards further on, on the north side, are other iron railings, the unfortunate pair standing between the iron stile and palisading to the westward; and the presumption is that the electric fluid, attracted by the first mass of metal, swept onward to that guarding the stile road, and on its way struck down the lovers, as they were found lying apart, the young man stretched on his back, and the girl on her face, her umberella or parasol lying under her body. The only mark of the action of the lightning on their bodies was to be seen on their faces, which were seared and burnt about the forehead and nose. Hardaker's right boot was ripped up, a small hole was burnt in his purse, and two or three other holes in his shirt, and his money - gold, silver, and copper - was partially melted, two shilling pieces being fused together, but, rather singularly, the young woman's purse and its contents were untouched. When the bodies were laid out and washed they appeared to be only asleep, the young woman's countenance having a pleasant look, and the colour remaining for some time in her cheeks. At the inquest held on Tuesday, before Mr. Taylor, coroner, it was stated by James W alker, cloth weaver, that he was crossing the fields on Sunday night, between Farsley and Stanningley, when he almost stood on the bodies of deceased, who were lying across the footpath. He touched them with his umbrella, thinking, in the first instance, that they were drunk, but as they did not answer or stir, he gave an alarm, and on Isaac Rhodes coming up with a lantern they were both found to be dead. After several witnesses had been called, the coroner said he thought there was no further evidence required.....the jury returned a verdict that the "deceased were killed by lightning." The funeral of the deceased took place at Stanningley on Wednesday..over 7,000 people attending..buried together...(more).
(Note: Leeds Mercury also produced a long piece on this tragedy, and Emma's surname was also quoted as Carrick, but in her birth registration, her death registration, and the 1851 census, her surname is given as Carrack)

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