Nancy Coyle (1840s)
23. Turn right at the corner of NONIA and George Street and climb the stairs back to Duckworth Street. Look across the street and up Bates' Hill to the junction with Queen's Road at the top. To the left is Carter's Hill, the site of Nancy Coyle's premises.
There were no morgues in St. John's during much of the 19th century. In the 1840s, the Government paid a salary to Nancy, who kindly and skillfully cared for the unidentified dead, preparing their bodies for burial. She lived at Carter's Meadow on Playhouse Hill. Today this would be the corner of Carter's Hill, at Queen's Road, just opposite Bates Hill.
During those early days "rum was a penny a glass, wharves were well greased with seal fat and cod oil", and the harbour was filled with foreign vessels. Many unidentified or unclaimed bodies were found in the harbour. Usually, the coroner examined the body and dispatched it to Nancy Coyle.
Nancy was said to have been skillful at her work, and "brought many a corpse back to life in her time." One Dutch sailor was being nailed up in his coffin at Nancy's when he suddenly revived. After a drink or two of rum, he was soon on his way out the door.
Nancy's house also served as a refuge for locked-out tradesmen who boarded above their merchants' shops. A light in her window let them know they could get shelter for the night at her house.
