John Buddle - Death

Death

A Unitarian, Buddle died unmarried at his home in Wallsend in 1843, after becoming ill after riding with Lord Londonderry to inspect the collieries. He left a personal fortune of around £150,000 to his nephew, Robert Thomas Atkinson, who died less than two years later. They are both buried at St James' Churchyard, Benwell, along with Robert's Aunt. When Buddle died, his funeral procession was over a mile long and took over three hours to travel from his home in Wallsend to his resting place in Benwell. The number of mourners was so great that, according to one contemporary newspaper report, "so large a concourse of people was perhaps never before assembled in Newcastle on such a mournful occasion". The long list of pall bearers and principal mourners included many of the most rich and powerful men in Newcastle, such as local councillor and wealthy corn merchant William Armstrong and his son, also William, who was just a few years away from setting up his great engineering works on the banks of the Tyne in Elswick.