The Woman in the Chair: the Story of Eliza Conner (1829 - 1863) A while ago, a post by the local archives appeared on Facebook. It featured an 1863 clipping from The Hull News , which told of the strange funeral rites surrounding the death of ‘an old prostitute named Hill.’ According to the article, ten women tied the deceased to a chair, placed a glass of gin in her hand, a pipe in her mouth, and danced around her - a scene described as a ‘revolting exhibition of corrupted female humanity.’ The Vicar of Grimsby, Reverend Hulbert, had quite 'properly,’ the paper noted, refused to read her full funeral rites. The woman’s name was not printed. Nor were the circumstances of her death. She was painted only in scandal and shame. Her name was Eliza Conner. Eliza died of heart disease at just 34. She was born in Ireland in 1829. While the details of her journey to Grimsby remain unclear, we know that the Great Famine drove many to seek work in England, and it’s likely she firs...