Sophia Handcock
Section 11 Lot 63
Prospect Cemetery
Individual acts of violence towards women were no less prevalent or horrifying 100 to 150 years ago than they are today. On July 26, 1891 a 22-year-old woman from Fairbank was subjected to a brutal attack that proved fatal. The ensuing search for her assailant was futile. The coroner’s jury concluded that Sophia had been a victim of wilful murder: “by person or persons unknown.” The biblical quotation on her grave marker pays tribute to her devout nature: “The (a) Woman that Feareth the Lord, She shall be praised.”