fair position" from Barnes, Surrey. The boy had previously been a student at a private school in St. Leonards and under a private tutor. He was not a good student, with contemporary sources suggesting he "had water on the brain" and describing him as "stolid and stupid". Hopley attributed Cancellor's failure to learn to stubbornness. On 18 April 1860, he asked the boy's father for permission to use "severe corporal punishment" to obtain compliance, with permission granted two days later. Hopley did not possess the cane traditionally used to administer corporal punishment to students, so instead he used a skipping rope and a walking stick. Death Cancellor was found dead in his bedroom on the morning of 22 April 1860. His body was covered, with long stockings over his legs and kidskin gloves on his hands. The only visible part of the body was his face. A medical man of Hopley's acquaintance named Roberts pronounced that the boy had died of natural causes. When questioned, Hopley suggested that Cancellor died of heart disease and argued that he should be buried immediately. He wrote to the boy's father requesting the body's immediate removal and interment. After viewing his son's dressed body, Cancellor's father accepted Roberts's assertion for cause of death and agreed to the burial. Rumours began to circulate among the Hopleys' servants, suggesting that Hopley's wife had spent the night prior to the body's discovery cleaning up evidence of her husband's beating of the boy. Reginald's older brother, Reverend John Henry Cancellor Jr. (1834–1900), arrived in Eastbourne from Send, Surrey, on 25 April. He noticed discrepancies in the reports of his brother's death and requested an autopsy. Hopley asked prominent physician Sir Charles Locock, an acquaintance of the Cancellor family and an obstetrician to the Queen, to examine the body and verify death by natural causes; Locock believed that Hopley was responsible for the death. A complete inquest into Cancellor's death was initiated. His body was taken for autopsy on 28 April and was found to be covered in blood under the gloves and stockings. His thighs were "reduced to a perfect jelly" and his body was covered in bruises and cuts, including two inch-deep holes in his right leg, deep enough to allow the medical examiner, Robert Willis, to touch the bone underneath. Willis reported that other than these injuries, the boy was healthy and his heart and other