FATAL GUN ACCIDENT AT PLYMOUTH - A melancholy which terminated fatally, occurred in Plymouth on Saturday morning. A man named Hammerton, a resident of London but who had come to Plymouth for the purpose of taking a business on the Barbican was shooting in a field adjoining South Devon place. He was accompanied by a man named Ackford a corporal in the South Devon Militia, and he was standing in a hedge with the muzzle of his gun in an upward direction. It is supposed that he accidentally struck the stock against a stone, and the gun being cocked, exploded, its contents lodging in his body. He died in a few minutes. Ackford raised an alarm and the body was removed to the dead-house at the Guildhall, where an inquest will be held.
Source: London Standard, 1 Sep 1868