Although not a direct answer to the query, there is a record of a fatality as a result of the use of gunpowder in the sinking of Ovington's pit, East Rainton (then in County Durham and now in Tyne & Wear). This occurred on 7th October 1776 and is recorded in Sykes Account of Wallsend Explosion. R L Galloway, in his Annals of Coal Mining and the Mining Industry said that he believed this to be the earliest notice of the use of gunpowder for blasting rock.
Alan.
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