As a warning to female virtue, and a humbleMonument to female chastity,This stone marks the grave ofMARY ASHFORD,Who, in the 20th year of her age,Having incautiously repaired to aScene of amusement, without proper protection,Was brutally violated and murderedOn the 27th of May 1817. Mary Ashford’s gravestone, Sutton Coldfield churchyard Early one May morning in 1817 […]
Death
Watch “By her own consent”: Mary Ashford and Rape Culture in the Georgian Era
A chance to see the talk I delivered online for Vauxhall History and South Lambeth Library on 8 December 2020. I explore the story of Mary Ashford’s murder in 1817 and look at what it tells us about rape in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
“Is she or isn’t she?” How an age-old plea of pregnancy saved women from execution
I was all set to give a talk on 1 May at the National Theatre in London exploring themes in Lucy Kirkwood’s play The Welkin, which was then in performance. Of course, the Coronavirus lockdown meant everything was cancelled, so I am instead posting some of that talk here. *Although some aspects of the plot […]
My guest blog for Geri Walton: Women on trial for infanticide
Tragic.
Spa Fields riots: The raid on Beckwith’s gun shop
London was in chaos.
Basic Instincts: The art of Joseph Highmore at the Foundling Museum
A belated review.
1814: Murder or manslaughter? The trial of Mary Ann Adlam
Terrible scenes in a hat shop in Bath
Benjamin Jesty: Pioneer vaccinator
Largely forgotten now but he predated Edward Jenner.
1818: The murder of a gamekeeper at Crockingham Corner, Epsom
Eli Cox was only 19 when he was savagely attacked.
Suspicious death of a female on Fulham Bridge: 28 September 1817
Maria Cooper threw herself into the Thames after a drinking session.
1814: The death of Lavinia Robinson, the Manchester Ophelia
She was accused of “a want of chastity.”
Happy Christmas and New Year to everyone
A review of 2016 and news of my upcoming book about women executed 1797 to 1837.
Horace Cotton: The extraordinary Ordinary of Newgate
Humane or a venal, unfeeling monster?
Three women hanged for poisoning their husbands in 1836: Sophia Edney
Aged 23, hanged at Ilchester, for the poisoning murder of her much older husband John.
Three women hanged for poisoning their husbands in 1836: Harriet Tarver
Hanged in Gloucester in 1836 for the poisoning murder of her husband Thomas.
A visit from Madame Gilflurt: The mystery of the Duke of Cumberland’s valet
Catherine Curzon (aka Madame Gilflurt) pays a visit to tell us about the shocking attempt on the life of the Duke of Cumberland…
A broadside on Elizabeth Simmonds, who had a lucky escape from the dissecting table
Or did she?
The bloody career of Maria Theresa Phipoe
The end of an extraordinary life of crime
The confession of Mary Voce, who inspired George Eliot
She became Hetty Sorrel in Adam Bede
Gangs of Market Drayton: Ann Harris (1828)
Looks lovely but hides a dark past
Charlotte Newman and Mary Ann James
Hanged in 1818 for forgery
The end of Frances Thompson, a dealer in false banknotes
Fake bobs, shans and scrieves did for her.
Susannah Holroyd: Serial killer
Or was she?
Ann Hurle’s story: The execution of “a young woman of education”
It’s a pity she didn’t use her talents for something else.
The birth of the pound note and the fate of Sarah Bailey
She was up against a powerful opponent.
The hazards of hiring: Melinda Mapson
Beware the perfidious servant.