Wrongful conviction, followed by execution and multiple deaths.
Death
Body snatching in Clerkenwell
1818: An inquisitive child in Clerkenwell makes an alarming discovery.
The murder trial of Robert Hallam
1731: The trial of Robert Hallam for the murder of his heavily pregnant wife Jane who was thrown from a window
The death of an orphan chimney sweep in Somers Town
The plight of London’s chimney sweep apprentices.
The Observer reports on the inquest into the death of Robert Dowland, 14, chimney sweep
The Observer, 26 October 1817 ANOTHER CHIMNEY-SWEEP-BOY SUFFOCATED Thursday night, at eight o’clock, an Inquisition was held at the house of Mr. Alford, the sign of the Lord Somers Arms, corner of Greville-street and Union-street, Somers Town, before Thomas Stirling, Esq., one of the Coroners for the county of Middlesex on view of the body […]
A prisoner dies of starvation in Tothill-fields bridewell
The death of John Burden appals the coroner.
1817: Poverty and distress leads to tin miner’s death in a field
The suicide of a Cornishman and the grisly fate of his body.
Blue Bell Hill: A young woman lays down to die and is eaten by maggots
Alarming discovery in a forest.
“Guilty – death”: two executions from 1817
Two executions from 1817: burglary and infanticide reported in The Observer
Adrift in London in 1817: Johnson, a dying black seaman is refused medical help
Turned away from St. Thomas’s Hospital.
Plus ça change: Starving to death in Cripplegate
1816: The Observer reports on the death of starvation of a pauper in Cripplegate and pleads for the authorities to show more compassion to the poor
Dissection in hospitals : Private grief v public good
From The Observer, 1818: A poverty-stricken bereaved mother complains after doctors at Guy’s Hospital dissect her child’s body and is arrested.
The actress and the portraitist: Miss Walstein and Moses Houghton
A 1815 portrait of the acclaimed actress Miss Walstein – did the artist realise that his subject had been born a man?
1833: The extraordinary life and shocking death of the actor Eliza Edwards aka Miss Lavinia Walstein
After a mostly illustrious career in Ireland and England appearing as Lavinia Walstein, actress Eliza Edwards’ star waned.