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 […]
Crime
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 […]
Did Birmingham artist Samuel Lines know murdered Mary Ashford?
Early in the morning of Tuesday 27 May 1817, a labourer came across a pair of boots, a bonnet and bundle of clothes near a stagnant pit of water just north of the village of Erdington near Birmingham. He surmised that someone had gone into the pit and ran to raise the alarm at a […]
The Legend of Margaret Catchpole
Over two hundred years after her death, Margaret Catchpole (1762–1811) is remembered by many – for the things she was not and the things she did not do, largely because someone who never met her wrote her purported biography, which was largely a work of fiction. Ironically Margaret Catchpole’s life was extraordinary enough without this. […]
Criminal Lives exhibition at the London Metropolitan Archives
A compact but effective display
Women and the Gallows in Your Family History magazine
How I researched Unfortunate Wretches
The life and death of Jerry Abershaw, highwayman
Read my article on vauxhallhistory.org
Spa Fields riots: The raid on Beckwith’s gun shop
London was in chaos.
William Cobbett’s State Trials: a complete list
They’re all here – including an index.
Basic Instincts: The art of Joseph Highmore at the Foundling Museum
A belated review.
The Newgate Calendar online
The New and Complete Newgate Calendar, Volume 1, 1797 Jackson, William (1797). The new and complete Newgate calendar; or, Villany displayed in all its branches. Vol 1. London: Alexander Hogg. Google Books The New and Complete Newgate Calendar, Volumes 2-4, 1795 Jackson, William (1795). The new and complete Newgate calendar; or, Villany displayed in all its branches. Vols 2 […]
Abduction and Rape in 18th-Century London: The Multiple Misfortunes of Charlotte Williams by Joanne Major and Sarah Murden
This girl had guts.
It’s raining pitchforks: the Swing Riots of the 1830s, Or, The miserable life of the ag lab
Tough times.
1818: The murder of a gamekeeper at Crockingham Corner, Epsom
Eli Cox was only 19 when he was savagely attacked.
A voyage to nowhere: On board prison hulks at Woolwich
It was by no means an easy life.
The trial of John Motherhill for the rape of Catherine Wade: 1786
Pretty depressing.
1819: The rape of Hannah Whitehorn
A teenage maidservant makes a serious allegation.
An altercation in Taunton between Tom Woodforde and Don Whiskerandos
Tom Woodforde sued James Vibart in 1817 for damages after a violent fight in Taunton.
Some early 19th-century prison escapes
Best plan is to have a horse ready and waiting.
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: Betty Rowland
There was a riot at her execution in Liverpool.
36 cases of fraud committed by women, tried at the Old Bailey 1797 to 1837
A look at the various criminal methods women used to obtain goods and money under false pretences.
Three women hanged for poisoning their husbands in 1836: Harriet Tarver
Hanged in Gloucester in 1836 for the poisoning murder of her husband Thomas.