• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Visit my YouTube channel

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Naomi Clifford

Books + Talks

  • Books
  • About
    • About the author
    • Press and reviews
    • Agent
    • Contact
  • Blog
    • Browse the blog
    • Mary Ashford
    • Women and the Gallows
    • Maria Glenn
  • News & Talks

Desperate Measures: Women on Trial for Infanticide in the Early 19th Century

19 February 2018Naomi Clifford

My blog on 19th-century infanticide was published on Geri Walton’s blog.

In 1805, 17-year-old Mary Morgan gave birth alone in the upstairs room of a Welsh manor house where she worked as an under-cook. Abandoned by her lover and facing immediate dismissal from her job once the baby was discovered, she cut her daughter’s throat with a penknife. But she was quickly found out, tried at the assize court at Presteigne and found guilty. The judge could have recommended mercy but feared that baby-killing was common amongst the poor and uneducated in Wales. He wept as he sentenced her but nevertheless held to his conviction that her execution would send a strong message to other young women in similar circumstances. Mary was hanged on a tree a few days later. The words on her gravestone are a testimony to the anger felt by local people at her fate.

READ ON

Footer

historical writers association logo
  • Books I have reviewed
  • Stories by guest bloggers
  • Image databases
  • Map websites
  • William Cobbett’s State Trials
  • In Our Time index

Subscribe to my newsletter

New stories direct to your inbox.

SIGN UP NOW

Copyright © 2022 Naomi Clifford
Privacy policy