The New Newgate Calendar

Next year is already looking to be an exciting one for scholars of early modern imprisonment, with two upcoming conferences on the topic recently announced.... read more »

On this date in 1759,* a man hanged at Nottingham for destroying the bastard infant of an incestuous affair … and for his belligerence decades afterwards.... read more »

Hannah Newman was a confident (one might say ‘cocky’) character. At half past ten on the 29 November 1858 she was on Cheapside, in the City... read more »

For today’s post, we’re revisiting one of our favorite troves, James Kelly’s Gallows Speeches From Eighteenth-Century Ireland —... read more »

Police Constable Williams of N Division, Metropolitan Police, was patrolling his beat late in the evening of November 28th 1863 when he saw a... read more »

Dennis Nugent was hanged on this date in 1798 for raping an eight-year-old girl — a crime whose particulars were so revolting that “The Court... read more »

“This morning John Smith and John Pratt expiated their heinous offence, by forfeiting their lives on the scaffold in front of Newgate”.                       ... read more »

We have from time to time in these pages glimpsed the scaffold as the paradoxical junction of death to eros — the “little death” writ... read more »

Broadside via the National Library of Scotland: THE LAST Words and Confession of DAVID MYLES Who was Executed for Incest, at Edinburgh, on the 27 Day of... read more »

  In recent years there have been several tragic instances of children being killed or badly injured by dogs. The laws against the possession of particular... read more »

The Denison Canal is the only purpose built sea canal in Australia. When the famed colonial explorer, Captain James Kelly, was undertaking his 1815 circumnavigation... read more »

On this date in 1937, the director of Moscow’s famed Bolshoi Theater was shot in the Gulag … even as Uncle Joe mangled his greatest commission.... read more »

Sometimes the news reports of the Police Courts of the metropolis give us an indication of how the hearing worked in practice. Most of the cases I’ve... read more »

On this date in 1944, British Capt. Victor Gough was shot at Ehrlich Forest as a German POW. Gough had been parachuted into occupied France a few months... read more »

When the landlord of the Cock in New Street began to note that his pewter pint pots were disappearing at an alarming rate he called in the police to investigate.... read more »

Edinburgh Castle, toune and towre, God grant thou sink for sin! And that e’en for the black dinner Earl Douglas gat therein. -Sir Walter Scott On... read more »

  In the early nineteenth century character was often assumed through appearance and context. So a woman that was on the streets at at night alone... read more »

L0043481 A notebook allegedly covered in human skinCredit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome ImagesA notebook allegedly covered in human skin. The label... read more »

Located at the corner of Patrick Street and Market Place is St Michael and All Angels church which was built in 1891 by the stonemason Thomas Lewis using... read more »

On this date in 1910, Sweden made its first and only use of the guillotine — in the very last execution of that country’s history. The milestone... read more »

The Police Courts of London dealt with a lot more than crime in the nineteenth century. Petitioners often approached the bench asking for help because... read more »

19 November 2016...Copyright Dr Alice WhiteThought readers might be interested in Wellcome Library, London's Bedlam: the asylum and beyond exhibition... read more »

On November 22, 1946, American executioners recorded a double-double with twin killings in both North Carolina and Georgia. North Carolina Charles Primus,... read more »

Occasionally the newspapers reports of the ‘doings’ of the London Police Court feel quite voyeuristic and uncomfortable to modern eyes. Alongside... read more »

We tend to think of prisons as male spaces. So I’m trying an experiment. I will return to go material I wrote about in my previous post, When Prisoners... read more »

Lambeth, c.1850   Charlotte White was a young lady who liked to look her best. Just like many today she tried to keep up with fashions and enjoyed... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this day in 1887, a teenager named Joseph Morley was hanged for the brutal... read more »

British Evening Post, Nov. 27-29, 1781 On this date in 1781, midwife Margaret Tinkler hanged at Durham. Tinkler had care of Jane Parkinson who wished to... read more »

A few years ago the papers in England were filled with stories of anti-social youth causing trouble and making light of any attempt to control them using... read more »

The Children’s Fountain was originally purchased in 1887 for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee with the idea that it would be presented to the... read more »

On this date in 1659, an Irish adventurer named Don Guillen Lombardo went to the stake in Mexico City as a heretic — en route to a destiny as a romantic... read more »

When Caroline Wright came before the magistrate at Marlborough Street she pleaded poverty and blamed her actions on ‘distress’. This week I... read more »

V0011105 Credit: Wellcome Library, London Franz Joseph Gall leading a discussion on phrenology with five colleagues, among his extensive collection of... read more »

On this date in 1441, the astrologer and mathematician Robert Bolingbroke was put to death as a wizard. Bolingbroke had the ill luck to attach to the household... read more »

  Mrs Sarah Cameron ran a tobacconist shop on the Broadway in Westminster, central London. One evening in November 1840 a young man  called... read more »

By Sara M. Butler; posted 17 November 2016. With the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses looming brightly in the distance, I... read more »

(Thanks to Robert Elder of Last Words of the Executed — the blog, and the book — for the guest post. This post originally appeared on the Last... read more »

One of London’s brand new police constables was on duty in Drury Lane in November 1829 when he came across the collapsed person of an elderly lady.... read more »

On this date in 1747, a Tyburn hanging dispatched (along with three other, unconnected criminals) Thomas Fuller, member of one of 18th century England’s... read more »

The Dog and Duck, Soho as it is today When John Reynolds locked up the White Horse tavern on Whitecomb Street, Haymarket he made his way upstairs. Reynolds... read more »

On 15 November 1831, James Burnip, a retired Sergeant, wrote in a letter to His Excellency Colonel George Arthur, Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s... read more »

China today carried out the controversial execution of Jia Jinglong, a peasant who found a nail gun was his only avenue of redress. Jia’s village... read more »

This week, the European Custody & Detention Summit is convened at the Tower of London (15-16 November). Set against this historic backdrop, the summit... read more »

Thomas C. Cook was an American. In fact he described himself as a “a missionary from America for the abolition of slavery”. This was a noble... read more »

The Hornsey Road, c.1900 At about 3 o’clock in the morning of the 31 October 1898 two men clambered over the back wall of a property in Hornsey Road... read more »

From the memoirs of Cristof Hermann von Mannstein, a Prussian officer who served in Russia from 1727 to 1744. As Manstein has this report by second hand,... read more »

With poisoning cases once again in the public's perception (ITV's drama, Dark Angel, featuring Victorian serial killer, Mary Ann Cotton), the case of Anne... read more »

  Henry Seplater, described as a ‘tall young fellow, with mustachios, ..having all the appearance of a foreign swindler’, was brought... read more »

From the Martyrs’ Mirror catalogue of Anabaptists In the year 1544, there was a sister in the Lord, named Maria van Beckum, whom her mother had... read more »

My apologies for the lack of posts recently but I have been on a trip checking out some of the World Heritage listed Convict sites in both New South Wales... read more »