The New Newgate Calendar

For Women’s History Month this year I’m doing a series of posts highlighting primary sources of women’s writings and voices (in English... read more »

On this date in 1785, two of the three leaders of Transylvania’s great peasant uprising were broken on the wheel in the city of Alba Iulia —... read more »

I enjoy the way in which the nineteenth century press occasionally rendered the testimony of witnesses at the Police Courts in the vernacular. It was probably... read more »

A fine Gothic Revival sandstone church built in 1857 and containing an organ and desk that once belonged to Bishop Nixon the first Anglican Bishop of Tasmania.... read more »

V0010453 William Hunter (1718-1783) in his museum in Windmill StreetCredit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome ImagesWilliam Hunter (1718-1783) in his... read more »

Much has been written about the rise in dark tourism, where we visit historic sites that were once associated with crime and punishment. From former prisons... read more »

Vauxhall Bridge c.1829 James Edwards was a man with a tremendously large thirst but very small funds. In early 1854 he came up with a cunning plan to cash... read more »

On this date in 1788, Thomas Barrett became the first person legally executed in Great Britain’s Australian colonies when he hanged at Sydney Cove... read more »

by Kiran Mehta In The Promise of Punishment: Prisons in Nineteenth-Century France, published in 1982, Patricia O’Brien argued that the prison guard... read more »

At around 5 o’clock on 25 February 1866 PC John Watkins (303) was called to attend at a house in Prince’s Row Square, Soho. In the 1860s this... read more »

On this date in 1858, the British hanged Assamese grandee Maniram Dewan for joining the 1857 Indian Rebellion. Maniram was a young man going on 20 when... read more »

On this date in 1984, the Islamic Republic of Iran completed its destruction of the Tudeh party with ten executions. In the 1940s, the Tudeh was Iran’s... read more »

  In late February 1828 two young men were brought before the Lord Mayor  at Mansion House charged with ‘having taken some bushels... read more »

On this date in 1902, Joe Higginbotham was hanged for raping and slashing the throat of a Mrs. Ralph Webber. The State (Columbia, S.C.), Jan. 24, 1902... read more »

  In February 1894 Annie Walker observed a suspicious looking man that she had seen loitering around her mistress’ house several times... read more »

  In late February 1865 Elizabeth Smith and Emma Harrington were standing at the corner of Gardener’s Lane at one in the morning. Clearly the... read more »

On this date in 1807, John Holloway, 39, and Owen Haggerty, 24, were hanged outside Debtors’ Door at Newgate Prison for the murder of John Cole Steele... read more »

In my previous post, I explored the ways in which the policing agents before the Metropolitan Police were expected to deal with ‘suspicious persons’.... read more »

In 1884, a Russian woman by the name of Liudmila Volkenshtein was found guilty of anti-tsarist “terrorism” by a military court in St Petersburg.... read more »

The Shaftesbury Training Ship (or Industrial School) I spent yesterday in the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) pouring over one of few surviving registers... read more »

From the Charleston Courier, March 29, 1827. PENDLETON, MARCH 21. — We regret to announce that Captain Jehu Orr, who was stabbed on the 12th of February... read more »

I have just added two pieces of Jacobean legislation to the statutes archive: the clause of 1604 repealing sanctuary acts and  the clauses of 1623... read more »

John Davidson was an experienced City of London detective. In February 1882 he was walking in St Paul’s Churchyard (which in the past was a much... read more »

On this date in 1944, 22 members of the anti-Nazi French Resistance’s “immigrant movement” Francs-tireurs et partisans – main-d’œuvre... read more »

Posted by Sara M. Butler; 20 February 2017. The economic crisis that dominated the Tudor era was wrought by a combination of factors: explosive population... read more »

The London Police Courts were the equivalent of today’s magistrates’ courts although they dealt with considerable more ‘civil’... read more »

Thomas Pormort (or Pormant) was hanged on this date in 1592 on a gibbet erected adjacent to a Paul’s Churchyard haberdashery whose proprietor had... read more »

On this date in 1329, as Wikipedia puts it, Antipope Nicholas V “presided at a bizarre ceremony in the Duomo of Pisa, at which a straw puppet representing... read more »

A volunteer from the 29th Middlesex Rifles, c.1870 A just after six on a Saturday evening in early 1878 Mr Walters was watching the Volunteer Corps band... read more »

Today’s story from the London Police Courts combines two changes in the mid nineteenth century; one technological and the other legal. In 1851... read more »

On this date in 1836,* the deposed President of Peru was shot with his comrades by the new Bolivian boss. The youngest ever to head his country, Felipe... read more »

In 1857, a man who lay dying in the bush at Supply River requested the services of a minister. Thomas Travers, understanding the man’s needs, rode... read more »

“Even if I keep on runnin’, I’ll never get to Orange street”, (The Prince, Madness)* Mrs Thomas was the wife of a respectable... read more »

(Thanks to Captain Charles Johnson — perhaps a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe — for the guest post. It was originally Chapter XIII “Of Captain... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this day in 1906, Robert E. Newcomb and John Mueller were hanged together in... read more »

In February 1880 the death of John Locke, the sitting Liberal MP for Southwark seat brought about a by-election. In due course 15,312 eligible voters turned... read more »

John Davey or George Stubbs (as they were one and the same apparently) was a curious fellow and his appearance at Hampstead Police Courts may well have caused... read more »

The initials of the two men in the double hanging are all the identification I have found — but the spectacle of this February 15, 2014 public double... read more »

Extending a piece from the new Mad or Bad, this latest offering presents a review of those convicted of assailing a much-maligned Queen Victoria - and... read more »

Between 22nd and 26th February 2017, Digital Panopticon historians, including Barry Godfrey are going to Wigtown, Scotland’s National Book Town... read more »

Caroline Rowland had got a little tiddly. In fact she was so drunk that she was stumbling about on the Caledonian Road bumping in to people. Eventually... read more »

Jewish cabaret singer and silent film actress Dora Gerson was gassed with her family at Auschwitz on this date in 1943. IMDB credits the Berlin entertainer... read more »

In early 1856 the Crimean War – fought because of Russia’s desires to gain territory at the expense of the seemingly weakened Ottoman... read more »

“The day was remarkably calm, serene and placid, for the season — as was also, the mind, the countenance, and the conduct of the prisoner”... read more »

  We are about to enter the week of valentines, and so all the shops are fun of heart themed gifts, chocolates and cards. If you try to buy a bunch... read more »

Nuremberg executioner Franz Schmidt on this date in 1584 hanged a gang of five young — very young — thieves. He marked the occasion in his... read more »

The Levy Brothers Jewish Bakery, 31 Middlesex Street, Whitechapel: c.1900   We are now (perhaps sadly) used to the reality that Sunday is no more... read more »

Our subject today is the journal Franz Schmidt, the redoubtable master executioner of the German city Nuremberg. On February 11-12 in 1584, Schmidt made... read more »

Executioner Franz Schmidt records in his journal for this date in 1584 the hanging of two women — according to Schmidt, the first women hanged in... read more »

A very late note that I blogged about my petitions over at the many-headed monster in November 2016. the many-headed monster Our next post in the Addressing... read more »