The New Newgate Calendar

An edition of the Old Bailey Proceedings The Old Bailey Proceedings are a rich historical resource, almost unimaginably so. They constitute the largest... read more »

“Gleaning” by Arthur Hughes Gleaning was a right of the poor up to the late 18th century, under common law. After a farmer had harvested his... read more »

The Truk Atoll, in Micronesia, is more commonly known today as Chuuk. It’s a hot diving location notable for the many sunken World War II Japanese... read more »

The following is the text of a lecture I recently gave to the British Numismatic Society, 25th March 2014. This paper is essentially a summation of my... read more »

On this date in 1875, a private named John Morgan was hanged for murdering his fellow. The London Times reported the trial (March 12, 1875: Morgan did... read more »

On this date in 1875, artilleryman Richard Coates (or “Coote”) was hanged for murder. He’d been detailed as a schoolteacher for the Purfleet... read more »

For the next two days, we draw a pair of odd cases from the ranks of Her Majesty’s men at arms. Recently spooked by debacles in the Crimean War and... read more »

Yesterday, I was re-reading Bernard Capp’s excellent 2003 book When Gossips Meet: Women, Family, and Neighbourhood in Early Modern England, and tweeted... read more »

In 1954, the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama hired as its pastor a 25-year-old fresh out of Boston University’s doctoral program.... read more »

THE ALIENISTS ARRIVE It is difficult to say when the alienists - OED: "A psychiatrist who assesses the competence of a defendant in a law court" - first... read more »

On this date in 1878, Joe and Teek* Brassell were hanged in Cookeville, Tennessee. These brothers (their eldest sibling Jim Brassell wisely bowed out of... read more »

This date in 1913 saw the hanging of Henry Lovell William Clark for a sensational pair of domestic murders in the British Raj. The half-Indian Lieutenant... read more »

FREE talk at Mshed Bristol!15 May 2014Bristol asylum - inmates and their life stories.Follow this link for detailshttp://www1.uwe.ac.uk/cahe/research/regionalhistorycentre/seminarseries.aspx ... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1851, 41-year-old Sarah Chesham was hanged before a crowd of six... read more »

It was announced in parliament last week that the Royal Mint is to begin minting a new pound coin – bimetallic and twelve sided – with the... read more »

My Blog post today covers another aspect of my grandfather’s military service during the First World War. Ninety-six years ago, Private Charlie... read more »

Mary Ann Cotton She’s dead and she’s rotten She lies in her bed With her eyes wide open Sing, sing! Oh what can I sing? Mary Ann Cotton is... read more »

I came across this quote in the London magistrate Patrick Colquhoun’s Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis (1797), and liked the attitude expressed... read more »

Instruction of the Pauper Children in the Metropolitan District School, Sutton, Illustrated London News, 1872 via @La_Lynne. For history of school click... read more »

On this date in 1860, Ann Bilansky was hanged in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bilansky — her Christian name is given as Ann, Anne, or Anna in various reports... read more »

On this date in 1819, 16-year-old Hannah Bocking was hanged outside the Derby Gaol for murdering a friend with an arsenic-laced spice cake. She appears... read more »

One of this site’s recurring themes and criminology’s iconic trappings, the poison arsenic carried off many a soul. Poison has been around... read more »

We are delighted to be able to announce our first project workshop on Visualising Data, part of our Epistemologies research theme. We anticipate that the... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1963, hardened killer Frederick Charles Wood, 51, became the next-to-last... read more »

Gloucestershire’s County Petty Sessions records have numerous examples of people brought before magistrates for poaching offences, but this return... read more »

On this date in 1899, Martha Place became the first woman to die in the electric chair. William Place, a widowed insurance adjuster at 598 Hancock Street... read more »

Before the advent of a national police force, a number of discretionary options were available to a victim of crime in responding to the crime committed... read more »

Today, Criminal Historian is privileged to have a very timely guest post by Angela Buckley, author of new book The Real Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Story... read more »

On this date in 1330, the king’s half-brother Edmund of Woodstock lost his head for treason. Edmund was the youngest son of Edward I. That patrimony... read more »

This interim post is to recommend Dr Nick Hervey's latest blog on criminal lunatics and attacks on Queen Victoria - excellent stuff! http://bethlemheritage.wordpress.com/Why... read more »

In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Russia’s imperial ambitions in the east drew it inexorably towards conflict with Japan. This was the period when... read more »

A Victorian depiction of the Pendle witches In Michael Dalton’s 1618 handbook for Justices of the Peace, The Country Justice, he included a section... read more »

Just before Christmas in 1871, Detective Jerome Caminada of the Manchester City Police Force, received instructions to track four thieves wanted in Sheffield... read more »

On this date (most likely) in 1713, Slovakian “Robin Hood” figure Juraj Janosik was hung on a hook in Liptov County for his outlawry. Janosik... read more »

In recent weeks I have been reading three historical novels, each of which relates to some of my research interests. These works have required me to consider... read more »

16 January 1840 Walter Tunmore, who has been alone and tearful in his cell, is back with the boys and the prison visitor finds them bright and cheerful.... read more »

Thanks to Aaron Molyneux for the guestpost. It’s just an excerpt of a much more detailed treatment Molyneux first made of this case on PrisonVoices.org.... read more »

Joseph LaPage died on a gallows at Concord, N.H. on this date in 1878 for the horrific murder of Josie Langmaid more than two years before. The 17-year-old... read more »

Originally posted on History Lab Plus: by Nicola Verdon I spent a lot of time in 2013 trying to make a coherent case that the various, rather haphazard,... read more »

On this date in 1908, the octogenarian Haitian president Pierre Nord Alexis had a number of political opponents arrested and, that very night, summarily... read more »

On this date in 1493, Peter Dane was burned at the stake in the Baltic city of Rostock. Dane, the vicar of the church at the small town of Sternberg, allegedly... read more »

View full page map The debtors’ sanctuaries of late seventeenth and early eighteenth century London were in part a reaction to the threat of imprisonment... read more »

On this date in 1690, the somewhat comic thieving career of Jack Bird came to an end at Tyburn. Bird ran away from an apprenticeship to serve as a foot-guard... read more »

Almost all gaol, police and court museums now have websites to advertise their attractions, but they are still primarily places that you have to physically... read more »

From Cotton Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana: Or the Ecclesiastical History of New England from 1620 – 1698: On March 11, 1686, was Executed... read more »

This date in 1865, just weeks before the final collapse of the Confederacy, a slave named Amy was hanged on a sycamore tree before the courthouse of Darlingon,... read more »

The Criminal Lunatics Act (1800) gave the Sovereign powers to order the safe custody of criminal lunatics but continued 'no provision for defraying the... read more »

The history of the insanity defence has been well documented by historians. What follows is a very brief outline of the history of the insanity defence... read more »

Detail from Mrs E.M. Ward, ‘Mrs Elizabeth Fry Visiting Newgate, 1818′ (1876), exhibited at World Columbian Exposition, 1893 15 January 1840... read more »

(Thanks to John S. Carbone of Alienists Compendium. Dr. Carbone is also the Director of Mental Health Services and Chief of Forensic Psychiatry for the... read more »