The New Newgate Calendar

John Adams to Abigail Adams Philadelphia March 31, 1777 I know not the Time, when I have omitted to write you, so long. I have received but three Letters... read more »

On this date in 1781, the Spanish social bandit Diego Corrientes Mateos was hanged and quartered in Seville. A robber who plied the roads from Portugal... read more »

City Park occupies 6ha (15 acres) near the Tamar river. Included within the park is Albert Hall (constructed in 1891, and significant in its own right),... read more »

The Boy Who Strayed From The Bush Path By Michaela Ann Cameron They called him ‘Daniel.’ But those who adopted and ‘reared’ the... read more »

On this date in 1560 the second Baron de Castelnau, Jean Boileau, was beheaded as a Huguenot traitor. His was one of the opening casualties of France’s... read more »

On this date in 1558, Protestant Cuthbert Simson or Simpson was burned at Smithfield — having withstood harrowing torture in the Tower of London.... read more »

This octagonal tide gauge house, located in Castray Esplanade in Battery Point and designed by Robert Huckson, was opened in December 1889, and still contains... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1894, Walter Smith was hanged at the Nottingham Gaol by executioner... read more »

The assize model we’ve been featuring this week surely underscores during the Bloody Code days the law as a wholesale instrument. For a site like... read more »

From the London General Evening Post, Dec. 15-17, 1774 Extract of a letter from Birmingham, Dec. 15. On Sunday morning last Ann Mansfield, the widow of... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1823, 40-year-old farmer John Newton was hanged for the murder... read more »

In 1835, Commandant Booth put a high priority on the construction of a strong wall and tower for the further security of the military barracks. Point Puer... read more »

Chester Chronicle, Feb. 14, 1812: On the morning of Saturday the 1st inst. William Bailey, collier, of Old Park Iron Works, near Shifnal, Shropshire, was... read more »

On moonlit heath and lonesome bank The sheep beside me graze; And yon the gallows used to clank Fast by the four cross ways. A careless shepherd once would... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1824, only three days after his indictment, Richard Overfield... read more »

The prison of the wolvenplein (Wolves Square), located in the city centre of Utrecht (The Netherlands), closed down in June 2014 as part of the budget... read more »

On a never-specified date in 15th century Siena, the tragic lover Mariotto Mignarelli was beheaded in Masuccio Salernitano‘s story Mariotto and Ganozza... read more »

A Victorian cabman – from the Illustrated Police News, 3 January 1880 In May 1864, Mrs Ruth Vincent was shocked – shocked enough to go to the... read more »

The history of Baptist work in Hobart goes back a long way. On 14 June 1835 in a small dwelling in Elizabeth Street in Hobart Town, the first Baptist church... read more »

One century ago today, a Polish Jew from east London named Aby Bevistein was shot for cowardice in Calais — four weeks shy of his 18th birthday.... read more »

Mad or Bad? A History of Crime and Insanity in Victorian Britain (Pen & Sword, 2017)It's done (almost!) 'Mad or Bad?'manuscript done, save... read more »

Sunderland (U.K.) Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, April 6, 1875. A despatch from Brentville, Prince William County, Va., dated March 19, says: —... read more »

Helen Torrance and Jean Waldie were executed this day, for stealing a child, eight or nine years of age, and selling its body to the surgeons for dissection.... read more »

An Epilogue to John Martin: The Self-Freed Slave By Michaela Ann Cameron While researching and writing the latest biography for my St. John’s... read more »

On this date in 1706, Bavarian butcher Matthias Kraus was beheaded and quartered for an anti-Austrian rebellion. This commoner was the victim at several... read more »

On this date in 1868,* eleven samurai committed seppuku before the French consul in Japan spared their nine comrades. The affair was stunning punishment... read more »

The original George Town Female Factory was set up in a shed in the town Lumber Yard near the wharf in 1821. At the site, cloth was made from the coarse... read more »

Although it would not be publicly known until two years later, the retired Soviet Gen. Dmitri Polyakov was on March 15, 1988 executed for treason. A World... read more »

The Digital Panopticon is a phenomenal tool but its success is ultimately dependent on the quality of past record-keeping. The eighteenth and... read more »

The Bellerive Institute was built in 1867 and is largely the result of the philanthropy of one man. Until it's construction, most public gatherings had... read more »

(From contemporary newspaper accounts, principally The Bury and Norwich Post, Wednesday, March 09, 1808) Thomas Simmons was indicted, for that he, at Broxbourn,... read more »

For decades, if not longer, well-meaning parents (and perhaps less well-meaning authority figures in institutional settings) utilised the cane or the belt... read more »

On this date in 1951, the Estonian anti-Soviet partisan Ants Kaljurand was executed by the NKVD with comrades Arved Pildin and Juhan Metsäären.... read more »

From the Daily Alta California, April 20, 1858: Thomas P. Lewis, master of the ship Adelaide, loading guano at Elide Island, off the coast of Lower California,... read more »

The family of the Earl of Rutland enjoyed closure on this date in 1619* when two daughters of a notorious local sorceress were hanged at Lincoln Castle... read more »

The History of my Family: image via BBC Last night, a new documentary series entitled The Secret History of my Family started on BBC Two. What could have... read more »

On this date in 1992, Robyn Leroy Parks was executed by lethal injection for stabbing an Edmond, Okla. gas station minder to death 15 years before. Parks... read more »

On this date in 1524, the first Reformation martyr of Switzerland was beheaded in Lucerne. Klaus Hottinger (English Wikipedia entry | German), a cobbler... read more »

This is an interesting little shop that dates back to the late 1890's. Charles Medhurst originally operated the shop as early as 1897 in its original location... read more »

Earlier today I was delighted to give a talk on the subject of ‘Inspirational women from Liverpool’ at the Museum of Liverpool in honour of... read more »

By Anna McKay, AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Student, National Maritime Museum & University of Leicester.   As a relatively new addition... read more »

In every civilized society, in every society where the distinction of ranks has once been completely established, there have been always two different... read more »

I love The Guardian‘s use of archival material on its website; one of the many stories from its archive that I’ve enjoyed looks back at the... read more »

From the Newgate Calendar: WILLIAM WHURRIER Executed at Tyburn for murder, March 7, 1748, and his body hung in chains on Finchley common. (A Hard Case.)... read more »

March 6 is the feast date of the 42 Martyrs of Amorium, the day in the year 845 when they submitted to the caliphate’s executioners in preference... read more »

The Congregational Church is a simple stone Georgian building that was built in 1840 by the Van Diemen's Land Missionary Society at a cost of 500 pounds... read more »

On this date in 1858, a slave named Lucy was hanged in Galveston for killing her mistress. The innkeeper Maria Dougherty was chagrined in 1857 when her... read more »

On this date in 1864, Doc Howard, Christopher Lowery and James Romaine hanged at Lewiston for one of the most atrocious murders to blot frontier Idaho.... read more »

The beginning of a long day in court for Samuel Haslam and Elizabeth Ann Fernley (http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/images.jsp?doc=184202280123). On 12th... read more »

On this date in 1903, Edgar Edwards was hanged in Wandsworth Prison for a minor-league* triple murder. Of course, the killing was anything but trivial... read more »