The New Newgate Calendar

The below will be found in Elizabet Starling’s Noble Deeds of Woman, Or, Examples of Female Courage and Virtue; similar glosses on the same narrative... read more »

Happy Women's History Month (with 10 minutes to go!)The events over the last few weeks in Belfast have compelled me to write a blog post about rape that... read more »

The magistrates operating at London’s several Police Courts applied the law as they saw it but used their discretion when appropriate. It is not... read more »

On this date in 1900, Joseph Hurst hanged in Glendive, Montana for murdering Sheriff Dominick Cavanaugh — whom Hurst had run against in the most... read more »

My final data visualisation post for this Women’s History Month is back in the 18th century and takes a look at an open dataset, Vagrant Lives: 14,789... read more »

In late March 1883 Thomas Lyford was walking his dog along the Victoria Embankment when the animal suddenly headed off towards Cleopatra’s Needle.... read more »

I have killed hundreds with my own hands, and I know how to die. Fire! -Last words of Roberto Cofresi A monument to Roberto Cofresi rises from the water... read more »

After yesterday’s bank holiday violence and drunken disorder the reports from the London police courts returned to more criminal topics. At Bow Street... read more »

(The acceptable face of cross-dressing – in the theatre. From The Tatler, 15 Jan 1908, via British Newspaper Archive. Image ©The British Library... read more »

No sign today of the return of the cake scandal from yesterday but we’ll stay rooted in the police court reports from 1883, 135 years ago. These... read more »

New-York Weekly Journal, April 20, 1741 read more »

The Ordinary of Newgate (in this case, James Guthrie) furnishes us the following “ACCOUNT, Of the Behaviour, Confession, and dying Words of the Malefactors... read more »

I note that the website for Civil War Petitions: Conflict, Welfare and Memory during and after the English Civil Wars, 1642 – 1710 is up, with the... read more »

I am going back to 1883 for the next few days. Regular readers will recall that I sampled a week’s news from the Police Courts of the metropolis... read more »

(Thanks to Henry-Clement Sanson for the guest post. The former executioner — the last of his illustrious dynasty comprising six generations of bourreaux... read more »

Given that the Victorian police patrolled set beats across London late into the night it is hardly surprising that they spent a considerable amount of... read more »

March 25* is the feast date (per the Roman tradition) of the penitent thief crucified alongside Jesus Christ. “The Good Thief”, by Michelangelo... read more »

When PC Walter Stratford (K 376) arrived at Nesbit’s Rents, off Three Colt Street, Limehouse he found chaos and confusion. The property was owned... read more »

On this date in 1673, a footman named La Chaussee paid the forfeit for acting the agent of fugitive poisoner. The malevolent concoctions of the Marquise... read more »

London had several gentleman’s clubs in the mid nineteenth century. These were private clubs where a member of the wealthy elite could relax without... read more »

On this date in 1322, northern baron John de Mowbray was hanged at York as a traitor. A member of the aristocratic opposition to Edward II and to Edward’s... read more »

Public transport brought people of all stations of life together in the crowded Victorian metropolis. Contemporaries worried about the collapse of the... read more »

Philadelphia Sun, March 26, 1884. On this date in 1844, Samuel Mohawk, an indigenous Seneca Indian, was hanged for slaughtering Mary McQuiston Wigton and... read more »

Miss Philips was a barmaid working at Victoria Railway Station, in the London, Brighton and South Side refreshment bar. One of her customers had already... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1868, Charles Martin and Charles Morgan were both lynched for... read more »

We’re pleased to announce updates to both Old Bailey Online and London Lives. Key changes are summarised below. The updated XML data will be made... read more »

The Victorians believed that criminality was endemic in the working classes and that some offenders were beyond help. This informed a debate about the... read more »

Having been elevated to the shadow of the throne by one sibling, Thomas Seymour on this date in 1549 was seen to the block by another sibling. The brother... read more »

At some point in the late 1830s a new monster appeared in the public consciousness. A humanoid figure with glowing eyes, that breathed fire and leap over... read more »

On the 19 March 1873 The Morning Post reported its daily selection of reports from the Metropolitan Police Courts. At Marylebone there was a complicated... read more »

From John Sadden’s Portsmouth Book of Days (via): Elizabeth Rowland, of Prince Albert Street, Eastney, Portsmouth, received this letter [on January... read more »

On this date in 1915, Wenseslao Moguel, a soldier of Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution, was captured and immediately stood in front of a firing... read more »

Dalston Junction station c.1905 (about 8 years after the events recounted below took place)  Our society is quite rightly agitated about sexual assault... read more »

Rudolph Valentino, heartthrob of 1920s cinema   “Why is it so quiet, what are they hiding?” (Sylvia Plath, Berck-Plage) It was 1934, and... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this day in 1830, at Libberton’s Wynd in Edinburgh, Scotland, Robert... read more »

By Cassie Watson; posted 17 March 2018. One of the most exciting and enjoyable aspects of being a historian is having the opportunity to get close to the... read more »

I’ve recently been working on the Digital Panopticon, a digital history project that has brought together (and created) massive amounts of data about... read more »

In 2017 I was fortunate to meet and work with wife and husband team Susanna Hoe and Derek Roebuck. Susanna is an established writer in the field of women’s... read more »

It was a Thursday afternoon in March 1888 and two men were trying to make their way through the gate at Portland Road underground railway station, having... read more »

On this date in 1841, Australian bushranger Edward “Teddy the Jewboy” Davis was hanged in Sydney along with five others of his gang. The reader... read more »

Phoebe Lodd was by all accounts a ‘young woman of considerable personal attractions’. Her charms had certainly tempted Joseph Kippax to start... read more »

On this date in 1766, Irish priest Nicholas Sheehy was hanged, drawn, and quartered in Clonmel — a victim to the years-long campaign of enclosures... read more »

Developed with, and for, school pupils this series of exercises examines historical criminal justice sources and uses new digital tools to build pupils... read more »

The Victorian’s love of gin, immortalised by Dickens in Sketches by Boz When Benjamin Elmy, and offer of Her Majesty’s Excise, knocked at the... read more »

On this date in 1964, Dallas nightclub owner Jacob Rubenstein — notorious to history as Jack Ruby — was condemned to the electric chair for... read more »

This week I am exploring the transportation of convicts to Australia with my second year history students at the University of Northampton. One of the... read more »

On this date in 1663, Alexander Kennedy was hanged at the Cross of Edinburgh for forging false bonds and writs, whose particulars we discover in The Records... read more »

Today’s post takes us further back into the nineteenth century than this blog usually ventures. We step out of the Victorian period and into the... read more »

On this date in 1817, a sailor named Cashman was hanged for the Spa Fields riots. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain’s economy had... read more »

Today I want to go on an excursion in “catalogues as data“. The UK National Archives’ Discovery catalogue is an excellent resource for... read more »