The New Newgate Calendar
Post Archives
Archives for April 2018
“This is a truth that resides in me, to which I cannot bear witness if I do not die.” -Fra Michele Berti, at the stake On this date in 1389,...
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This post takes a look at an open dataset available through the University of Pennsylvania’s open access repository. The dataset, Indentures and...
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Silena Salter was by all accounts an ‘extraordinary’ young woman, By the age of 18 she was already a well known character at the Guildhall...
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On this date in 1774, Daniel Wilson was hanged before a throng of 12,000 in Providence, Rhode Island, for rape. A journeyman carpenter turned small-time...
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In April 1867 two teenagers appeared at the Greenwich Police court accused of the possession of a variety of items that didn’t belong to them...
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William Gregg was hanged and quartered on this date in 1708 as a French spy. Given a recent near-miss prosecution for counterfeiting — his pregnant...
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Primrose Day, by Frank Bramley (1885) Tale Gallery, London By late April 1899 the old queen was nearing the end of her long reign and Britain was just...
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Joseph Sollis was executed in North Carolina on this date in 1827 for murder. It didn’t go so well, apparently leading a regular gawker to pierce...
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Today’s story picks up on where we left it yesterday, with a young lad of 12 being committed for trial for killing another youth in a fist fight...
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On the morning of this date in 1916, British Captain John Bowen-Colthurst ordered the summary execution of three Irish journalists in his custody: part...
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Greenwich Pier, c.1850 Today’s story will unfold in two parts and starts at the Greenwich Police court in April 1858. William Sellis, aged just 12,...
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(Thanks to Florence Dugdale-Hardy, wife of gallows aficionado and literary titan Thomas Hardy, for the guest post on horse thief “Blue Jimmy”,...
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A new website aimed at helping people research their family’s criminal history was launched last weekend in Hull. The website, Our Criminal Ancestors,...
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It was midday on 24 April 1883 and the verger to the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral (a Mr Green) was close by the choir with his assistant. He noticed...
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I am often reminded of how tremendously ignorant I am of some aspects of history. Most of my study has been concerned with Britain and Europe and...
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From the Boston Gazette, Aug. 4, 1752: BRISTOL, April 18. Last Saturday about 4 o’Clock in the Afternoon ended the Assizes for this City and County,...
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On this date in 1941, Harry Gleeson hanged for murder in Ireland — wrongly, the government admitted in 2015. Gleeson was the nephew and farmhand...
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Today we are constantly urged to avoid becoming embroiled in street crime for fear that we might be injured or worse if we attempt to help others. This...
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April 22 is the Christian feast date of Saint Leonides of Alexandria, the patron saint of being surpassed by your children.* The Christian historian Eusebius...
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Elizabeth Collinson was employed as a servant in the household of Mr Morris, a cabinetmaker in Curtain Road, Shoreditch. When his wife discovered that...
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On this date in 1533, a German woman, nameless to posterity, was burnt as a witch in the town of Schiltach. Engraving of Schiltach from 1643, a century...
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PC Monaghan was on patrol at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday 21 April 1880. As the constable entered the canon...
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On this date in 1620, Thomas Dempster was condemned by a Scottish assize to execution for counterfeiting. No documentation specifying the execution date...
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On most days the reports from the Metropolitan Police courts concerned the lives of very ordinary Londoners. The criminal, the mentally ill, the aged,...
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On this date in 1246, Brandur Kolbeinsson suffered a summary beheading. The chieftain of Iceland’s powerful Ásbirningar clan — it was...
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Under the terms of the Married Women’s Property Act (1882) the law stated that: A married woman shall, in accordance with the provisions of this...
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On this date in 1818, four hanged at Lancaster Castle for uttering forged notes, along with a fifth hanged for burglary and horse theft — all casualties...
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A Hindu temple in Bangalore in the 1880s This week the news is rightly dominated by the scandalous treatment of the Windrush generation. This country...
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Above: The Headsman’s internal monologue. One of this here site‘s recurring motifs — and definitional challenges — is the blurry...
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On this date in 1922, a Turkish official implicated in the Armenian genocide had a death sentence enforced upon him … by an assassin’s bullet....
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If you know me, the topic of this first post may come as unsurprising but also a bit eyebrow-raising. “Sharon, you’ve been working on the Old...
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‘She had no doubt the prisoner would have murdered her’: violence and crime in the St. Giles rookery
PC Baker (108G) was on duty in Buckeridge Street, St Giles in mid April 1844 when he heard a shout of ‘murder!’ In the mid nineteenth century...
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When current India Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat, he implemented a “Tribal Martyrs’ Day” celebration for...
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Let’s not beat about the bush, James Bull was an alcoholic. In 1840 the papers referred to him as ‘dissipated’ by they meant that he...
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On this date in 1345, Giovanni Martinozzi died for the faith in Cairo. Martinozzi was a Franciscan who hailed from one of the prominent families of Siena....
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This case is amongst the earliest I’ve looked at for the Metropolitan Police Courts predating in fact, both the beginning of Victoria’s reign...
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On this date in 2004, Italian mercenary Fabrizio Quattrocchi was executed by Iraqi insurgents. A former Italian army corporal turned baker, Quattrocchi...
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A ghost sign in modern Boston I’ve just returned from a fantastic trip to Massachusetts, and while there, of course, thought to research some of...
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Giuseppe Mazzini A crowd had gathered outside 7 Hardington Place, Portman Market in Marylebone. It was about 10.30 at night and a man was at a first floor...
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Every small boy used to want a bike for Christmas, maybe they still do (but I suspect its the latest iPhone, video game, or tablet that top the lists in...
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Original Dublin broadsheet via James Kelly’s Gallows Speeches: From Eighteenth-Century Ireland: The Last Speech, Confession and Dying Words of William...
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Jeremiah Meacham was hanged in Rhode Island on this date in 1715 for a double murder committed during a disturbing psychotic break. In the execution sermon...
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Female prisoners in Tothill Fields House of Correction Mary Driscoll was well known to the establishment at Southwark Police Court. A ‘powerful...
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We are delighted to publish this guest post by Esther Brot, who is currently pursuing her PhD in History at King’s College London. She is writing...
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Today’s case took up almost the entirety of the Morning Chronicle’s crime news coverage when it was published in April 1838. The...
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We owe this date’s entry to Joseph Jekyll, a young gentleman (kin to the late judge of the same name whom Alexander Pope had once teased as an “odd...
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Via UrduPoint.com. A different report give the spur to the murder not as a “minor dispute” but a “robbery bid”. FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint...
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This is a shocking case with echoes of recent acid attacks on London streets. Derryck John has just been sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison...
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On this date in 1836, two different Englishwomen hanged in Gloucester and Liverpool for seeing off their respective husbands with arsenic. They’re...
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When William Bennett was first brought before a magistrate at the Guildhall Police court he was remanded in custody for a few days. The justice, Alderman...
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