The New Newgate Calendar
Post Archives
Archives for April 2019
A century ago today, seven hostages taken from the German pre-Nazi Thule Society were executed by the short-lived Munich Soviet just before it was crushed...
read more »
‘Mrs Fry reading to the prisoners in Newgate’ A little bit of prison history today: this appeared in The Sphere on 14 February 1903. Newgate...
read more »
Whilst I live in the capital I work in Northampton and yesterday I had a meeting with some members of local history and community group who wanted to discuss...
read more »
Turncoat Czechoslovakian resistance fighters Karel Čurda and Viliam Gerik were hanged for traitors on this date in 1947. Čurda (left) and Gerik...
read more »
Yesterday’s blog concerned the Salvation Army with two of their ‘soldiers’ being warned about annoying a local man with the ‘infernal...
read more »
Lollard heretic Joan Boughton was burned on this date in 1494 — purportedly England’s first female Christian martyr. Followers of pre-Luther...
read more »
It was 10.30 on a Sunday morning in late April 1896 and Mr Eamonson had settled down to write in his study when, once again, his peace was broken by the...
read more »
James Edward Singleton caught a death sentence in Texas after setting out from Beeville with a business partner carrying a wad of cash with which they...
read more »
There are certain crimes so horrific, so difficult to comprehend, that they stay in your memory, lingering somewhere at the back of your mind. Child abductions...
read more »
PC James Baker (127E) was on duty in Chenies Street, off Tottenham Court Road, one late evening in early April 1863. As he walked his beat he noticed a...
read more »
This episode from Mexican Alta California comes from the short-lived administration of Manuel Victoria, who proved himself such a martinet in his few months...
read more »
Procrastination, distraction and unexpected discoveries: the Coppetts Wood murder of 1882 (part one)
There are moments in historical research when you discover something that distracts you from your core purpose and sends you in a different direction....
read more »
(cc) image by Paebi “We are free Swiss, completely equal citizens. That government that will not hear the voice of the people is a tyranny.”...
read more »
The interior of St Stephen’s Church, Westminster in the nineteenth century I think we imagine Victorian Britain as a much more religious place...
read more »
Greek independence hero Athanasios Diakos died by Ottoman impalement on this date in 1821.* Though he acquired his nickname Diakos (“deacon”)...
read more »
Here are two theft charges, heard at the Marlborough Street Police court in 1889, neither of which resulted in convictions or further action. There must...
read more »
word frquencies An extended version of my paper for the April 2019 workshop held by the AHRC Research Network on Petitions and Petitioning from the Medieval...
read more »
Hanged April 23, 1845 for poisoning her brother Charles Dimond — and commonly suspected to have offed several other family members by means of arsenic...
read more »
New Orleans, c.1841 John Burns was a steward on board a merchant ship named the Rio Grande. He’d sailed with it to New Orleans in 1849 where he’d...
read more »
Spanish general Jose Aranguren was shot on this date in 1939 by Franco’s Spain. A brigadier general of the Civil Guard — an internal-to-Spain...
read more »
In 1887 ‘Buffalo’ Bill Cody brought his travelling Wild West Show to Europe. The show featured wild animals, reenactments of historical events...
read more »
The Domshof town square still holds a spuckstein (“spit stone”) where passersby can revile Gesche Margarethe Gottfried, a serial poisoner beheaded...
read more »
As I was sitting on a Great Northern train at Finsbury Park four excited GN employees got off and went in separate directions. They looked pumped up for...
read more »
Protestant theologian turned apostate Judaizer Nicolas Antoine was burned at the stake in Calvinist Geneva on this date in 1623. Antoine (English Wikipedia...
read more »
Thomas Cooney was a crossing sweeper on the Bayswater Road. Sweepers were ‘beggars of a sort, demanding alms in return for a useful, almost essential...
read more »
The Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh reported on April 26, 1800 news from across the Inner Seas at Carrickfergus, north of Belfast. (Line breaks have been...
read more »
At about a quarter to four in the afternoon of Friday 13 December 1867 a bomb went off in London. A barrel of gunpowder, hidden under tarpaulin, positioned...
read more »
On this date in 1975,* Iran extrajudicially executed nine political prisoners. This photo is a dramatic re-staging — evocative of a famous photo...
read more »
April 1889 must have been a hard month for those living in London. The 1880s were a period of economic slump, if not a full-blown depression, and unemployment,...
read more »
From the Hampshire/Portsmouth Telegraph (Leeds, England), Monday, April 26, 1802:
read more »
The police are never far from criticism by the media in this country. In the late twentieth century there has been widespread condemnation of their handling...
read more »
April 16, 1947, was the hanging-date of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss. Not to be confused with the Rudolf Hess, the Nazi party defector held by...
read more »
Before I entered the heady world of academia I had mostly earned my money working in shops. Indeed, I partly funded my studies at undergraduate and postgraduate...
read more »
On this date in 1939, the Old Bolshevik Aleksei Gastev, a theorist of scientific management for the Soviet state, was shot in Stalin’s purges. Expelled...
read more »
Map of Bethnal Green (from Cross’ London Guide 1844) The marriage between Thomas and Lucretia Gates was not a happy one. The relationship had soured...
read more »
Marker located at the entrance to the Burns Mall from Kilmarnock Cross. (cc) image from @mafleen. John Nisbet was hanged on this date in 1683 for having...
read more »
Today we operate a society largely underwritten by credit. I hardly use cash to pay for anything and for many things that I buy I use a credit card. My...
read more »
This is one of those frustrating cases where you really feel you should be able to find out more than you can about it. On Thursday 12 April 1883 a 45...
read more »
Mao Ran, a 25-year-old export/import employee with a heroin trafficking empire dating back to her university days, was executed in Xiamen on this date...
read more »
Edward Burnworth and his gang — a group of villains who “seem to have risen to notoriety on the downfall of [Jonathan] Wild” by the estimation...
read more »
In 1874 Easter fell over the weekend of the 4thand 5thApril and the weather was fair in London. On Easter Sunday lots of Londoners headed to the parks...
read more »
I am not sure what Margaret Brown hoped to achieve when she prosecuted Matthew Max Plimmer for an assault at Westminster Police court. Margaret (a 32 year-old...
read more »
From the Bristol Mercury of April 16, 1827: EXECUTION OF SARAH JONES. This unfortunate victim to seduction was 26 years of age, and lived with her father...
read more »
On this date in 1945, during the last weeks of World War II, Dutch print artist Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman was shot by the Gestapo in the forest near Bakkeveen...
read more »
I’ve been meaning to write about this for ages – for nearly three years, in fact, which is quite a shocking period of time to procrastinate,...
read more »
Advert for a magic lantern. c.1885 Have you ever stood and watched the rolling advertisement we now get in some underground and other railway stations?...
read more »
The story behind this stunning photograph of Alexander Anderson and Henry Richards on their Lancaster, Pa., gallows on April 9, 1858 we’re going...
read more »
Politics, as we have seen recently, can sometimes get a little heated and nothing gets more heated than local politics. Having stood as a candidate...
read more »
On this date in 1818, Andrew Jackson had two Creek leaders summarily hanged two Creek leaders in Florida. The Creek in the American Southeast were a longtime...
read more »
Throughout the nineteenth century there were parts of London that were almost off limits to the police. Almost all of Seven Dials (near Covent Garden)...
read more »
- April 2022
- March 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013