The New Newgate Calendar

From The Law of Treason and Treason Trials in Later Medieval France: Little is known about the prosecution of treason during the first fifteen years of... read more »

In late May 1891 Franz Joseph Munch, a 31 year-old baker living in Bermondsey appeared at Southwark Police court to answer a charge of murder. According... read more »

On this date in 1916, eight convicts were summarily executed by Argentine police after a prison break in an affair known as the Zainuco Massacre. Almost... read more »

There was, for the working classes at least, no effectual form of divorce in the nineteenth century. Divorce was expensive (as it can still be) and there... read more »

In 1898, the Illustrated Police News – that bastion of sensitivity – breathlessly reported that there had been a shocking occurrence in America.... read more »

It was half past five on a Friday afternoon in May 1876 and George Athersford, who was employed by Lady Scott of Cromwell Road, South Kensington, was driving... read more »

Courtesy of Emotions in the Heart of the City (14th-16th century), we travel to Florence during its republican interim* for a very emotional execution:... read more »

We are indebted to the redoubtable medical historian Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris for the substance of this post, which she brought to our attention on her blog,... read more »

Victorian era tricycles (these ones are American however) Anyone that knows Holborn Viaduct will realise how busy it can be at any time of the day. Most... read more »

On this date in 1661, Presbyterian lord Archibald Campbell, the first Marquess of Argyll, lost his head at Edinburgh. Once a privy councilor to King Charles... read more »

Lest we be in any doubt about the problems caused by alcohol in the late nineteenth century the reports from the Police courts bear testimony to them.... read more »

On this date in 1584, Samuel Zborowski was beheaded at Krakow’s Wawel Hill for treason and murder committed ten years before. A monument to the timeless... read more »

Edith Oliver’s appearance at Marlborough Street Police court in May 1876 gives us a glimpse back at the beginnings of the department store in London.... read more »

On or about this date in 1425, Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany, climbed the Heading Hill. Murdoch’s dad Robert Stewart was the (second) son of King... read more »

Earlier this week, as I drove out of north London on my way to the motorway, I passed a mother and child waiting at a bus stop. The child was about 6 or... read more »

Rapist-murderer Stephen McCoy succumbed to a badly botched lethal injection in Texas on this date in 1989. McCoy, according to the Death Penalty Information... read more »

Gloucester reporter E. Kendall Pearson, pictured in the Gloucester Journal, 23 Feb 1933. (British Newspaper Archive) In June 1935, preparations were being... read more »

An 1850s omnibus Recently I have become quite interested in the dynamics of traffic in Victorian London. I’m not normally so fascinated about the... read more »

Left-wing intellectuals Georges Politzer and Jacques Solomon were shot at Fort Mont-Valerien on this date in 1942 for their exertions in the French Resistance.... read more »

St John’s Church, Holloway Not for the first time I’m struck by how frequently the police courts of the metropolis (the forerunners of modern... read more »

One hundred years ago today, former Member of Parliament Edla Sofia Hjulgrén was shot during the Finnish Civil War. A labor activist for many years,... read more »

With the memory of the royal wedding fading away but leaving, by all accounts, a warm romantic glow behind it, I thought I’d continue the theme a... read more »

On the 21st or perhaps the 20th of May in 1525, the peasant rebel Jakob Rohrbach — more commonly known as Jäcklein (“Little Jack”)... read more »

It took a lot for women to stand up to their husbands in the Victorian period. Theoretically the law protected victims of abuse but this often meant that... read more »

January 20 is the feast date of Christian martyr Saint Baudilus, patron of Nîmes, France — also known as Baudilio or Baudelio in Spain, where... read more »

Yesterday I visited Highgate cemetery. This is the first time I’ve been to the West cemetery – the oldest part – which you can only access... read more »

The National Press Club is probably best known for its White House Correspondent’s Dinner. This site prefers to think of it as the site of the Alferd... read more »

The Grand Surrey Canal on Davies’ Pocket Map of London, 1852 On Sunday 17 May 1840 a policeman (32P) was walking his beat, which took him along the... read more »

On this date in 1618, Venice crushed a Spanish conspiracy with sudden violence. The reality of this conspiracy has been argued for the four hundred years... read more »

William Barham was only 11 years of age when he stood in the dock at mansion House Police court. His experience is a reminder that attitudes towards children... read more »

On this date in 1693, Francis Winter was executed for the murder of a London sheriff. Winter’s hanging takes us back to the last days (in England)... read more »

A rather brief entry today, as I have 40 exam scripts to mark! In 1832 the ‘New Police’ force was still rather new. The public were probably... read more »

  While I was born and live in London I teach history at the University of Northampton, so I’m always on the lookout for stories which link... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1968, Polish serial killer Karol Kot, called the Vampire of Kraków,... read more »

United Industrial School site, Edinburgh, c.1877. In the nineteenth century concern about juvenile crime and the fate of those young people caught up in... read more »

On this date in 1863, Zygmunt Padlewski was shot for rebelling against the Russian empire. A young St. Petersburg-trained tsarist officer with a patriotic... read more »

The Great War was still fresh in everyone’s minds when, one snowy night in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, a middle-aged shopkeeper was found murdered in... read more »

In the 1800s those giving evidence in the Police courts were sworn on the Bible. This worked fine for most prosecutors and witnesses but occasionally someone... read more »

On this date in 1835, four African slave rebels were shot at Salvador. The Malê Revolt acquired its name from the local designation for Muslims …... read more »

Throughout the late 1880s Trafalgar Square was the site of numerous political demonstrations, protests and gatherings of the poor and homeless. It is hard... read more »

Thirteen anti-fascist resistance members of the “Red Orchestra” ring(s) were efficiently beheaded by the Plötzensee Prison fallbeil on... read more »

On this date in 1974, Kurdish activist Leyla Qasim was hanged by the Ba’ath regime in Baghdad. A middle daughter among four brothers from the heavily... read more »

In 1875 the Adelphi theatre in the Strand was staging a production of Nicholas Nickelby. Dickens’ third novel had been turned into a play almost... read more »

Whitestone Pond, Hampstead Heath in the 1920s Mr Horace Lister was a member of the respectable middle class. He lived in Kilburn with his wife and family,... read more »

On this date in 1748, Arthur Gray and William Rowland — two desperadoes of the Hawkhurst Gang smuggling syndicate — were hanged at Tyburn.... read more »

Bow Street Police Office, c.1825 (by J. Winston) In 1827 the Metropolitan Police were still a pipe dream; Peel may well have envisaged them but there was... read more »

From the London Graphic, August 15, 1896: An Execution in Pesia From a corrspondent A hideous form of execution, which has not been practiced for twenty... read more »

On this date in 1916, Thomas Kent was shot in Cork, Ireland — the only person executed that May for the Easter Rising outside of Dublin.* The Kents... read more »

It is what we all dread when we wake up in the night and hear a noise we can’t place. Was that the wind? Perhaps a cat? Or is there someone in our... read more »

On this date in 1916 — following a Sunday respite — executions in the aftermath of the Irish Republican Easter Rising against British power... read more »