The New Newgate Calendar

On this date in 1685, the 9th Earl of Argyll went the same way as the 8th. We’ve addressed in these pages the travails borne by Archibald Campbell,... read more »

Lloyd’s Weekly newspaper offered its readers (as the title suggests) a way to catch up with all the news, scandal, gossip, and ‘police intelligence’... read more »

Posted by Krista J. Kesselring, 30 June 2019. Most of what we know of accusations of felony witchcraft in early modern England comes from the few surviving... read more »

Trafalgar, 21 October 1805: ‘Situation of HMS ‘Bellerophon by William Joy On Saturday 27 June 1840 the Mansion House Police court was... read more »

I was in Wales last weekend and made a dash to Porthcawl Museum as part of my trip – my main reason being the fact that the museum is based in the... read more »

On this date in 1393 the mayor of Stralsund was beheaded. From the perspective of that Hanseatic city‘s hereditary patricianate, Karsten Sarnow was... read more »

On Thursday 27 June 1889 Frederick Miller was summoned to appear at the Guildhall Police court in the City of London. His alleged offence was selling meat... read more »

On this date in 1497, the Polish Duke Nicholas II of Niemodlin was executed in Nysa. During a summit to dispel tensions with Casimir II, Duke of Cieszyn,... read more »

In the early hours of the morning the night porter at Stafford House, (the Duke of Sutherland’s London home), was summoned by the ringing of the... read more »

On this date in 1978, the South Yemen president Salim Rubai Ali was executed after an attempted self-coup. The very first president of the short-lived... read more »

Ann Murray was an ordinary woman, who if it had not been for a single incident, one Saturday evening, would have lived an ordinary life, and died an ordinary... read more »

In the 1880s London buses (more properly ‘omnibuses’) were privately run. This meant that they sometimes switched their routes to take advantage... read more »

This is one of those unremarkable cases, which, at the same time, serves to illustrate how the police courts of Victorian London actually operated. Most... read more »

At three in the afternoon this date in 1999, Eduardo Agbayani was put to death by lethal injection in the Philippines. At that very same moment, President... read more »

The Pentonville Road, looking west (John O’Connor, 1884) When PC Baylis (442G) and his fellow constable (PC Apps) were called to a disturbance in... read more »

On this date in 1567, the Scottish soldier Captain William Blackadder (or “Blacketer”) died a scapegoat at Edinburgh. Being dragged on a hurdle... read more »

57 year old Carl Frederick Muller was a fluent linguist, able to speak English, Russian, German, Dutch and Flemish. In October of 1914 he was living in... read more »

Cremorne Gardens, c. 1864 The path of true love doesn’t always run smoothly as we know but most people deal with rejection better than Louis Laroche. ... read more »

A pair of Victorian classical houses which are good examples of the style which is not common in Hobart.  read more »

On this date in 1568 the Dutch Protestant Weyn Ockers was drowned with her maid Trijn Hendricks. Both were condemned for having taken part in the paroxysm... read more »

‘Trial for Bigamy’ by Eyre Crowe A.R.A. (1897) On Christmas day 1890 Ann Riley married Charles Valentine Smith, a 40 (or possibly 36) year-old... read more »

Domingo Cullen, the governor of the Argentine province of Santa Fe, was extrajudicially executed on this date in 1839. Cullen (English Wikipedia entry... read more »

Wilton’s Music Hall in east London I have a guest post on Michelle Higgs’ website Visit Victorian England today, looking at the perils of the... read more »

  The idyllic view of Hyde Park (by Count Girolamo Pieri Nerli), which was very far from the reality for Sophia Freestone in 1865. Not surprisingly... read more »

Fernando II, Duke of Braganza, was beheaded as a traitor on this date in 1483. This lord (English Wikipedia entry | Portuguese) represented perhaps the... read more »

Detective sergeant Howard was watching the comings and goings of ships and sailors by Horselydown Stairs on the River Thames. Situated near to what is... read more »

How Rose’s death was reported in the Birmingham Daily Gazette, 10 July 1933 (via the British Newspaper Archive) It was 1933, and the Roaring Twenties... read more »

Frederick ‘Professor’ Wilson was either a man possessed with the ability to see into the future or a charlatan; it all rather depends on your... read more »

On this date in 2013, Li Xingpong, the former deputy Communist Party chief of Yongcheng city, Henan, was executed for a spree of child rapes. He reportedly... read more »

Visitors to the Victorian Tower of London Armouries Two contrasting cases from the Thames Police court today, one of who courts that served the East End... read more »

On this date in 2013, Egyptian Hajjaj Saadi was hanged with countryman Ahmad Abdulsalam al-Baili at a car park in Kuwait. Photographers were on hand to... read more »

Setting aside crimes of state such as treason or espionage, it’s safe to say that most would characterize murder as the ultimate among “ordinary”... read more »

The Crete patriot Ioannis Vlachos — better known as Daskalogiannis — lost his skin to the Turks on this date in 1771. Statue of the D-man... read more »

In mid June 1888 the dock at Marylebone Police court was crowded, as were the public spaces. This was a hearing that plenty of people wanted to see and... read more »

On this date in 1492 the Flemish rebel Jan van Coppenolle was beheaded at the Vrijdagmarkt in Ghent. When the formerly doughty duchy of Burgundy faltered... read more »

Working class communities were tightly packed in Victorian London. This meant that everyone knew everyone else’s business and gossip was rife. Communities... read more »

(Thanks to the late University of Illinois history professor Clarence Walworth Alvord for the guest post, which originally appeared in an essay he wrote... read more »

Amelia Ayres had not enjoyed life since her mother had died. He father remarried and the family lived on Arthur Street, off Battersea Park Road, south... read more »

On this date in 1884, seven alleged terrorists of the Black Hand* were garroted in Jerez (Xeres), Spain. This frightening organization was announced to... read more »

Today’s blog is something different. As I’m sure many regular readers will have noticed on Saturday my latest book is released by Amberley... read more »

From the Newgate Calendar: An audacious young Thief who robbed the Tent of King William in Flanders and stabbed a Newgate Turnkey. Executed 13th Of June,... read more »

Richard Sims Donkin MP (c.1895) On the day of the Epsom Derby 1888 (30 May) Richard Donkin was exercising his horse near Wimbledon Common. Donkin, a Tynesider,... read more »

On this date in 1441, North Jutland peasant leader Henrik Reventlow was executed. Reventlow was a nobleman who came to the fore of a 25,000-strong peasant... read more »

I can imagine that for some parents making sure their children go to (and stay at) school can be something of a challenge. The Police courts of late Victorian... read more »

On this date in 1942, Wehrmacht lieutenant Michael Kitzelmann was executed for his stubborn conscious. The last diary entry in this post is going to show... read more »

What are we to make of young John Speller? The teenager was set in the dock at Hammersmith accused of trying to steal several small steam boats (or ‘launches’)... read more »

On this date in 1566, student Bartholome Tecia was drowned in Geneva as a sodomite. Trial documents make him a youth from the valleys of northwest Italy’s... read more »

Berwick Street market in the 1950s or 60s. Much of the housing would’ve been there in the late 1800s Madame Akker Huber ran a lively club in Soho,... read more »

Melbert Ray Ford was executed by lethal injection in Georgia on this date in 2010, for murdering his ex-girlfriend and her niece. On tilt from when Martha... read more »

The law is, of course, open to interpretation. In the 1880s the law concerning the control of pet dogs was, seemingly, as a clear as mud and so we can... read more »