The New Newgate Calendar
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Archives for July 2019
Maximilian Dortu was shot on this date in 1849 for his part in that era’s failed revolutions, but posterity will always remember his dunk on the...
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By Cassie Watson; posted 31 July 2019. On an April evening in 1820, within clear view of her mother-in-law, a young woman dosed her husband’s gruel...
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In yesterday’s post I discussed the casual racism and anti-Semitism that was endemic in late nineteenth-century London and led to the passing of...
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Today is the bicentennial of the day in the national limelight for the Wiltshire village of Purton Stoke: the July 30, 1819 execution of Robert Watkins...
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This morning I’m off to Whitechapel to show some friends of mine around the area. If the weather is kind to us (and it’s not looking good!)...
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A notoriously brutal guard at the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp named Ruth Closius-Neudeck was hanged on this date in 1948. With impeccable...
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In 1857 Parliament passed a landmark act that fundamentally altered the ability of married couples to obtain divorce. The Matrimonial Causes Act (1857)...
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Today is the bicentennial of the July 28, 1819 execution by firing squad of Bolivarian independence heroine Maria Antonia Santos Plata. Monument to Antonia...
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It was about 2 o’clock in the morning when Henry Preston heard a loud commotion coming from the parrot house at London Zoo. The keeper rushed over...
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The Gulf state Bahrain shot three men this morning, including two young Shia activists whose condemnation became a worldwide cause celebre. (The third...
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Mr Pass, like many fathers, wanted the best for his daughter. He was part of the large immigrant population of London, a boot maker by trade, he...
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“I made up my mind to do away with myself and bought a tin of rat poison, but hadn’t the courage to do it. When I saw the man in the public...
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Police constable Fisher (32E) was on duty in Great Russell Street in the early hours of Friday morning, 26 July 1867. As he approached Bloomsbury Square...
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The last of 15 women executed in Turkey, Kariye Partici, hanged on this date in 1971. Partici (German Wikipedia link, but most all of the few other sources...
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It was just before 5 o’clock on the 16 July 1894 when Mr John Sandys, the public orator (literally the voice) of the University of Cambridge, arrived...
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On this date in 1833, the Federal Republic of Central America executed Salvadoran indigenous rebel Anastasio Aquino. Monument to Anastasio Aquino in Santiago...
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In July 1888 Robert Allen, a 64 year-old cabinetmaker, was charged at Bow Street, with ‘resisting the police and riotous conduct’. He’d...
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On this date in 1971, four leftist officers who had briefly overthrown the government of Sudan were shot — just one day after their coup collapsed....
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By Dr Craig Stafford, University of Liverpool For my PhD, I researched women committed for drunkenness to Strangeways Prison, Manchester, between 1869...
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With a new prime minister about to be announced this morning thoughts turn to a possible General Election. British politics is going through a tumultuous...
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Thomas Thomasen Bisp, an adulterer who fatally poisoned his wife after he got the hots for his maid, became on this date in 1822 the last person executed...
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Writing a memoir of your career, can be a bit hit and miss. There’s a fine line between fascinating account of your working life and a dry, dull...
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On Saturday 20 July 1867 the dock at Lambeth Police court was occupied by a ‘miserably-attired man’ of about 40 years of age. Thomas Nugent,...
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20th [July 1775]. Mr. Carpenter was taken by the night Patrole — upon examination he had swum over to Dorchester and back again, was tried here that...
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Distraction theft is still one of the commonest forms committed by pickpockets in London. There are frequent warnings on the underground of ‘thieves...
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The last man executed in Cornwall, William Hampton, hanged in Bodmin on this date in 1909. Hampton was in the awkward position of making time with a 16-year-old...
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George Day was passing along Lucas Place, Coram Street in the parish of St. Pancras, at about 2 in the morning when a woman hailed him from a house there....
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(Thanks to 17th century Dutch Anabaptist Thieleman Janszoon van Braght for the guest post. It was originally an entry in his Anabaptist martyrology Martyrs...
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Here are two cases of domestic abuse from 1875, both handled slightly differently by the magistrates involved, but both revealing of contemporary attitudes....
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On this date in 1743, three leaders of the Scottish “Black Watch” were shot in the Tower of London for mutiny. The recruits of the 43rd Highland...
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Margate Museum Upstairs, in the small but perfectly formed Margate Museum – situated in the Old Town, and formerly the town hall-and-police-station...
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One of the innovations of the Victorian criminal justice system was its ability to track offenders over many years. In the second half of the eighteenth...
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(Thanks to Robert Elder of Last Words of the Executed — the blog, and the book — for the guest post. This post originally appeared on the Last...
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By far the largest element of a Victorian Police Court magistrate’s business was dealing with those arrested for being drunk, drunk and disorderly,...
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From the Melbourne Argus of 14 July 1860: The case of the convict [George] Waines appears to excite considerable interest in the public mind, especially...
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John Everett Millais, The Somnambulist, 1871 Police constable Dowding (198E) was pounding his beat in the early hours of the morning of July 15th...
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On this date in 1958, Nuri al-Said, the Prime Minister of Iraq’s deposed Hashemite monarchy, was captured trying to flee Iraq in disguise, and immediately...
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My well-read copy of In Cold Blood On my bookshelf is a well-worn, well-read book – its wear and tear clearly denoting its position as one of my...
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As schoolboys we were always being told to avoid pushing and shoving at bus stops. We were to queue quietly, just as we did whilst waiting to enter class...
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On this date in 1958, Iraq’s Hashemite dynasty got the Romanov treatment from coup-making nationalist officers. Having already overstayed their welcome...
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On this date in 1958, the aptly named 14 July Revolution deposed the ruling Hashemite dynasty of Iraq — with the summary execution of the royal family...
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This started with a question on Twitter about sources for JPs, which got me looking up some old references. This is another one that's not too easy to...
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On occasion ‘bigger’ history touches the reports from the metropolitan police courts as the magistracy sought to deal with everyday issues...
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On this date in 1928 — Friday the 13th — the Bluegrass State tied a terrible record that still stands to this day by sending seven men to the...
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Lloyd’s weekly round up of ‘Police intelligence’ on Sunday 13 July 1884 contains a fascinating variety of human greed, misery and criminal...
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(Thanks to medieval scribbler Jean Froissart for the guest post, an episode narrated in his famous chronicle. -ed.) During the time of the assembling of...
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Today the internal combustion engine (and its electric equivalent) is ubiquitous, but the horse dominated nineteenth-century London. Horses were everywhere:...
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Serial killer Peter Manuel hanged at Glasgow on this date in 1958. U.S.-born to Scottish parents, “the Beast of Birkenshaw” was convicted of...
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If you are familiar with William Hogarth’s engravings for the Harlot’s Progress (1732) then you might remember the story of Mary ‘Moll’...
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Paolo da Novi, the Doge of Genoa for a few days that spring, was beheaded on this date in 1507. The silk dyer was borne to the apex of power in his French-dominated...
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