The New Newgate Calendar

From the New York Times, September 7, 1860: A Murderer Hung.; HIS DYING SPEECH AND CONFESSION. Some months since SAMUEL SIMON BRUST murdered WM. FREDERICK... read more »

Whilst continuing researches into women and madness, the following 'Prevention of Insanity' betrayed an unpalatable tone. The piece addresses more than... read more »

John Tenniel’s Nemesis of Neglect, Punch (29/9/1888) On Friday 31 August 1888 the Standard newspaper reported on the ‘great fire’ that... read more »

The story of the Dunalley Hotel is forever linked to two pioneer families who basically owned the establishment for over 80 years over several generations.John... read more »

On this date in 2000, Missouri put Gary Lee Roll out of his suffering. A war veteran with no criminal record prior to the triple homicide that landed him... read more »

This is the second half of a paper I gave as part of a panel at the fantastic Lives, Trials and Executions conference at Liverpool John Moores University.... read more »

If a reader had opened his newspaper on the morning of Thursday 30 August 1888 they would, as yet, have had no inkling of the major news story that was... read more »

Colonial New York’s summer 1741 slave rebellion panic* drew to a close on this date with the execution of the alleged Catholic priest John Ury. The... read more »

Francis Harben and George Parr both worked for as a harness maker in Kensington but their relationship wasn’t good. Parr had quarrelled with Harben’s... read more »

On this date in 388, Magnus Maximus, partially successful usurper of the western Roman Empire, was put to death by Emperor Theodosius. The late centuries... read more »

‘Judge Thumb’ or Sir Francis Buller, 1st Bt (‘Judge Thumb’), by James Gilroy (1782) As I mentioned in previous post about... read more »

Long before slavery abolitionist John Brown wrote its name into the firmament, Harpers Ferry* was a vital cog for the military of the young United States.... read more »

I must preface this blog by saying that I deplore the cyclist Charlie Alliston for riding a bike with no front brake, and for his callous comments after... read more »

The Sailors’ Home, Penny Illustrated Paper, (29 August 1868). London was the world’s largest and busiest port in the Victorian period,... read more »

On this date in 1810, a French officer in Spanish service became an Argentine martyr. Jacques de Liniers — or Santiago de Liniers, in the Hispanized... read more »

This summer London has been subject to a number of acid attacks. Teenagers (some as young as 12 or 13) riding mopeds have swooped on victims to steal mobile... read more »

On this date in 1945, the U.S. Army hanged seven German submariners for their “traitor slaying” of a Werner Dreschler at the Arizona POW camp... read more »

While researching misogyny in 19th century ideas on insanity and women (there are plenty to choose from!), a piece caught my eye; not least because it... read more »

Dulwich College in the mid-nineteenth century Police constable Milne (163P) was walking his beat close to Dulwich College, south of the River Thames when... read more »

(Thanks to Quaker humanitarian William Allen for the guest post, originally published in Allen’s early 19th century periodical The Philanthropist... read more »

Sir Robert Fowler,  by Theobald Chartran, Vanity Fair (June 1881)  I am currently trying to write a research paper on the Police Courts... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this date in 1828, a slave named Annice was executed on a public gallows in... read more »

In my previous entry, I explained my long absence from blogging but I forgot one key thing – Why I had taken it back up. In truth, it was motivated... read more »

It was not Edward Barnbrook’s first time in court. He had appeared before the magistrates at Marylebone Police court on a number of occasions. He... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) On this day in 1831, Edward Hogsden (some reports call him “Hodgson”)... read more »

This was probably a fairly typical property crime: the theft of a lodger’s property by another person living in the same house. Many Londoners lived... read more »

On this date in the pregnant year of 1789, the former boulevard actor Francois Bordier hanged for a bit of revolutionary overexuberance. He’d gained... read more »

A murderer and a villain, A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Of your precedent lord, a vice of kings, A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,... read more »

Part of Pen & Sword’s guides for family historians, exploring and analysing a variety of sources, Jonathan Oates’ latest book, Tracing... read more »

The U.S. state of Oregon has the death penalty on the books, but hasn’t employed it on a non-consenting prisoner since August 20, 1962. That was... read more »

Many (indeed most) of the cases that ended being tried before a jury at the Old Bailey in the 1800s started with a hearing before a Police Court Magistrate.... read more »

(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) At eight in the morning on this date in 1909, Richard Justin was hanged at Crumlin... read more »

Police Constable William Izzard (133H) was walking his beat on Ratcliffe Highway on the 5 August 1866 when he heard raised voices. It was late at night... read more »

(Thanks to prolific litterateur and Whig M.P. Horace Walpole for the correspondence we repurpose here as a guest post on the beheadings of Lords Kilmarnock... read more »

Letitia Horswell ran an eating house (the nineteenth-century equivalent of a café or fast food restaurant) on the Blackfriars Road. At about 9 o’clock... read more »

On this date in 1471, Giovanna Monduro, wife of Antoniotto Marandolo, burned at the stake in her native Piedmontese village of Miagliano. Michael Tavuzzi,... read more »

Between 16th and 21st July 2017, Dr Will Pooley (The University of Bristol), recipient of a British Academy Rising Star Public Engagement Award, convened... read more »

Between 16th and 21st July 2017, Dr Will Pooley (The University of Bristol), recipient of a British Academy Rising Star Public Engagement Award, convened... read more »

Regular readers of this blog will know that alongside the very many cases of theft, drunkenness and assault the Police Courts dealt with a great deal of... read more »

Policeman Gunnar Eilifsen on this date in 1943 achieved the undesirable distinction of becoming the first person executed under the auspices of Norway’s... read more »

Mr T Coggan ran a baker’s shop in Chelsea, to the side of which was a ‘dead wall’ (a wall without openings). Perhaps because of where... read more »

Posted by Sara M. Butler, 15 August 2017.  Game of Thrones (GoT) season is here again, and along with it comes the perpetuation of an image of the... read more »

THE Ordinary of NEWGATE HIS ACCOUNT OF The Behaviours, Confessions, and Last Dying Words of the Malefactors that were Executed at Tyburn on Monday the... read more »

“The King’s Highway”, from Magazine of Art, 1881 (via http://www.ancestry-images.com) On a night in June 1763, a highwayman rode... read more »

The 13th Light Dragoons at the Battle of Balaclava (1854) by John Charlton Yesterday I wrote about Police Constable Wallington and the problems he... read more »

Bleeding Heart Yard in the 1870s In the early to mid 19th century, Bleeding Heart Yard was the beating heart of working class life in London. It was synonymous... read more »

Erwin Lucien NAUM-NATANSON, born in Bucharest (Romania), on April 5th, 1921, merchant, son of Julien and Jeanne SCHWARTZ, husband of Jeanine Hélène... read more »

I’ve mentioned the unpopularity of the New Police on more than one occasion in this blog and it was certainly a truth that not everyone welcomed... read more »

August 13 is the shared feast date* of third century saint and antipope — two adjectives rarely held in common — Hippolytus of Rome, and the... read more »

The Victorians condemned prostitution. They saw it as a vice, a personal failure of character, and a step on the slippery slope to damnation. Yet prostitutes... read more »