Some horses came along and frightened us. We panicked, and my little Louisa fell into the river and drowned. So claimed Mrs. Frances Kidder, 25, explaining the death of her stepdaughter Louisa Kidder-Staple, 12, at Cobbs Bridge, New Romney, in August 1867. She and Louisa, together with one of her own children, were on their
The younger members of the Stackpole family were brimming with jealous rage as one of their number, James, approached his 21st birthday. This would be the day when, under the terms of a dead relatives will, he would come into an allowance of £65 a year, a sum that would make him the richest of
The last woman to be publicly executed in Scotland screamed for mercy and fainted as she was dragged to the gallows to be hanged outside Dumfries Prison on Tuesday, April 29th, 1862. She was Mary Timney, 27, who beat to death her neighbour Ann Hannah, 40, because, she alleged, Miss Hannah had refused to lend
When James de la Rue, 27, seduced a girl known only as Caroline and made her pregnant, he reckoned without her lover, Thomas Hocker, 21. Vowing vengeance, Hocker sent him a letter, purporting to come from Caroline, suggesting a midnight assignation in Belsize Park, Hampstead. When de la Rue arrived Hocker was waiting for him.
One of the largest crowds ever for a hanging assembled to watch Charles Daines, 50, hanged outside Norwich Prison on Saturday, April 27th, 1839. The drop fell at noon, and Daines, a Methodist lay preacher and farm labourer, died hard, his body convulsing in agony. He had been found guilty of attempting to murder his
On a cold January night at the end of his beat Constable William Davey, 43, heard muffled voices, went to investigate and recognised the thieves at once. They were two brothers, Joseph and Isaac Brooks, both well known to the police, and they were stealing timber from a building site. The culprits fled before Davey
I dont want to go out with you any more, 17-year-old Emma Coppins pleaded with her farm labourer suitor, Frederick Prentice, 20. Im much too young to think about marrying. And youre too much for me with your pushy ways. Emma, truth to tell, was at her wits end with his bothering. When he refused
Everyone was a bit puzzled when 45-year-old Richard Rowlands married a widow but continued to sleep alone at his parents home. What was the purpose of that, they asked? It was soon clear. In November 1861, four months after the probably unconsummated marriage, Rowlands waylaid his 70-year-old father-in-law, farmer Richard Williams, as the old man
There was always bad blood between hillside farmer Timothy Power and his son Patrick, 21. There were quarrels, arguments, threats and sometimes even blows. The feud of the Powers came to a dramatic end one night in October 1861, when Patrick woke his mother to tell her that his father still hadnt returned from a
After having a preliminary chat with his boss, the area superintendent of the London South Eastern Railways, stationmaster Edward Walshe, 59, in charge of Dover Priory station, called railway porter Thomas Wells into his office. We are dissatisfied with your behaviour and you must take this as an official warning, he said. You are disobedient