Circe in crinoline: Domestic poisonings in Victorian England

Journal of Family History

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 176-190

  Robb, George ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0031115787     PISSN: 03631990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/036319909702200203     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. See, for example, Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984); Lawrence Stone, Road to Divorce (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990); Maeve Doggett, Marriage, Wife-Beating and the Law in Victorian England (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992); A. James Hammerton, Cruelty and Companionship: Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Married Life (London: Routledge, 1992); and Gail Savage, "The Willful Communication of a Loathsome Disease: Marital Conflict and Venereal Disease in Victorian England," Victorian Studies (Autumn 1990): 35-54.
2. See, for example, Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984); Lawrence Stone, Road to Divorce (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990); Maeve Doggett, Marriage, Wife-Beating and the Law in Victorian England (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992); A. James Hammerton, Cruelty and Companionship: Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Married Life (London: Routledge, 1992); and Gail Savage, "The Willful Communication of a Loathsome Disease: Marital Conflict and Venereal Disease in Victorian England," Victorian Studies (Autumn 1990): 35-54.
3. See, for example, Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984); Lawrence Stone, Road to Divorce (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990); Maeve Doggett, Marriage, Wife-Beating and the Law in Victorian England (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992); A. James Hammerton, Cruelty and Companionship: Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Married Life (London: Routledge, 1992); and Gail Savage, "The Willful Communication of a Loathsome Disease: Marital Conflict and Venereal Disease in Victorian England," Victorian Studies (Autumn 1990): 35-54.
4. See, for example, Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984); Lawrence Stone, Road to Divorce (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990); Maeve Doggett, Marriage, Wife-Beating and the Law in Victorian England (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992); A. James Hammerton, Cruelty and Companionship: Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Married Life (London: Routledge, 1992); and Gail Savage, "The Willful Communication of a Loathsome Disease: Marital Conflict and Venereal Disease in Victorian England," Victorian Studies (Autumn 1990): 35-54.
5. See, for example, Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984); Lawrence Stone, Road to Divorce (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990); Maeve Doggett, Marriage, Wife-Beating and the Law in Victorian England (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992); A. James Hammerton, Cruelty and Companionship: Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Married Life (London: Routledge, 1992); and Gail Savage, "The Willful Communication of a Loathsome Disease: Marital Conflict and Venereal Disease in Victorian England," Victorian Studies (Autumn 1990): 35-54.
6. Mary Hartman, Victorian Murderesses: A True History of Thirteen Respectable French and English Women Accused of Unspeakable Crimes (New York: Schocken, 1977). See also Arthur Appleton, Mary Ann Cotton: Her Story and Trial (London: Michael Joseph, 1973) and Bernard Ryan, The Poisoned Life of Mrs. Maybrick (London: Kimber, 1977).
7. Mary Hartman, Victorian Murderesses: A True History of Thirteen Respectable French and English Women Accused of Unspeakable Crimes (New York: Schocken, 1977). See also Arthur Appleton, Mary Ann Cotton: Her Story and Trial (London: Michael Joseph, 1973) and Bernard Ryan, The Poisoned Life of Mrs. Maybrick (London: Kimber, 1977).
8. Mary Hartman, Victorian Murderesses: A True History of Thirteen Respectable French and English Women Accused of Unspeakable Crimes (New York: Schocken, 1977). See also Arthur Appleton, Mary Ann Cotton: Her Story and Trial (London: Michael Joseph, 1973) and Bernard Ryan, The Poisoned Life of Mrs. Maybrick (London: Kimber, 1977).
9. I compiled these statistics from Victorian Criminal Registers and Calendars of Prisoners (Home Office Papers, Public Record Office) and from newspaper accounts of criminal cases, especially from the Times. Comparisons with earlier periods is difficult due to imperfect record keeping before the nineteenth century, but for a general overview of spousal murder in the early modern period see Frances E. Dolan, Dangerous Familiars: Representations of Domestic Crime in England, 1550-1700 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994). See also John Beattie, "The Criminality of Women in Eighteenth-Century England," Journal of Social History 8 (Summer 1975): 80-116.
10. I compiled these statistics from Victorian Criminal Registers and Calendars of Prisoners (Home Office Papers, Public Record Office) and from newspaper accounts of criminal cases, especially from the Times. Comparisons with earlier periods is difficult due to imperfect record keeping before the nineteenth century, but for a general overview of spousal murder in the early modern period see Frances E. Dolan, Dangerous Familiars: Representations of Domestic Crime in England, 1550-1700 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994). See also John Beattie, "The Criminality of Women in Eighteenth-Century England," Journal of Social History 8 (Summer 1975): 80-116.
11. Whenever possible I have consulted the original minute books and depositions drawn up by the Victorian courts. Unfortunately, these records have not always survived, and often when they do are only bare outlines or summaries of the cases. Trial records have been supplemented by newspaper accounts, especially from the Times. Press coverage of trials tended to be more colorful than the official record; for example, describing the appearance of defendants and witnesses, the emotional character of testimony, the collective mood of the courtroom, and so forth.
12. Times, 27 April 1878.
13. Trial of Anne Merritt, 8 March 1850. Central Criminal Court, Minutes. PRO, Crim 10. Times, 9 March 1850.
14. See especially Lucia Zedner, Women, Crime and Custody in Victorian England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 5-20. See also Patrick Wilson, Murderess: A Study of Women Executed in Britain since 1843 (London: Michael Joseph, 1971); Carol Smart, Women, Crime and Criminology: A Feminist Critique (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977); Frances Heidensohn, Women and Crime (London: Macmillan, 1985); Alison Morris, Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987); Ngaire Naffine, Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987); Mary Beth Wasserlein Emmerichs, "Trials of Women for Homicide in Nineteenth-Century England," Women and Criminal Justice 5 (1993).
15. See especially Lucia Zedner, Women, Crime and Custody in Victorian England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 5-20. See also Patrick Wilson, Murderess: A Study of Women Executed in Britain since 1843 (London: Michael Joseph, 1971); Carol Smart, Women, Crime and Criminology: A Feminist Critique (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977); Frances Heidensohn, Women and Crime (London: Macmillan, 1985); Alison Morris, Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987); Ngaire Naffine, Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987); Mary Beth Wasserlein Emmerichs, "Trials of Women for Homicide in Nineteenth-Century England," Women and Criminal Justice 5 (1993).
16. See especially Lucia Zedner, Women, Crime and Custody in Victorian England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 5-20. See also Patrick Wilson, Murderess: A Study of Women Executed in Britain since 1843 (London: Michael Joseph, 1971); Carol Smart, Women, Crime and Criminology: A Feminist Critique (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977); Frances Heidensohn, Women and Crime (London: Macmillan, 1985); Alison Morris, Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987); Ngaire Naffine, Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987); Mary Beth Wasserlein Emmerichs, "Trials of Women for Homicide in Nineteenth-Century England," Women and Criminal Justice 5 (1993).
17. See especially Lucia Zedner, Women, Crime and Custody in Victorian England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 5-20. See also Patrick Wilson, Murderess: A Study of Women Executed in Britain since 1843 (London: Michael Joseph, 1971); Carol Smart, Women, Crime and Criminology: A Feminist Critique (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977); Frances Heidensohn, Women and Crime (London: Macmillan, 1985); Alison Morris, Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987); Ngaire Naffine, Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987); Mary Beth Wasserlein Emmerichs, "Trials of Women for Homicide in Nineteenth-Century England," Women and Criminal Justice 5 (1993).
18. See especially Lucia Zedner, Women, Crime and Custody in Victorian England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 5-20. See also Patrick Wilson, Murderess: A Study of Women Executed in Britain since 1843 (London: Michael Joseph, 1971); Carol Smart, Women, Crime and Criminology: A Feminist Critique (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977); Frances Heidensohn, Women and Crime (London: Macmillan, 1985); Alison Morris, Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987); Ngaire Naffine, Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987); Mary Beth Wasserlein Emmerichs, "Trials of Women for Homicide in Nineteenth-Century England," Women and Criminal Justice 5 (1993).
19. See especially Lucia Zedner, Women, Crime and Custody in Victorian England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 5-20. See also Patrick Wilson, Murderess: A Study of Women Executed in Britain since 1843 (London: Michael Joseph, 1971); Carol Smart, Women, Crime and Criminology: A Feminist Critique (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977); Frances Heidensohn, Women and Crime (London: Macmillan, 1985); Alison Morris, Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987); Ngaire Naffine, Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987); Mary Beth Wasserlein Emmerichs, "Trials of Women for Homicide in Nineteenth-Century England," Women and Criminal Justice 5 (1993).
20. See especially Lucia Zedner, Women, Crime and Custody in Victorian England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 5-20. See also Patrick Wilson, Murderess: A Study of Women Executed in Britain since 1843 (London: Michael Joseph, 1971); Carol Smart, Women, Crime and Criminology: A Feminist Critique (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977); Frances Heidensohn, Women and Crime (London: Macmillan, 1985); Alison Morris, Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987); Ngaire Naffine, Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987); Mary Beth Wasserlein Emmerichs, "Trials of Women for Homicide in Nineteenth-Century England," Women and Criminal Justice 5 (1993).
21. George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (New York: Signet, 1979), 46.
22. Times, 16 August 1850. See also Michael Farrell, Poisons and Poisoners: An Encyclopedia of Homicidal Poisonings (London: Robert Hale, 1992).
23. Times, 16 August 1850. See also Michael Farrell, Poisons and Poisoners: An Encyclopedia of Homicidal Poisonings (London: Robert Hale, 1992).
24. For a discussion of Victorian culture's demonization of women, see Nina Auerbach, Woman and the Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982) and Anthea Trodd, Domestic Crime in the Victorian Novel (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989).
25. For a discussion of Victorian culture's demonization of women, see Nina Auerbach, Woman and the Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982) and Anthea Trodd, Domestic Crime in the Victorian Novel (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989).
26. Edward Bulwer Lytton, Lucretia, or the Children of the Night (London: Saunders and Otley, 1847), vol. 2, 29.
27. Times, 19 April 1886.
28. "Can Chemical Analysis Convict Poisoners?" Forum 16 (October 1893): 229.
29. "Household Crime," Household Words 4 (1852): 277.
30. Times, 2 August 1849, 22 March 1852.
31. Times, 20 March 1835.
32. Times, 5 September 1848.
33. Times, 22 September 1848.
34. Times, 14 September 1848, 21 September 1848.
35. Times, 22 September 1848.
36. Times, 4 October 1848.
37. Times, 7 March 1851.
38. Trial of Betsy McMullen, 22 August 1856. Summer Assizes. Northern Circuit, Minutes. PRO, Assi 55. Times, 27 August 1856.
39. Times, 7 July 1856.
40. Times, 4 August 1834.
41. M. Crowther and Brenda White, On Soul and Conscience: The Medical Expert and Crime (Aberdeen, Scotland: Aberdeen University Press, 1988), 20.
42. Thomas Forbes, Surgeons at the Bailey: English Forensic Medicine to 1878 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985), 131.
43. Times, 15 April 1836.
44. Forum 16 (October 1893): 229.
45. See, for example, Times, 15 April 1846 and 26 July 1851.
46. Forum 16 (October 1893): 231.
47. Times, 30 December 1843.
48. Times, 23 January 1856.
49. Forum 16 (October 1893): 238.
50. See Hartman, Victorian Murderesses, 179, 247-8.
51. Times, 10 December 1855.
52. For evidence of the omnipresence of poison in Victorian England, see Peter Bartrip, "How Green Was My Vallance?: Environmental Arsenic Poisoning and the Victorian Domestic Ideal," English Historical Review 109 (1994): 891-913.
53. For connections between poison and abortion, see Times, 22 October 1856 and 13 January 1857.
54. Trial of Sarah Dazley, 22 July 1843. Summer Assizes. Norfolk Circuit, Minutes. PRO, Assi 32. Times, 15 April 1843.
55. See especially the cases of Dr. William Palmer, Times, 20 December 1855, and Dr. Alfred Warder, Times, 12 July 1866. For connections between Victorian medicine and murder, see Angus McLaren, A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), ch. 9.
56. See especially the cases of Dr. William Palmer, Times, 20 December 1855, and Dr. Alfred Warder, Times, 12 July 1866. For connections between Victorian medicine and murder, see Angus McLaren, A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), ch. 9.
57. See especially the cases of Dr. William Palmer, Times, 20 December 1855, and Dr. Alfred Warder, Times, 12 July 1866. For connections between Victorian medicine and murder, see Angus McLaren, A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), ch. 9.
58. Times, 18 July 1856.
59. For examples of contemporary alarm, see "Judicial returns of poisoning cases tried in the U.K. 1839-49," Times, 16 August 1850; "The Poison Shop," Punch 17 (1849): 96-7; and "Poison Sold Here," Household Words 2 (1850): 155-7.
60. For examples of contemporary alarm, see "Judicial returns of poisoning cases tried in the U.K. 1839-49," Times, 16 August 1850; "The Poison Shop," Punch 17 (1849): 96-7; and "Poison Sold Here," Household Words 2 (1850): 155-7.
61. For examples of contemporary alarm, see "Judicial returns of poisoning cases tried in the U.K. 1839-49," Times, 16 August 1850; "The Poison Shop," Punch 17 (1849): 96-7; and "Poison Sold Here," Household Words 2 (1850): 155-7.
62. See Peter Bartrip, "A 'Pennurth of Arsenic for Rat Poison': The Arsenic Act, 1851 and the Prevention of Secret Poisoning," Medical History 36 (1992): 65.
63. Times, 24 July 1843.
64. Times, 20 December 1847. See also Trial of Ann Mather, 18 December 1847. Winter Assizes. Northern Circuit, Minutes. PRO, Assi 55.
65. See, for example, the judge's instructions to the jury in the trial of Mary Howells, Times, 31 March 1848.
66. I compiled these murder statistics from Parliamentary Papers, Judicial Statistics for England and Wales, 1835-1901. Husbands tried for poisoning their wives had a conviction rate of about 50%.
67. Times, 2 August 1847.
68. Times, 2 August 1849.
69. Times, 15 August 1850.
70. Times, 20 March 1852.
71. Trial of Sarah Barber, 25 July 1851. Summer Assizes. Midland Circuit, Minutes. PRO, Assi 11.
72. Times, 6 August 1869.
73. Numerous books have been devoted to the Maybrick case, including Alexander MacDougal, The Maybrick Case (London: Bailliere, 1896); Charles Boswell, The Girl with the Scarlet Brand (New York: Fawcett, 1954); and Trevor Christie, Etched in Arsenic (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1968). Mary Hartman also discusses the case in detail in Victorian Murderesses, ch. 6.
74. Numerous books have been devoted to the Maybrick case, including Alexander MacDougal, The Maybrick Case (London: Bailliere, 1896); Charles Boswell, The Girl with the Scarlet Brand (New York: Fawcett, 1954); and Trevor Christie, Etched in Arsenic (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1968). Mary Hartman also discusses the case in detail in Victorian Murderesses, ch. 6.
75. Numerous books have been devoted to the Maybrick case, including Alexander MacDougal, The Maybrick Case (London: Bailliere, 1896); Charles Boswell, The Girl with the Scarlet Brand (New York: Fawcett, 1954); and Trevor Christie, Etched in Arsenic (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1968). Mary Hartman also discusses the case in detail in Victorian Murderesses, ch. 6.
76. Numerous books have been devoted to the Maybrick case, including Alexander MacDougal, The Maybrick Case (London: Bailliere, 1896); Charles Boswell, The Girl with the Scarlet Brand (New York: Fawcett, 1954); and Trevor Christie, Etched in Arsenic (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1968). Mary Hartman also discusses the case in detail in Victorian Murderesses, ch. 6.
77. H.B. Irving, ed., Trial of Mrs. Maybrick (Edinburgh: W. Hodge and Company, 1912).
78. Helen Densmore, "The English Dreyfus Case," Arena 22 (November 1899): 598-613.
79. Roger Chadwick, Bureaucratic Mercy: The Home Office and the Treatment of Capital Offenses in Victorian Britain (New York: Garland, 1992), 190-2, 302-5.
80. For example, see the Times of 5 August 1889.
81. For a discussion of the Ripper murders, see Judith Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 191-228.
82. Times, 7 October 1839.
83. Times, 1 April 1847, 27 March 1848.
84. Times, 24 July 1845.
85. Harry Quilter, Is Marriage a Failure? (London: Swan, Sonneschein and Co., 1888) reprints many of the letters from the Daily Telegraph.
86. Times, 22 September 1876.
87. Times, 7 January 1882.
88. Times, 7 April 1845.
89. See Appleton, Mary Ann Cotton, ch. 1.
90. 70. See, for example, the Elizabeth Dodds (Times, 11 August 1860) and Frances Oliver (Times, 22 July 1869) cases.
91. See, for example, the Elizabeth Dodds (Times, 11 August 1860) and Frances Oliver (Times, 22 July 1869) cases.
92. Times, 18 April 1851.
93. Times, 23 August 1856.
94. Times, 30 December 1843, 9 March 1850.
95. Times, 31 March 1847.
96. Times, 24 July 1843.
97. Times, 5 September 1848.
98. Times, 5 September 1848, 18 April 1851.
99. Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight, 219-20.
100. Times, 19 July 1856.
101. Rose, Parallel Lives, 275.