Sarah Lloyd was a young maid servant in the household of Mrs. Sarah Syer in Benton Street, Hadleigh in Suffolk. Her precise age is unclear, being given as both 19 and 22 years old. She was described as being small with dark hair and large eyes and somewhat child like demeanor. She had a boyfriend, Joseph Clark, who it was thought … Read more
Ann Hurle was one of twelve people to be hanged for forgery in 1804. The law took a very severe view of this offence at the time and few forgers were reprieved. A Bold Plan to Defraud the Bank of England Ann was an educated young woman of twenty two, living in London, who had … Read more
Richard Prince was a coachman by trade and was living with a woman named Emily Bisset in the Marylebone area of London in a house of “ill repute”, owned by their landlord Mr. William Scott. Elizabeth Godfrey (also given as Godfry) had taken the room adjoining theirs four days before Christmas 1806. A quarrel had occurred between Richard and Elizabeth, apparently … Read more
The savagery of the law in dealing with crimes against property in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is well demonstrated by this case. Melinda Mapson was a thirty year old married servant woman who took up a job in the household of Mr. William Dignam in New Street in London’s Covent Garden on the evening of Friday the 10th of … Read more
It might seem incredible to us today that a relatively uneducated woman who was a career criminal could successfully convince a large number of people that she possessed supernatural powers and healing abilities but Mary Bateman succeeded in doing so in Leeds in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Mary was born Mary Harker around 1768 to a farmer … Read more
