Background. The French’s had been married some seven years and lived in a cottage at Chiddingly in East Sussex with their one young son. William worked as a farm labourer with his brother, John, on a farm at Chiddingly and was seen in good health by John on Christmas Eve 1851. The next time John saw his brother was on January … Read more
Background.Sarah Chesham (nee Parker) was born at Clavering near Saffron Walden in Essex on the 9th of July 1809 and married Richard Chesham at the age of 19 in July 1828. She was pregnant when they married and gave birth to a daughter whom they christened Harriet on the 8th of February 1829. A further five boys were … Read more
Mary Wright (later Ball) was born in Nuneaton to Isaac Wright and Alice Ward in 1818 and christened there in June of that year. She married Thomas Ball in 1837 at the age of 20 and bore him six children over the next 12 years, of whom only one, Mary Ann Ball, survived. The marriage was mired in poverty … Read more
Mary Ann Milner was due to go the gallows atop the Cobb Tower of Lincoln Castle at noon on Friday the 30th of July 1847 for the murder by arsenic poisoning of her sister in law. However on the eve of her execution she hanged herself with a silk scarf that she had worn at her … Read more
This article is specifically about those girls who would be legally considered juveniles today, i.e. under eighteen years old at the time of their offence and who now would be prohibited from execution by international human rights treaties, not to mention public opinion. For those looking to study the history of capital punishment in more … Read more
