Introduction In the second of the series on infanticide, we examine the case of Ann Statham, who may well have been suffering from post-natal depression. Background and Relationship Life Before the Crime Ann Statham was an unmarried 28-year-old woman who had lived with her mother near Wichnor (now spelled Wychnor), between Lichfield and Burton-on-Trent in … Read more
Mary Blandy was 31 when she was hanged in 1752 for the murder of her father by poisoning. She was unusual in the annals of female criminals of the time – she was middle class and well educated. Her father, Francis Blandy, was a prosperous lawyer and the Town Clerk of Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire at … 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
The Household and the Incident Elizabeth Fenning (always known as Eliza) was an attractive and petite girl who worked as the cook in the household of Robert and Charlotte Turner in London’s Chancery Lane. Eliza’s age is variously given as 20, 21, and 22 years. Robert Turner was a law stationer and also employed a … Read more
Background 49-year-old Elizabeth Sarah Woolterton was a farmer’s widow with eight children who lived at Denton in Suffolk. She was tried at the Suffolk Summer Assizes at Bury St. Edmunds, before Sir Vicary Gibbs, on Saturday, the 22nd of July, 1815. The Incident Elizabeth’s daughter, Amy Woolterton, testified that she and her mother lived at … Read more
