The trial of Jane Cook, a servant found insane for setting fire to the house of her master, John Campbell, exhibits themes of loneliness, class and femininity which are significant within the verdict of a nineteenth-century insanity trial. Within the trial, Cook’s loneliness is considered significant as her lack of friends and ill-treatment by her…
Tag: Crime
Criminal Lunacy and Working-Class fatherhood by Hannah Stephens
Joseph Wood, aged 24, was tried at the Old Bailey on the 19th May 1890, for the wilful murder of his daughter, Nelly Wood.[i] He was found guilty but insane and detained during her Majesty’s Pleasure at Broadmoor despite not meeting the criteria of the McNaughton Rules, suggesting the jury were more focused on other…
Motherhood & the Female Body & Mind: The Trial of Adelaide Freedman by Racheal Young
Adelaide Freedman, 30, was tried for the murder (by poison) of her child at the Old Bailey on the 22nd November 1869. She was found not guilty on the grounds of insanity. Multiple ‘voices’ are heard within the trial, including that of medical men, family and other associates – all of which, I believe, worked…
Poverty and Motherhood in the Case of Mary Ann Hamilton by Emily Stephenson
Mary Ann Hamilton was tried in 1862 for the wilful murder of her son, Henry.[i] He was killed out of want to stop him from enduring poverty and she was found not guilty on the grounds of insanity.[ii] She was sent to Broadmoor. The voices directly heard within the trial are the policeman called George…
Murder and Insanity on the Victorian Theatre Scene by Andrew Huckfield
Richard Arthur Prince was tried at the London Central Criminal Court on the 10th of January 1898. His charge was murdering the actor William Terriss; Prince had stabbed him to death at the Adelphi Theatre. Legally, to be found insane, Prince’s insanity would have to correspond to the McNaughton Rules. As noted by Carl Elliot…
The Case of William Burns by Annabel Cammish
William Burns was accused of the attempted murder of his wife, Louisa Burns, on 28 February 1891.[i] Following the McNaughton Rules (1843), the trial’s final verdict was that Burns was insane at the time of the crime. His trial is useful in showing Victorian concerns of alcohol, and the struggles of working-class life that caused…
“All of you has been the cause of this”: Male Infanticide in the Late Nineteenth Century by Holly Cooper
This post examines the trial of James Hayes, on the 11th of January 1875, and considers the extent of which it is useful for historians of nineteenth century crime and insanity. This is a trial of infanticide and the outcome of the case was not guilty on the grounds of insanity. This trial involves the…
Poverty, Infanticide and Women’s Agency in Victorian Britain by Emily Hammond
On the 19 March 1888 Emma Elizabeth Aston was found ‘insane at the time’ of the murder of her eighteen-month-old son Bertie.[i] Aston’s trial highlights how infanticide committed by women was often used to gloss over the contextual societal issues which they were often indicative of by the use of insanity convictions. Namely, the neglected…
“Driven Mad by Poverty”?: The Trial of Sarah Dickinson by Alison Morton
In the nineteenth century, women were considered nurturing, caring and naturally maternal. Anyone who deviated from these ideals could be considered insane, and their crimes a symptom of their insanity. Nineteenth-century trial transcripts can reveal much about social ideals of the time, including motherhood, insanity and poverty. Sarah Dickinson’s trial specifically does this. Accused of…
‘he was undoubtedly fond of his children, a very affectionate father’: A Case of Paternal-Child Murder by Charlie Bentley
Arthur Benjamin Slater (age 26) was tried at the Old Bailey on the 16thOctober 1893 for the wilful murder of his daughter, Daisy Florence Slater (aged roughly 3 and a half years). He was found guilty but was found insane at the time, and was detained during her majesty’s pleasure.[i] Slater cut his daughter’s throat….
Mad or Bad? Criminal Lunacy in Britain, 1800-1900 