1826 murders: On the morning of March 12, 1827, there was a double hanging at Carlisle jail. At five minutes before twelve, the prison bell tolled a summons to Robert Fox and Philip Tinnaney, to proce...Read More
John Scott Brown was a ‘low-bred’ man with a chip on his shoulder. The violent assault he committed gives an idea of life in 1878. Cumbrian Characters usually tries to be impartial, not to judge p...Read More
Branded for life is a figure of speech; in the 18th Century, branding was a punishment dished out by judges for a range of offences. The old saying ‘may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb’ me...Read More
Here’s to you Annie Robinson..? Annie Robinson was seemingly deserted by her first husband, married the second in dubious circumstances, then tried to poison him after in order to marry his cous...Read More
Catherine Wilson was hanged in London in 1862 after being convicted of one murder. But it’s believed she was a serial killer who poisoned at least another six people, four of them fatally. And at le...Read More
William Horsley of Penrith fell under the spell of his mother-in-law, Jane Davidson. And Jane Davidson was prepared to use magic, and ultimately murder (and a painful death herself) to keep him. The d...Read More
Punishments in 1841 – in Cumberland This post illustrates a few of the punishments in 1841 for ‘minor offences’. As meted out by magistrates in Cumberland. The 1841 Easter Sessions The Easter Se...Read More
Sarah Nicholson ‘had the misfortune to marry a man 25 years her senior’. This seemingly unlucky accident (!) led to villagers trying to drive her out in 1879. But she was no strange to violence he...Read More
The Longburn murders of 1808 rocked Cumberland and beyond, for the way a man shown kindness ‘repaid’ it with brutality against two defenceless victims. Recorded in stone A gravestone near ...Read More
The Staffield Murder of 1856 filled a lot of column inches in newspapers: likely the first and last time this little Cumbrian hamlet featured on the wider public consciousness. Whodunnit? While TV dra...Read More