Bibliography
Abrams, L., Concubinage, Cohabitation and the Law: Class and Gender Relations in Nineteenth-Century Germany, Gender and History, 1993, 5, 1, pp. 81-100.
Archer, J., Men Behaving Badly?: Masculinity and the Uses of Violence, 1850-1900, in D’Cruze, S. (Ed.), Everyday Violence in Britain, 1850-1950, New York, Longmans, 2000, pp. 41-54.
Arnot, M., Understanding Women Committing Newborn Child Murder in Victorian England, in D’Cruze, S. (Ed.), Everyday Violence in Britain, 1850-1950, New York, Longmans, 2000, pp. 55-68.
ASSI 36, Assize Records, Home, Norfolk and Southeastern Circuit, Depositions, National Archives, Kew.
Ayres, P., Lambertz, J., Marriage Relations, Money, and Domestic Violence in Working-Class Liverpool, 1919-39, in Lewis, J. (Ed.), Labor and Love: Women’s Experience of Home and Family, 1850-1940, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1986, pp. 195-219.
Bailey, V., This Rash Act: Suicide Across the Life Cycle in the Victorian City, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1998.
Ballinger, A., Dead Woman Walking: Executed Women in England and Wales, 1900-1955, Aldershot, Hants, Ashgate, 2000.
Behlmer, G., Friends of the Family: The English Home and its Guardians, 1850-1940, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1998.
Chinn, C., They Worked All Their Lives: Women of the Urban Poor in England, 1880-1939, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1988.
Clark, A., Domesticity and the Problem of Wife-Beating in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Working-Class Culture, Law and Politics, in D’Cruze, S. (Ed.), Everyday Violence in Britain, 1850-1950, New York, Longmans, 2000, pp. 27-40.
Conley, C., The Unwritten Law: Criminal Justice in Kent, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991.
CRIM 10, Minutes of the Central Criminal Court, National Archives, Kew.
Davis, A., Youth Gangs, Masculinity and Violence in Late Victorian Manchester and Salford, Journal of Social History, 1998, 32, 2, pp. 349-369.
Davis, J., A Poor Man’s System of Justice: The London Police Courts in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century, Historical Journal, 1984, 27, 2, pp. 309-335.
D’Cruze, S., Crimes of Outrage: Sex, Violence, and Victorian Working Women, DeKalb, Illinois, Northern Illinois University Press, 1998.
Emsley, C., Hard Men: The English and Violence Since 1750, London, Hambledon, 2005.
Gillis, J., For Better, For Worse: British Marriages 1600 to the Present, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1985.
Hammerton, A. J., Cruelty and Companionship: Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Married Life, New York, Routledge, 1992.
Henriques, U., Bastardy and the New Poor Law, Past and Present, 1967, 37, pp. 103-129.
HO 45 and 144, Home Office Papers, Petitions for Mercy, National Archives, Kew.
Knelman, J., Twisting in the Wind: The Murderess and the English Press, Toronto, Toronto University Press, 1998.
PCOM 1, Old Bailey Sessions Papers, National Archives, Kew.
Parker, S., Informal Marriage, Cohabitation and the Law, 1750-1989, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
Ratcliffe, B., Popular Classes and Cohabitation in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Paris, Journal of Family History, 1996, 21, 3, pp. 316-350.
Ross, E., Love and Toil: Motherhood in Outcast London, 1870-1918, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993.
Tebbutt, M., Making Ends Meet: Pawnbroking and Working-Class Credit, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1983.
Wiener, M., Judges v. Jurors; Courtroom Tensions in Murder Trials and the Law of Criminal Responsibility in Nineteenth-Century England, Law and History Review, 1999a, 17, 3, pp. 467-506.
Wiener, M., The Sad Story of George Hall: Adultery, Murder and the Politics of Mercy in Mid-Victorian England, Social History, 1999b, 24, 2, pp. 174-195.
Wiener, M., Men of Blood: Violence, Manliness and Criminal Justice in Victorian England, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Wood, J., Violence and Crime in Nineteenth-Century England: The Shadow of Our Refinement, London, Routledge, 2004.
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Notes
Ross (1993, pp. 84-86); Hammerton (1992, pp. 34-67); D’Cruze (1998, pp. 63-80); Conley (1991, pp. 68-95).
I read the Lancaster Guardian between 1850 and 1905 at regular five year intervals (1850, 1855, 1860, etc.). I read irregular intervals of both the Yorkshire Gazette and the Times because so many of the issues were unavailable. The years I used in the Yorkshire Gazette were 1850, 1855, 1865, 1870, 1876, 1882, 1885, 1892, 1895, and 1899. Those in the Times were 1853, 1856, 1863, 1866, 1872, 1878, 1884, 1891, and 1893. I have 25 cases in the 1850s, 42 in the 1860s, 58 in the 1870s, 37 in the 1880s, 40 in the 1890s, and 5 from 1900 to 1905.
Many reports listed the men’s jobs, but in some cases, the reports said simply «poor» or «residing in a low part of town». If the preponderance of evidence pointed to working-class origin, I counted it as such.
Hammerton’s sample in Preston had 25% lower middle and middle-class cases, Hammerton (1992, p. 37); D’Cruze’s percentage was closer to my results (8.8%), though still had more from the middle classes, D’Cruze (1998, p. 65).
The suicides in this sample occurred after the defendants had committed the original violent acts, so the gender differences were not the result of underreporting of women’s attempts. The generalization about gender also fits with other research on suicide. See Bailey (1998, pp. 125-130); Conley (1991, pp. 70-71).
Naturally, perpetrators claimed motives that they thought would defend them most effectively. Fortunately, verification is available for most incidents, especially at the assize level. The majority of the time, the violence was sudden and public, an immediate reaction to the «provocation». Other times men and women threatened violence for weeks before striking. Both types of crime generated witnesses to the causes of the violence who were independent of the perpetrator.
Hammerton (1992, p. 45); Conley (1991, pp. 72-73).
Hannah in Times, 12 September 1856, pp. 7, 10; 15 September 1856, p. 12; Leeds Intelligencer, 13 September 1856, p. 8; quote from Times, 12 September, p. 7; Lawrence in ASSI 36/12; Times, 16 April 1866, p. 5; Tunbridge Wells Standard, 20 April 1866, pp. 2-3; 27 July 1866, p. 3; 21 December 1866, p. 3; Maidstone Telegraph, 12 January 1867, p. 2. See also Knelman (1998, pp. 137-138).
Ross (1993, pp. 72-78); Ayers, Lambertz (1986); Clark (2000).
Banks in Times, 28 July 1866, p. 12; Lancaster Guardian, 9 June 1866, p. 8; 28 July, 1866, p. 3; quote from Lancaster Guardian, 9 June. Bishop in Times, 24 September 1874, p. 5; Devonport Independent and Plymouth Gazette, 26 September 1874, p. 6; quote from the latter.
Finlaison in Yorkshire Gazette, 21 July 1855, p. 12; Jones in Times, 13 August 1872, p. 9. See also Ross (1993, pp. 81-84); Chinn (1988, pp. 75-79); Tebbutt (1983); and, for another example, Times, 12 August 1893, p. 3; Tonbridge Telegraph, 12 August 1893, p. 5.
Henriques (1967); Gillis (1985, pp. 237-241); Arnot (2000).
Bennet in Times, 18 August 1854, p. 10; Gloucestershire Chronicle, 19 August 1854, p. 3; Sabley in Times, 1 July 1893, p. 7; Northampton Daily Chronicle, 29 June 1893, p. 4.
PCOM 1/69, pp. 681-83; Mulley in Lancaster Guardian, 26 October 1855, p. 9; 3 November 1855, p. 2, quote from 26 October; Wane in Times, 15 December 1864, p. 10. See also Times, 15 July 1872, p. 13; Northampton Herald, 13 July 1872, p. 8; and Times, 26 September 1867, p. 9.
Hannah in Times, 13 September 1856, p. 7; Leeds Intelligencer, 13 September 1856, p. 8 (for quote); Sabley in Northampton Daily Chronicle, 29 June 1893, p. 4.
D’Cruze (1998, p. 68).
Lancaster Guardian, 14 April 1900, p. 6. See also Times 30 September 1878, p. 8; and Merthyr Express, 5 October 1878, p. 6; 9 November 1878, p. 3.
Wood (2004, pp. 37-38, 56-69); Davis (1998, pp. 353-356, 360-364); Emsley (2005, pp. 35-36, 59-69).
Fountain in Times, 9 June 1870, p. 11; Manning in HO 144/248/A54672; Times, 29 September 1892, p. 7; Gloucestershire Chronicle, 1 October 1892, p. 5; 8 October 1892, p. 7. See also HO 45/9383/45024; Times, 9 April 1863, p. 10; Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser, 11 April 1863, p. 6.
Behlmer (1998, pp. 181-229); Conley (1991, pp. 75-81). See also D’Cruze (1998, pp. 9-11); and Davis (1984).
Cooper in Times, 30 October 1862, p. 11; Gair in HO 45/9383/45024; Times, 9 April 1863, p. 10; Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser, 11 April 1863, p. 6; Stubbs in Times, 5 July 1878, p. 12.
Conley (1991, pp. 72-75); Behlmer (1998, pp. 198-213); Hammerton (1992, pp. 46-52); D’Cruze (1998, p. 79); Ballinger (2000, pp. 37-64); Wiener (1999b, pp. 182-184).
CRIM 10/52, pp. 508-509; Times, 3 August 1863, p. 11; 17 August 1863, p. 11; 22 August 1863, p. 11; quote from the latter. According to the trial minutes, Perry called Burke «an Irish bugger» (p. 508).
Abbot in Yorkshire Gazette, 5 August 1876, p. 4; 16 December 1876, p. 4; quote from the latter; Taylor in Tonbridge Telegraph, 12 August 1893, p. 5.
Shields in PCOM 1/84, pp. 647-648; Times, 7 March 1863, p. 12;McDonald in HO 45/9366/36100; Devonport Independent and Plymouth and Stonehouse Gazette, 4 July 1874, p. 7; 1 August 1874, p. 3; quotes from 1 August. Wiener has noted this difference (2004, pp. 207-208).
CRIM 10/52, pp. 518-521; Times, 18 August 1863, p. 9; 22 August 1863, p. 11, quote from the latter; see alsoCRIM 10/59, pp. 26-32; Times, 25 November 1869, p. 9.
Lancaster Guardian, 28 July 1866, p. 3.
Hammerton (1992, p. 48).
Times, 24 January 1859, p. 11.
Wiener (1999b, pp. 184-187; 1999a; 2004, pp. 123-169).
Fleming in Newcastle Chronicle, 5 September 1856, p. 8 (for quote); Times, 16 September 1856, p. 6; Brown in Times, 23 May 1881, p. 12; Nottingham and Midland Counties Daily Express, 23 May 1881, p. 3; 24 May 1881, p. 3; quote from the latter; Kelly in Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, 24 September 1853, p. 3; for Stubbs, see footnote 22.
Conley (1991, pp. 79-81). For other examples of leniency, see Wood (2004, pp. 63-64).
PCOM 1/69, pp. 681-683; Lancaster Guardian, 3 November 1855, p. 12; Times, 26 October 1855, p. 9.
HO 144/236/A51714; Surrey Advertiser and County Times, 12 July 1890, p. 2. Also found in Times, 14 July 1890, p. 6.
Cooper in Times, 30 October 1862, p. 11; Banks in Lancaster Guardian, 9 June 1866, p. 8.
HO 45/9464/75868; Nottingham and Midland Counties Daily Express, 29 July 1878, p. 3. For other cases, see Devonport Independent and Plymouth & Stonehouse Gazette, 1 August 1874, p. 3; and Northampton Daily Chronicle, 29 June 1893, p. 4. See also Wiener (1999a, pp. 481-488).
Abigale in HO 144/98/A16400; Times, 9 May 1882, p. 7; 24 May 1882, p. 10; Cooke in HO 144/250/A55024 (for quote); Times, 8 July 1893, p. 16; 10 July 1893, p. 12; 24 July 1893, p. 9.
Shrewsbury Free Press and Shropshire Telegraph, 27 March 1875, p. 2; Wiener (2004, pp. 253-254).
Ford in Birmingham Daily Post, 5 March, 1864, p. 4; 7 March 1864, p. 4; quote from 7 March; Snape in Times, 26 July 1865, p. 6; also found in Lancaster Guardian, 29 July 1865, p. 3, quote in both.
Noon in Times, 22 July 1872, p. 12; Nottingham and Midland Counties Daily Express, 20 July 1872, p. 8 (for quote); Mills in Times, 10 April 1878, p. 6.
Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser, 11 April 1863, p. 6.
Manchester Guardian, 31 July 1872, p. 6; also found in Times, 1 August 1872, p. 10.
Wood (2004, pp. 37-38).
Perry in Times, 22 August 1863, p. 11; Nicholson in Birmingham Daily Post, 24 February 1877, p. 8; 27 February 1877, p. 5; 28 February 1877, p. 6; quote from 27 February. See also Wiener (1999a, pp. 490-497) for more judges’ views of violence due to intoxication or passions.
HO 144/161/A41540; Liverpool Mercury, 17 November 1885, p. 3; 9 December 1885, p. 7; quote from 17 November. See also Times, 13 August 1872, p. 9.
Wiener (1999a, pp. 497-504; 2004, pp. 270-288).
Hammerton (1992, pp. 45-47); D’Cruze (1998, pp. 66-67); Ross (1993, p. 71); Archer (2000).
HO 45/9388/46727; Lancaster Guardian, 31 July 1875, p. 7.
Nottingham Evening Post, 13 July 1885, p. 4. See also Lancaster Gazette, 16 January 1875, p. 5; 13 March 1875, pp. 3-4, 8.
Gillis (1985, p. 251); Hammerton (1992, p. 45); Behlmer (1998, p. 203).
Snape in Times, 26 July 1865, p. 6; and Lancaster Guardian, 29 July 1865, p. 3; quote from Times; Cooper in Times, 30 October 1862, p. 11.
Smith in HO 144/161/A41540; Croyden Chronicle, 21 April 1877, p. 5; Chollerton in HO 45/9464/75868; Times, 29 July 1878, p. 4 (for quote); and Nottingham and Midland Counties Daily Express, 29 July 1878, p. 3; Bowen’s remarks in Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette County Journal, 10 December 1887, p. 3; and Thomas in Liverpool Mercury, 17 November 1885, p. 3.
Conley (1991, pp. 76-77); see also Tebbutt (1983, p. 41).
Gair in Times, 9 April 1863, p. 10; Southey in Times, 10 August 1865, p. 12; 15 August 1865, p. 12; quote in 10 August.
Brown in Times, 26 July 1864, p. 12; 27 July 1864, p. 7; and 5 August 1864, p. 10; Tredley in Times, 16 April 1870, p. 10; Taylor in PCOM 1/102, pp. 530-541; Times, 1 July 1872, p. 7.
Yorkshire Gazette, 19 September 1885, p. 11; see also 5 September 1885, p. 6; 12 September 1885, p. 3.
For a similar point about cohabiting couples on the continent, see Ratcliffe (1996); Abrams (1993).
See, e.g., Parker (1990).
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