It is quite clear that much of south Durham knew her life story, but it is also clear that she was accepted, and even admired, by that community. She allegedly poisoned up to 21 people before being executed in 1873. William joined the Durham Light Infantry and ended up in the London Rifles. Russell's appointment over Aspinwall led to a question in the House of Commons. Though, as the Journal of Victorian Culture reports, there was some financial relief available to widows, it was often highly restricted. He died of an intestinal disorder in January 1865. Mary Ann Cotton (ne Robson; 31 October 1832 24 March 1873) was an English convicted murderer who was executed for poisoning her stepson. She then allegedly told a local official that she could not marry Quick-Manning because of her seven-year-old stepson, Charles Edward Cotton. Up in the air Sellin black puddens a penny a pair. "Mary Ann Cotton, a widow, is in custody at West Auckland, charged with having poisoned her stepson, aged eight years. Mary Ann Cottons trial, for allegedly murdering her stepson Charles, was delayed for several months so that she could give birth. Daily Mirror. She is believed to have murdered up to 21 people in total. Yet, she wasn't alone. According to the British Library, that's because it was alarmingly easy to access. Mary Ann Cotton was born in a small village in North England on 31st October 1832, to a miner father who died while Mary was just 8. Despite her sole conviction for murder, she is believed to have been a serial killer who killed many others including 11 of her 13 children and three of her four husbands for their insurance policies. Authorities also exhumed the bodies of Nattrass and two other Cotton children, and all were determined to have been poisoned with arsenic. In Low Moorsley, Tyne & Wear. Where, where? Corrections? As History Collection reports, his wife was paid via yet another life insurance policy and was left with two stepsons. But more than a dozen close friends and . Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Despite all the deaths, there was still no evidence against Mary Ann, and she was completely free from suspicion. The defense in the case was handled by Mr. Thomas Campbell . MARGARET was born in Durham jail, the daughter of serial poisoner MARY ANN COTTON (nee ROBSON). The Messed Up Truth About 19th Century Murderess Mary Ann Cotton. William and John went off to fight. login . Shortly after her demise, according to The Invention of Murder, Cotton's exploits were used by the Victorians in all manner or moralistic and lurid attractions. According to the Journal of Social History, working class mothers were especially likely to see their own children sicken and die, even if they weren't intentionally causing the illnesses. The scene is the hanging gallery. She and her only surviving child, Isabella, had moved back to County Durham. Low Moorsley (now part of Houghton-le-Spring in the City of Sunderland), Margaret Edith Quick-Manning (Cotton) Kell, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Cotton, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NXHY-K2R, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:264G-ZP5, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NFJ3-241, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NXGL-55T, Mary Elizabeth (Ward) Dawson (abt.1829-abt.1904). Death surrounded her from an early age. Few people who lived with Mary Ann Cotton were shown mercy, not least the children who were so unfortunate as to enter her orbit. Once again, Mary Ann collected insurance money in respect of her husband's death. The following year Mary Ann went to visit her ailing mother, who died about a week after her return. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. She then found work as a housekeeper for James Robinson, a widower. The insurance policy Mary Ann had taken out on Charles' life still awaited collection. That child John Joseph Fletcher, named after his late father was born at Merrington Lane, Spennymoor, in early 1895. As per History Collection, Cotton was hanged at Durham County Gaol on March 24, 1873. I could be remembering it wrong, though. He died in October 1866, baffling doctors on his way out. Baby Margaret spent some time with her biological mother in the jail cell, before she was eventually given to her adoptive parents, William and Sarah Edwards, aged about 10 weeks old. The couple had five children, four of whom died from gastric fever. Plus, it really was everywhere, from the green dye in clothes, to wallpaper, to rat poison. That description fits Mary Ann Cotton very well indeed. Russell's appointment over Aspinwall led to a question in the House of Commons. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. In 1869 Robinson discovered that Mary Ann was stealing from him, and he grew suspicious of her repeated requests that he take out a life insurance policy. William died of an intestinal disorder in January 1865. Mary Ann Cotton's trial, for allegedly murdering her stepson Charles, was delayed for several months so that she could give birth. Mary Ann's daughter Isabella, from the marriage to William Mowbray, was brought back to the Robinson household and soon developed bad stomach pains and died; so did another two of Robinson's children. He fled and changed his surname: some say he went abroad; others that he returned to his hometown of Darlington where, reconciled with his wife, he ran a small beerhouse. Moreover, she was also forcing her stepchildren to pawn household items. The doctor testified that there was no other powder on the same shelf in the chemist's shop as the arsenic, only liquid; the chemist himself claimed that there were other powders. Affair with James Nattress, a married man, while married to Mowbray and possibly again, after Nattress was widowed, while she was "married" to Cotton. Last week, we covered the life and crimes of Mary Ann Cotton, also known as the West Auckland Poisoner. When Mary Ann was eight, her parents moved the family to the County Durham village of Murton, where she went to a new school and found it difficult to . The Robson family moved to the village of Murton in Durham when Mary Ann was eight, but tragedy struck in February 1842. She was convicted of just the one murder, of her young stepson, but the evidence against her was vague and circumstantial, and it is extremely doubtful that it would stand up in a modern court of law. Perhaps Robinson didnt link Mary Ann with the numerous deaths in the family, but he certainly became suspicious when she became overly insistent that he insure his life. Mary Ann grew up in Durham county, northeastern England. Then Nattrass became ill with gastric fever and died just after revising his will in Mary Ann's favour. Product Description. The 1901 census found 28- year-old Margaret and her three children living with her adoptive mother Sarah at the Greyhound Inn, Ferryhill her adoptive father, William, had died aged 54 in 1897, and Sarah was the pub licensee. It went like this: Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and she's rotten. As The Northern Echo reports, most believe that this child was probably the eighth of her biological children and one of only a few who would survive an encounter with their mother. It includes lines like "Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string./Where, where?/Up in the air.". Margaret, her husband, and their baby daughter Clara moved to the United States in 1893, but she then returned to Durham in 1894 as a young widow. In 1867, Mary Ann's stepfather George Stott married his widowed neighbour, Hannah Paley. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. She was later found guilty and executed. After moving frequently, the family settled in Hendon, Durham county, in about 1856. It is said that the prisoner, who is comparatively a young woman, has had three husbands and 15 children, and that they, as well as two lodgers, died under her roof." By the time Nattrass was dead, Mary Ann had poisoned Robert, her infant son with Cotton, and Frederick Jr., her stepson. Then he found that Mary Ann had been forcing his older children to pawn household valuables. Cotton's trial began on 5 March 1873. Mary Ann backed off but not before ominously predicting that Charles would "go like all the rest of the Cotton family." Soon after the move, Mary Ann's father fell 150 feet (46m) to his death down a mine shaft at Murton colliery in February 1842. [1] Baptised at St Mary's, West Rainton on 11 November 1832. Her stepson, Frederick Jr., and Robert, her infant son with Frederick, died early 1872. He was also a widower who had lost two of his four children and lived in Northumberland. Login to find your connection. HSW Podcast: *Howstuffworks.com. She had meant only to buy harmless arrowroot powder for the ill boy, but a terrible mix-up had occurred, and she was given arsenic instead. An examination of the body revealed arsenic in his stomach, and further exhumations on the bodies of two other Cotton children and Nattrass found traces of the poison. Baptised at St Mary's, West Rainton on 11 November 1832. Geni requires JavaScript! Then her friend Margaret Cotton introduced her to her brother, Frederick, a pitman and recent widower living in Walbottle, Northumberland, who had lost two of his four children. A nursery rhyme concerning Cotton was composed after her hanging on 24 March 1873. An inquest was held and the jury returned a verdict of natural causes. At the beginning of it all, the girl who would become Mary Ann Cotton seemed, frankly, pretty unremarkable. At that stage, only one of the nine kids she had with Mowbray was alive. In 1852, 20-year-old Mary Ann married colliery labourer William Mowbray at Newcastle Upon Tyne register office; they soon moved to South West England. Mary Ann Cotton, also known by the surnames Mowbray, Robinson and Ward, was a nurse and housekeeper suspected of poisoning as many as 21 people in 19th-century Britain. The place is Durham Gaol. Though she's been gone for nearly a century and a half, Cotton remains one of the most shocking female killers in modern history. She complained that the last surviving Cotton boy, Charles Edward, was in the way and asked Riley if he could be committed to the workhouse. It appears that, sometime around the birth, he fled town, with some reports indicating that he went so far as to leave the country, while others claim that he reconciled with his wife and lived a relatively quiet existence thereafter. Her father died eight years later in a mining accident. Mary Ann Robson Cotton, was a serial killer convicted of murdering her mother, 11 of her 13 children, her stepson and 3 of her 4 husbands by arsenic poisoning. The "great moral drama," as it was described, likely used the bloody true crime tropes so beloved by Victorians to impart a decidedly un-subtle lesson about how to live one's life the right way. Although her father fell down a THE baby was the daughter born to Mary Ann Cotton, of West Auckland, in Durham jail on January 7, 1873. It went like this: Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and she's rotten. Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and forgotten, The mother had to take care of three children, while suffering with the depression owing to her husband's death. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. She apparently wanted to give Quick-Manning the dubious honor of becoming husband number five. Despite her sole conviction for murder, she is believed to have been a serial killer who killed many others including 11 of her 13 children and three of her four husbands for their insurance policies. Up in the air. Mary Anns trial began two months later, and the defense claimed that the deceased had inhaled arsenic dust from wallpaper dye, a conceivable explanation given that arsenic was then common in many household items. Arsenic, however, was more subtle. The last straw was when he found she had been forcing his children to pawn household valuables for her. She officially died of hepatitis, though she died just over a week after her daughter came to tend to her. He hired Mary Ann as a housekeeper in November 1866. The doctor who attended Charles had kept samples, and they tested positive for arsenic. Soon enough, Margaret died of a mysterious gastrointestinal ailment, allowing Mary Ann to get closer to Frederick. According to Mary Ann Cotton, Cotton wed Robinson in 1867. Her sister Margaret was born in 1834 but lived only a few months. In 1843, Mary Ann's widowed mother, Margaret (ne Lonsdale) married George Stott, with whom Mary Ann did not get along. Her father, a miner, was killed in an accident when she was just nine. , got your result about mary ann cotton family tree please comment if we missed anything here, please let us know. For many people in Victorian Britain, being born into a working-class family meant that one's life was often touched by tragedy. He didnt. English serial killer Mary Ann Cotton, born October 31, 1832, and was hanged to death on March 24, 1873, for murdering her stepson Charles Edward Cotton by poisoning him. She was employed in various jobs, including Sunday school. Selling black puddings, a penny a pair. During this time, her 3-year-old daughter died, leaving her with one child out of the nine she had borne. As Ward was still recovering from his illness, he collected relief payments instead of working, while Cotton moved into the role of primary earner for their household. At some point William took out a life insurance policy that covered both him and their three surviving children; the others had died from gastric fever, a common ailment that had symptoms similar to arsenic poisoning. [10], Death of Charles Edward Cotton and inquest, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Mary Ann Cotton | Biography, Murders, Trial, & Execution", "Dark Angel: How were Mary Ann Cotton's terrible crimes uncovered? Mary Ann Cotton, tied up with string. The Cotton case was the first of several famous poisoning cases he would be involved in during his career, including those of Adelaide Bartlett and Florence Maybrick. His name is carved with countless thousands of others on the Menin Gate at Ypres. After three years there, she returned to her mother's home and trained as a dressmaker. When Mary Ann was eight, her parents moved the family to the County Durham village of Murton. Another daughter, Isabella, was born in 1858, and Margaret Jane died in 1860. He, however, was engaged to another woman and she left Seaham after Nattrasss wedding. She supposedly did it using arsenic, a terrible poison that causes intense gastric pain and results in a rapid decline of health. Instead, Cotton dropped only two feet and proceeded to choke, still alive. James Robinson was a shipwright at Pallion in Sunderland, whose wife Hannah had recently died. That left Cotton and her daughter with an insurance payout of some 35, according to Mary Ann Cotton, Dark Angel. He was John Quick- Manning, who was probably the excise officer at West Auckland Brewery and who was definitely married to someone else. He died in 1872 from gastric fever soon after amending his will in Mary Anns favor. In clothes, to wallpaper, to rat poison she could not marry Quick-Manning because of her husband 's.. 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