Two Mary Corbets
A Name Called Twice
On 9 April 1684, the name Mary Corbet was spoken twice in the Old Bailey.
Not once.
Twice.
Two women stood before the court.
Two different crimes.
Two separate lives.
And yet—
The same name.
The First Mary Corbet: The Counterfeiter
The first Mary Corbet stood accused of a crime that struck at the very heart of the kingdom:
👉 Counterfeiting the King’s coin
She had been seen:
- Melting pewter, copper, and base metals
- Pouring them into moulds
- Producing false shillings and sixpences
Worse still—
Others admitted they had distributed the coins on her behalf.
The evidence was overwhelming.
A Crime of Treason
In modern terms, this was fraud.
In 1684—
It was High Treason.
To counterfeit coin was to undermine:
- The Crown
- The economy
- The stability of the realm
The verdict:
👉 GUILTY
The sentence:
👉 To be burnt to death
The Second Mary Corbet: The Servant
Then—
The name was called again.
Mary Corbet.
But this was another woman entirely.
A maidservant.
Her crime was quieter.
More hidden.
And, in its own way, more disturbing.
A Death in Secret
She was accused of murdering her newborn child.
The court heard that she had:
- Given birth in secret
- Denied her pregnancy
- Concealed the delivery
The child was found:
👉 Locked inside a small trunk
Her Defence
She admitted placing the child in the trunk.
But claimed:
👉 The baby had been stillborn
She insisted:
- Another woman had been present
- The child was already dead
But that witness testified:
- She had heard no cries
- She had no knowledge of the birth at all
And crucially—
Mary Corbet had denied being with child throughout.
The Judgment
Even if the child had been born dead—
The court reasoned:
👉 Concealing the birth
👉 Locking the body in a trunk
Was itself enough to condemn her.
The verdict:
👉 GUILTY OF MURDER
The sentence:
👉 Death by hanging
A Shared Fate
And so—
On the same day:
- One Mary Corbet was condemned to burning
- Another Mary Corbet was condemned to hanging
Two women.
Same name.
Different crimes.
Same end.
A Twist in the Record
Yet the story refuses to settle.
Months later, in July 1684, a General Pardon was read before the court.
Among the names listed:
👉 Mary Corbet
But which one?
- The counterfeiter?
- The servant?
- Or another entirely?
The records do not tell us.
Why This Case Matters
This is not just a story of crime.
It is a story of:
- Identity
- Record-keeping
- And the limits of history itself
Two women stood under the same name.
Both condemned.
And yet—
History leaves us with a question it cannot answer:
👉 Which Mary Corbet died?
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