On 6 March 1905 Elizabeth Cove stood trial at the Old Bailey for wounding John Rubbins during a violent pub quarrel in Chalk Farm Road. The attack left the seventeen-year-old labourer permanently blinded in one eye. Despite the injury, the jury accepted the defence of self-protection and acquitted Cove.
Tag Archives: family-history
This Day in History – 5 March 1839
On 5 March 1839 two teenagers, Charles Chapman and Eliza Clements, were convicted at the Old Bailey for stealing a handkerchief in Fenchurch Street. Sentenced to ten years’ transportation, they were shipped to Van Diemen’s Land, where absconding, labour assignments, marriage and conditional pardons shaped their new colonial lives.
This Day in History – 27 February 1843
In 1843, William Cannell shot barmaid Elizabeth Sarah Magness at the Auction Mart Hotel in Bartholomew Lane. Surviving both the attack and his own suicide attempt, Cannell was transported to Tasmania for fifteen years, where he later married and received a conditional pardon
This Day in History: 18 February 1775 — John Smith and the Fatal Return
On 18 February 1775, John Smith was tried at the Old Bailey for returning from transportation before his fourteen-year term had expired. Originally sentenced to death for highway robbery and reprieved, he was again condemned to die before being transported once more, on the eve of the American Revolutionary War.
This Day in History: 27 January 1688 — Mary Aubry and the Dismembered Murder
On 27 January 1688, French midwife Mary Aubry murdered her abusive husband in London and dismembered his body. Tried at the Old Bailey on 22 February, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to burning at the stake, carried out at Leicester Fields on 2 March 1688. Her case became one of early modern England’s most notorious.
This Day in History: 17 January 1681 — Elizabeth Wigenton and the Murder of Her Apprentice
On 17 January 1681, Elizabeth Wigenton, a coat-maker of Ratcliff Parish, was tried at the Old Bailey for the wilful murder of her thirteen-year-old apprentice. After binding and beating the girl so violently that she died, Wigenton was found guilty of murder. This case reveals the brutal realities of apprenticeship and justice in seventeenth-century London.
This Day in History: 18 December 1865 — George Wheeler and the Long Sentence
On 18 December 1865, London clerk George Wheeler pleaded guilty to embezzlement at the Old Bailey. Sentenced to penal servitude, he passed through Newgate, Pentonville and Portland prisons before his release in 1869. His story reveals the realities of Victorian imprisonment beyond the courtroom.
This Day in History: 9 December 1789 — The Case of the Missing Goods
On 9 December 1789, Thomas Davis was tried at the Old Bailey for simple larceny. The evidence failed to convince the jury, and he was found Not Guilty. This retelling highlights how even in Georgian London’s strict justice system, doubt could still outweigh suspicion.
This Day in History: 20 November 1782 — The Watch in the Moonlight
On 20 November 1782, John Reynolds stood trial for stealing a silver watch from a passer-by in London. Caught within minutes and tried at the Old Bailey, he was convicted and sentenced to seven years’ transportation. This retelling explores the danger, drama and consequences of petty theft in Georgian London.
This Day in History — 25 September 1789
Mary Stultz — Petticoats and Prison (25 September 1789)
On this day, Mary Stultz stole a flannel petticoat and linen shirt. Convicted at the Old Bailey, she was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for goods worth just two shillings
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