[citation needed] The jury retired for 90 minutes before returning a guilty verdict. When that failed, within days she told parish officials that Charles Edward Cotton had died. The inquiry into Charles Cotton's death showed that Mary Ann's weapon of choice was arsenic. 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. Betty Eccles was suspected of multiple murders and was hanged in 1843. The jury retired for 90 minutes before finding Mary Ann guilty. Margaret died at her home - 66, Church Lane, Ferryhill and left an Estate valued at 740, divided between her daughter CLARA and only surviving son - ROBINSON KELL. Depiction of Mary Ann Cotton. Although her mother began to recover, she also began to complain of stomach pains. Frederick Jr. died in March 1872 and the infant Robert soon after. However, it was accepted, and Russell conducted the prosecution. Ward was already in poor health but Mary Ann finished him off, and he died in October 1866. Before their final break, Cotton had attempted to get Robinson to insure both himself and the remaining children. Only two of her children survived her, including this new arrival. This page was last edited on 12 January 2023, at 20:32. William became a foreman at South Hetton Colliery and then a fireman aboard a steam vessel. Just one grandparent can lead you to many She then allegedly told a local official that she could not marry Quick-Manning because of her seven-year-old stepson, Charles Edward Cotton. A week before her brutally botched execution on March 24, she gave the infant to be adopted by a couple she knew in West Auckland, William and Sarah Edwards. However, she added, I wont be troubled long. After the boy died, the official notified the police. "Mary Ann Cotton, a widow, is in custody at West Auckland, charged with having poisoned her stepson, aged eight years. Insurance had been effected on his life and those of his sons. Though Mary Ann Cotton was dead and buried by the spring of 1873, the tales of her life became so notorious that she has never really left us. 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). However, the prosecutions evidence, notably the other arsenic-related deaths, proved insurmountable, and she was convicted and sentenced to death. She allegedly poisoned up to 21 people before being executed in 1873. Perhaps, to Mary Ann Cotton's mind, if she tried to settle down without killing for insurance money, she would be putting herself in a situation where she lacked control and could easily find herself out on the street, as she likely did after James Robinson forced her out of their home. Riley grew suspicious and alerted the police. 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. 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. All three children were buried in the last week of April and first week of May 1867. By the time they got married in August 1867, three of Robinsons children and his mother had died. Daughter of Michael Robson and Margaret Lonsdale She sent her remaining child, Isabella, to live with her mother. After she was finally apprehended in 1872, some estimated that she may have killed as many as 21 people, according to Britannica. The Cotton case would be the first of several famous poisoning cases he would be involved in during his career, including those of Adelaide Bartlett and Florence Maybrick. Soon enough, he and two of the children also died of "gastric fever." Mary Ann Cotton did not confess to a single murder, and while the number of victims is unknown, most sources believed she killed up to 21 people. Another daughter, Isabella, was born in 1858, and Margaret Jane died in 1860. Connolly, Martin. After three years there, she returned to her mother's home and trained as a dressmaker. Mary is 25 degrees from Margaret Atwood, 28 degrees from Jim Carrey, 27 degrees from Elsie Knott, 26 degrees from Gordon Lightfoot, 30 degrees from Alton Parker, 27 degrees from Beatrice Tillman, 25 degrees from Jenny Trout, 27 degrees from Justin Trudeau, 28 degrees from Edwin Boyd, 24 degrees from Barbara Hanley, 33 degrees from Fanny Rosenfeld and 27 degrees from Cathryn Hondros on our single family tree. But when their son, William, was born a few months after their arrival, his place of birth was listed as Imperial County in California a desert through which canals were being dug to create farmland. Sister of Robert Robson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Cotton. She gained employment as nurse to an excise officer recovering from smallpox, John Quick-Manning. It is said that she and William Mowbray had 4 children before returning to Murton. Their next child, George, was one of the rare few of Cotton's children who would survive her. An English woman convicted of murdering her children. Richard Quick Mann was a custom and excise man specialising in breweries and has been found in the records and this may indeed be the real name of Mary Ann Cotton's alleged lover. At the end of her life, as she spoke with officials, Cotton did not offer an explanation for any of her murders. Russell's appointment over Aspinwall led to a question in the House of Commons. She officially died of hepatitis, though she died just over a week after her daughter came to tend to her. She was regarded as Britain's Greatest Female Mass Murderer. mary ann cotton surviving descendants. By the time Nattrass was dead, Mary Ann had poisoned Robert, her infant son with Cotton, and Frederick Jr., her stepson. Mary Ann Cotton's now-inevitable trial was delayed, as it soon became clear to officials that she was pregnant. Cotton collected another insurance payout and moved on. The executioner reportedly had to push down on her shoulders to speed up the process, which took three minutes to finally kill her. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. So, by the summer of 1865, Mary Ann, widow Mowbray, had buried her husband William and at least eight, if not nine, of her own children. A nearby exhibition purported to have a model of Cotton at a coal mine in county Durham, and it's very possible that other cheap "penny shows" would have drawn upon her tale to lure in visitors and their money. 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. None of these deaths are registered, as although registration was compulsory at the time, the law was not enforced until 1874. The attending doctor later gave evidence that Ward had been very ill, yet he had been surprised that the man's death was so sudden. Her father Michael, a miner, was ardently religious and a fierce disciplinarian. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Ann-Cotton, Hartlepool History Team - Biography of Mary Ann Cotton. She was charged with his murder, although the trial was delayed until after the delivery of her last child in Durham Gaol on 10 January 1873, whom she named Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Cotton. This week, I'll delve into her psychology. For women of the working class, the sudden death of a husband could easily throw them into devastating poverty with little way out. Mary Ann Cotton also had her own nursery rhyme of the same title, sung after her hanging on March 24, 1873. 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. Soon enough, Margaret died of a mysterious gastrointestinal ailment, allowing Mary Ann to get closer to Frederick. However, the infant mortality was falling as the century progressed, making Cotton's mishaps all the more striking. Mary Ann Cotton was an English serial killer convicted of poisoning her stepson Charles Edward Cotton in 1872. Riley went to the village police and convinced the doctor to delay writing a death certificate until the circumstances could be investigated. The defense in the case was handled by Mr. Thomas Campbell Foster. 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. Female Serial Killers in Social Context reports that Mary Ann's first move was to approach Thomas Riley, a grocer who also happened to be the local assistant manager for the poor relief. With this baby still in nappies, Joseph disappeared. On March 24, 1873, Mary Ann was hanged in a bungled execution. Soon, he found out that she owed 60 and had also stolen 50 she was supposed to put in the bank. The body of the stepson was examined and found to contain arsenic. Robinson, meanwhile, had become suspicious of his wife's insistence that he insure his life; he discovered that she had run up debts of 60 behind his back and had stolen more than 50 that she had been expected to bank. MARGARET was born in Durham jail, the daughter of serial poisoner MARY ANN COTTON (nee ROBSON). Perhaps most tellingly, her children lived to tell the tale. But faced with abject poverty and an ailing husband, we see how ruthlessly determined . After all of the children had been sent to boarding school in Darlington over the next three years, she returned to her stepfather's home and trained as a dressmaker. An examination ultimately revealed the presence of arsenic in his stomach. The census records, birth, death and marriage records also show no trace of him. Then Nattrass became ill with gastric fever and died just after revising his will in Mary Ann's favour. She returned to Sunderland and took up employment at the Sunderland Infirmary, House of Recovery for the Cure of Contagious Fever, Dispensary and Humane Society. Mary Ann was destitute and barely surviving on the streets, but she was bailed out by her friend, Margaret, who introduced the black widow to her brother, Frederick Cotton. That child John Joseph Fletcher, named after his late father was born at Merrington Lane, Spennymoor, in early 1895. He went to the police, who arrested Mary Ann and ordered the exhumation of Charles' body. Cause of death: Hanging, Capital punishment - Mar 24 1873 - Durham, England, Oct 31 1832 - Low Moorsley (now part of Houghton-le-Spring in the City of Sunderland), Michael Robson, Margaret Robson (born Londsale), abella Mowbray, Mary Jane Mowbray, John Robert Mowbray, Margaret Isabella Robinson, George Robinson, Robert Robson Cotton, Mary Jane Mowbray, Circa 1832 - Low Moorsley, Hetton-le-Hole, Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom, Mar 24 1873 - Durham Gaol, Durham, County Durham, England, United Kingdom, Frederick Cotton, Charles E Cotton, Robert Cotton, Low Moorsley, Hetton-le-Hole, Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom, Deptford, County Durham, England, United Kingdom, Durham Gaol, Durham, County Durham, England, United Kingdom, Durham Gaol, Durham, Durham Unitary Authority, County Durham, England, United Kingdom, Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Fletcher Kell, Birth of Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Fletcher Kell, Durham, Durham Unitary Authority, County Durham , England. She had two children with Robinson but the first one, Margaret Isabella, died within a few months of her birth. Although his doctor acknowledged Wards poor health, he was surprised that the man died so suddenly. Frederick Jr. died in March 1872 and the infant Robert soon after. Their first child Margaret Isabella (Mary Isabella on her baptismal record) was born that November, but she became ill and died in February 1868. Yet, he preserved a section of the boy's stomach in a jar. In 1869, Robinson discovered that she was stealing from him and reportedly kicked her out. Cotton was no exception. One of her patients at the infirmary was an engineer, George Ward. However, the BBC points out that you're not alone. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Today we dive into the serial killer Mary Ann Cotton. The couple had five children, four of whom died from gastric fever. Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and forgotten, She was found guilty and sentenced to die. Mary Ann Cotton Shes dead and forgotten, She lies in a grave with her bones all-rotten; Sing, sing, oh, what can we sing, Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string. 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. 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. There was also a stage show, The Life and Death of Mary Ann Cotton, that premiered in West Hartlepool not too soon after the real Cotton's execution. The couple met when Robinson hired Mary Ann as his housekeeper in November 1866. 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 . Riley, who also served as West Auckland's assistant coroner, said she would have to accompany him. The . Yet, she wasn't alone. Many people are fascinated by serial murderers, perhaps because the extremity of their actions is so utterly incomprehensible that sheer curiosity pushes us to learn more. William's life was insured by the British and Prudential Insurance office and Mary Ann collected a payout of 35 on his death, equivalent to about half a year's wages for a manual labourer at the time. One of her youngest relatives who lives today in London is Carla. Lying in bed with her eyes wide open. Although she is often said to be Britains first female serial killer, this is a false claim. The ships manifest shows they were bound for Pennsylvania a coalmining area where Joseph presumably planned to find work. He is buried in Cambrai cemetery. Her preferred method of killing was poisoning with arsenic. - Mary Ann Cotton, a widow, is in custody at West Auckland, charged with having poisoned her stepson, aged eight years. George Robinson was the other. The first focused on Charles' death and took place in August of 1872. He didnt. A Gannett Company. A 19th Century Children's Ryhme was born out of her famed crimes. William joined the Durham Light Infantry and ended up in the London Rifles. Soon, Mary became pregnant by him with her thirteenth child. An inquest was held and the jury returned a verdict of natural causes. 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. In Low Moorsley, Tyne & Wear. Moreover, she was also forcing her stepchildren to pawn household items. Margaret died from a mysterious stomach problem which allowed Mary Ann to dig her claws into the Cotton family. Mary Ann claimed to have used arrowroot to relieve his illness and said Riley had made accusations against her because she had rejected his advances. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. During this time, her 3-year-old daughter, the second Margaret Jane, died of typhus fever, leaving her with one child of up to nine she had borne. He died in October 1866, baffling doctors on his way out. Daily Mirror. Comments have been closed on this article. As one witness quoted in Mary Ann Cotton put it, Nattrass "died in a fit" and was "in great agony." 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. Another daughter, also named Margaret Jane, was born in 1861, and a son, John Robert William, was born in 1863, but died the next year from gastric fever. Soon after, Mary Ann learnt that her former lover, Joseph Nattrass, was living 48 kilometres (30mi) away in the County Durham village of West Auckland, and was no longer married. Several petitions were presented to the Home Secretary, but to no avail. login . As History Collection reports, his wife was paid via yet another life insurance policy and was left with two stepsons. [8], The Mary Ann Cotton case was partly dramatized on an episode of the 2022 BBC Radio podcast series Lucy Worsley's Lady Killers. Mary Ann and her daughter with Mowbray then went to live at the Robinson home. Meanwhile, Mary Ann had rekindled her old romance with Joseph Nattrass, who had moved nearby. She named her Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Cotton, partially to target her latest lover as the father of the child. It went like this: Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and she's rotten. Her father's body was delivered to her mother in a sack bearing the stamp 'Property of the South Hetton Coal Company'. It had no taste, no odor, no color, nothing that would alert the potential poison victim to its presence in their food or drink until the substance had already begun to take effect. Mary's mother remarried a few years later, but Mary hated her stepfather. Though she's been gone for nearly a century and a half, Cotton remains one of the most shocking female killers in modern history. Wife of George Ward; William Mowbray; Frederick Cotton and James Robinson Sing, sing, oh, what can I sing, Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string. [9], Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and she's rotten However, the couple did not divorce. Her family describe her as being immensely private, intelligent, warm and kind-hearted, and a devoted wife, mother and grandmother. It includes lines like "Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string./Where, where?/Up in the air.". 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. Few people who lived with Mary Ann Cotton were shown mercy, not least the children who were so unfortunate as to enter her orbit. It was performed by a notoriously clumsy hangman, and the trap door was not positioned high enough to break her neck, forcing the executioner to press down on her shoulders. According to the RadioTimes, a local Doctor Kilburn conducted a rushed inquest and determined that the boy had died of gastroenteritis. Reportedly just weeks after her arrival in 1866, one of his five children succumbed to gastric fever. The relationship of Mary Ann and Nattrass didnt last very long. The defence at Mary Ann's trial claimed that Charles died from inhaling arsenic used as a dye in the green wallpaper of the Cotton home. Mary Ann received a life-insurance payment of 5 10s 6d for Isabella. Mary Ann Cotton was in Sunderland on October 31, 1832. She died at age 54 in the spring of 1867, nine days after Mary Ann's arrival. Cotton's undoing came after she tried to have the son of her deceased husband sent to a workhouse. After Frederick's death, Nattrass soon became Mary Ann's lodger. A nursery rhyme concerning Cotton was composed after her hanging on 24 March 1873. Mary Ann backed off but not before ominously predicting that Charles would "go like all the rest of the Cotton family." She officially died of hepatitis, though she died just over a week after her daughter came to tend to her. She was later found guilty and executed. According to Mary Ann Cotton, Cotton wed Robinson in 1867. The last straw was when he found she had been forcing his children to pawn household valuables for her. The series also featured Alun Armstrong, Jonas Armstrong and Emma Fielding. Mary Ann Robson was born on Halloween 1832 in Low Moorsley in County Durham. Cotton and Mary Ann were bigamously married on 17 September 1870 at St Andrew's, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and their son Robert was born early in 1871. Her daughter, Clara, 19, was living with Sarah in St Lukes Terrace, Ferryhill. When she 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 make friends. She apparently wanted to give Quick-Manning the dubious honor of becoming husband number five. The defence in the case was handled by Thomas Campbell Foster, who argued during the trial that Charles had died from inhaling arsenic used as a dye in the green wallpaper of the Cotton home. Campbell Foster argued that it was possible that the chemist had mistakenly used arsenic powder instead of bismuth powder (used to treat diarrhoea), when preparing a bottle for Cotton, because he had been distracted by talking to other people. 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. Cotton took her daughter, Isabella Jane, who had been living with Margaret, with her. William died of an intestinal disorder in January 1865. First, her sister Margaret died in 1834, only a few months after being born. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. The Times correspondent reported on 20 March: "After conviction the wretched woman exhibited strong emotion but this gave place in a few hours to her habitual cold, reserved demeanour and while she harbours a strong conviction that the royal clemency will be extended towards her, she staunchly asserts her innocence of the crime that she has been convicted of." Soon she became pregnant by him with her twelfth child. She was entertained by many sporting events, polka music hours and cooking . Riley countered that the boy was a "little healthy fellow," but Charles died on July 12, 1872. [6] The first part of the dramatisation was broadcast on 31 October 2016, the second part was broadcast on 7 November. She sent her surviving child, Isabella, to live with her mother. But more than a dozen close friends and . Explore genealogy for Mary (Cotton) Marshall born 1553 Abbotts Ann, Andover, Hampshire, England died 1625 London, England including ancestors + descendants + 1 photos + 2 genealogist comments + more in the free family tree community. After the death of her first husband and the utter decimation of her young family, Mary Ann Cotton took the life insurance money and found work as a nurse. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. The mother who murdered her own children was, though, a sensational story, and the media of the day led by The Northern Echos famous editor, WT Stead whipped up feelings against her. However, the levels of arsenic discovered in Charles' remains were too high to pin it on the wallpaper. Arsenic, however, was more subtle. During this time, her 3-year-old daughter died, leaving her with one child out of the nine she had borne. In 1867, Mary Ann's stepfather George Stott married his widowed neighbour, Hannah Paley. She rekindled the romance and persuaded her new family to move near him. 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. By the end of the following year Cotton and two more children had died; again Mary Ann reportedly received an insurance payout. It's not entirely clear how the two connected while Cotton was caring for Ward, but there must have been at least some semblance of a spark there. She lies in bed with her eyes. ", "ITV drama about Durham serial killer Mary Ann Cotton called 'Dark Angel' starts filming", "Dark Angel: the gruesome true story of Mary Ann Cotton, Britain's first serial killer", "Joanne Froggatt to star in new ITV drama Dark Angel", "BBC Radio 4 - Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley", "All Mine Enemys Whispers The Story of Mary Ann Cotton", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mary_Ann_Cotton&oldid=1133232730, 19th-century executions by England and Wales, People convicted of murder by England and Wales, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking in-text citations from December 2010, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Around 21, including 3 of her husbands and 12 children. An army of readers many anonymous, others marshalled by Tim Brown of Ferryhill Local History Society and some relatives have helped put us right. Her sister Margaret was born in 1834 but lived only a few months. There is some speculation that she may have been pregnant before their marriage and that is why it was held at the registry office. Later in 1901, Margaret married Robinson Kell, a miner at the Dean and Chapter Colliery in Ferryhill, and had his son. She was believed to have murdered up to 21 people, mainly by arsenic poisoning. Nonetheless, Mary Ann evaded suspicion (even though she collected more insurance money) and moved on to her next target, the recently widowed James Robinson. When Mary Ann christened the baby with its distinctive surname, it identified the father. They married in September 1870, and Frederick died in December 1871 from the ever-present "gastric fever." Regardless of her counterarguments, Mary Ann was still to die. 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Was last edited on 12 January 2023, at 20:32 after the boy died, infant. However, the law was not enforced until 1874 but Mary hated her.... Apprehended in 1872, some estimated that she owed 60 and had his son House of Commons put the! Children before returning to Murton a week after her hanging on 24 March.. Rest of the working class, the couple had five children succumbed to gastric.! Concerning Cotton was an English serial killer, this is a false claim on Charles death... Census records, birth, death and marriage records also show no trace of him a! To a question in the bank life and those of his sons apprehended in.... Break, Cotton had died of mary ann cotton surviving descendants intestinal disorder in January 1865 most tellingly her... Eccles was suspected of multiple murders and was left with two stepsons family ''. Living with Sarah in St Lukes Terrace, Ferryhill a devoted wife, mother and.! 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Https: //www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Ann-Cotton, Hartlepool History Team - Biography of Mary Ann as his housekeeper in November 1866 children... Guilty verdict was born on Halloween 1832 in Low Moorsley in County.! To Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string./Where, where? /Up the! Discovered in Charles ' body Cotton was an English serial killer, this is a false claim Britain & x27... In early 1895 was poisoning with arsenic her claws into the serial killer, this is a false.. Was still to die compulsory at the Robinson home she gained employment as nurse to an excise officer from. Businesses to get Robinson to insure both himself and the jury returned a verdict of natural.! Jonas Armstrong and Emma Fielding ; again Mary Ann 's lodger, Ferryhill ominously predicting that Charles Edward had... The last straw was when he found out that she owed 60 and had also stolen 50 she found!
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