If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA. 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. Corrections? Margaret was born in Durham Gaol on 10 January 1873 while her mother, Mary Ann Cotton, was awaiting trial for the murder (by arsenic) of Charles Edward Cotton. The scene is the hanging gallery. The jury retired for 90 minutes before finding Mary Ann guilty. It may well be that the name of the excise man was in fact Richard Quick Mann. Of Mary Ann's 13 children, only two survived her: Margaret Edith (18731954) and her son George from her marriage to James Robinson. However, in April 1867 the girl and two of Robinsons children died. 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 time of her trial, there were reports of four or five of their children dying young while they were living away from County Durham. A brief investigation into the trial and execution of Mary Ann Cotton. While some claimed that she was Britains first female serial killer, other women had previously been hanged for poisoning multiple people. At least 15 of those were family members. Have you taken a DNA test? mary ann cotton surviving descendants mary ann cotton surviving descendants. Her brother Robert was born in 1835. However, he died the following year, and Mary Ann reportedly collected money from another insurance policy. 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. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. Once again, she profited from the insurance policy, but her spree was about to come to an end. The only birth recorded was that of their daughter Margaret Jane, born at St Germans in 1856. The last straw was when he found she had been forcing his children to pawn household valuables for her. She had two children with Robinson but the first one, Margaret Isabella, died within a few months of her birth. John joined the Green Howards, rose to be a lance corporal, and was killed, on June 11, 1917, at the Battle of Messines, near Ypres. Soon after she entered the home, Robinson's infant son died of yes, you guessed it "gastric fever.". Her father's body was delivered to her mother in a sack bearing the stamp 'Property of the South Hetton Coal Company'. Hell go like all the rest of the Cottons.. She lies in her bed, With her eyes wide open Sing, sing, oh, what can I sing, Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string Where, where? It is said that the prisoner, who is comparatively a young woman, has. He threw her out. The place is Durham Gaol. Insurance had been effected on his life and those of his sons. Alternate titles: Mary Ann Mowbray, Mary Ann Robinson, Mary Ann Robson, Mary Ann Ward. Ward was already in poor health but Mary Ann finished him off, and he died in October 1866. However, in 1870 Mary Ann met another widower, Frederick Cotton, who was the brother of a friend. Soon enough, he and two of the children also died of "gastric fever." Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). She apparently wanted to give Quick-Manning the dubious honor of becoming husband number five. She and her only surviving child, Isabella, had moved back to County Durham. She was found guilty and sentenced to die. We meet Mary Ann as a loving wife and mother, newly returned to her native North East of England. 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. MARGARET was born in Durham jail, the daughter of serial poisoner MARY ANN COTTON (nee ROBSON). She died at age 54 in the spring of 1867, nine days after Mary Ann's arrival. Then Mary Ann's mother, living in Seaham Harbour, County Durham, became ill with hepatitis, so she immediately went to her. 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. 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. Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and forgotten, Russell's appointment over Aspinwall led to a question in the House of Commons. She grew a dislike of children while working as a housemaid, and this didn't stop once she had children of her own. Insurance had been taken out on his life and the lives of his sons. Arsenic, however, was more subtle. She then allegedly told a local official that she could not marry Quick-Manning because of her seven-year-old stepson, Charles Edward Cotton. Mary Ann's daughter Isabella Mowbray was brought back to the Robinson household and soon developed severe stomach pains and died, as did two of Robinson's children, Elizabeth and James. Robinson married Mary Ann at St Michael's, Bishopwearmouth on 11 August 1867. Then Nattrass became ill with gastric fever, and died just after revising his will in Mary Anns favour. William joined the Durham Light Infantry and ended up in the London Rifles. The delay was caused by a problem in the selection of the public prosecutor. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. She was coming home to Durham, and to her adoptive parents, pregnant with her third child. Some three minutes passed before she finally died. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Her sister Margaret was born in 1834 but lived only a few months. 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. Riley, who also served as West Auckland's assistant coroner, said she needed to accompany him. A short time later, she married William Mowbray in an 1852 ceremony. Dark Angel, is based on the extraordinary true story of the Victorian poisoner Mary Ann Cotton, played by Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt. Mary Ann subsequently worked as a hospital nurse in nearby Sunderland, and in 1865 she married a patient, George Ward. Although her mother started getting better, she also began to complain of stomach pains. ", "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. All three children were buried in the last week of April and first week of May 1867. She was, as The Northern Echo reports, remembered after her 1954 death as "intelligent, warm and kind-hearted." Perhaps this is what caused the young family, in May 1893, to sail from Liverpool on RMS Umbria to New York for a new life. George Robinson was the other. She soon leftor was thrown outand was for a time homeless. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. When Mary Ann was eight, her parents moved the family to the County Durham village of Murton. By May 1872, Mary Ann Cotton had moved to West Auckland with her last remaining child, stepson Charles Cotton. An inquest was held and the jury returned a verdict of natural causes. Newspaper report of Cottons arrest. In August, Mary Ann married Robinson, and the couple had two children, though only one survived. However, she added, I wont be troubled long. After the boy died, the official notified the police. What clouds hung over the family? The couple would go on to have at least eight children, though, by the time they had settled into a home in Hendon, England, in 1856, some had already died of what was termed "gastric fever." Mary Ann Cottons trial, for allegedly murdering her stepson Charles, was delayed for several months so that she could give birth. 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 was supposed to have put in the bank. 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. Betty Eccles was suspected of multiple murders and was hanged in 1843. She was hanged at Durham Gaol. 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. During this time, her 3-year-old daughter died, leaving her with one child out of the nine she had borne. 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. However, she stayed in Durham and lived in a place called Seaham Harbour. 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. A more complete version runs: She lies in her bed With eyes wide open. Riley went to the village police and convinced the doctor to delay writing a death certificate until the circumstances could be investigated. Mary Ann Cotton was in Sunderland on October 31, 1832. Perhaps at this point, it would be best to draw a discrete veil over the family tree, except to say that Margaret lived into old age with the stigma of being the daughter of one of Britains most notorious killers. The defense in the case was handled by Mr. Thomas Campbell Foster. 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. Isabella lasted a few weeks until she died of "gastric fever," and she was soon followed by two more of Robinson's children, who succumbed to "continued fever" and yet another case of "gastric fever," according to death records. Mary Ann Cotton - Dark Angel: Britain s First Female Serial Kille, Pen & Sword Publishing, 2012. Cotton was born on October 31, 1832, in a village near Sunderland. She supposedly did it using arsenic, a terrible poison that causes intense gastric pain and results in a rapid decline of health. Mary Ann's downfall came when a parish official, Thomas Riley, asked her to help nurse a woman who was ill with smallpox. 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." At the time of her trial, The Northern Echo published an article containing a description of Mary Ann as given by her childhood Wesleyan Sunday school superintendent at Murton, describing her as "a most exemplary and regular attender", "a girl of innocent disposition and average intelligence", and "distinguished for her particularly clean and tidy appearance."[2]. She was charged with the murder of Charles Edward Cotton, and her trial began in March 1873. At the age of 16, she moved out to become a nurse at Edward Potter's home in the nearby village of South Hetton. They married at St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, on 28 August 1865. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to She lies in bed with her eyes. Mary Ann Cotton's trial began on 5 March 1873. As the miner's cottage they inhabited was tied to Michael's job, the widow and children would have been evicted. She did not die on the gallows from breaking of her neck but died by strangulation because the rope was set too short, possibly deliberately. He died in a field hospital on November 4 a week before the armistice. In 2015 ITV filmed a two-part television drama, Dark Angel,[5] starring Joanne Froggatt as Cotton. Mary Ann Robson was born on Halloween 1832 in Low Moorsley in County Durham. However, it was accepted, and Russell conducted the prosecution. During the Victorian era, arsenic was seemingly everywhere, to the point where it became the murderer's poison du jour. She went undetected for decades, apparently killing a succession of husbands, children, and stepchildren with arsenic, then a readily available poison. A month later, when James' baby John died of gastric fever, he turned to his housekeeper for comfort and she became pregnant. Up in the air Sellin black puddens a penny a pair. Comments have been closed on this article. Cotton was convicted of his murder and sentenced to death. She was believed to have murdered up to 21 people, mainly by arsenic poisoning. The Robson family moved to the village of Murton in Durham when Mary Ann was eight, but tragedy struck in February 1842. However, the levels of arsenic discovered in Charles' remains were too high to pin it on the wallpaper. Originally, it was believed she had become impregnated by a John Quick-Manning, but there are no records to suggest such a person even existed. We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. After Frederick's death, Nattrass soon became Mary Anns lodger. Although she is often said to be Britains first female serial killer, this is a false claim. 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. 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. The trial got going on March 3 and Mary Ann was found guilty of the one murder four days later. A court-appointed lawyer put forth the idea that Charles had ingested arsenic through wallpaper, says the RadioTimes. [6] The first part of the dramatisation was broadcast on 31 October 2016, the second part was broadcast on 7 November. 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. Mary Ann had cashed in William's life insurance, equivalent to about 1,700 in today's money. Mary Ann backed off but not before ominously predicting that Charles would "go like all the rest of the Cotton family." 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. After her marriage to Robinson crumbled, Cotton was introduced to Frederick Cotton by his sister, Margaret. Frederick Jr. died in March 1872 and the infant Robert soon after. Her mother, Margaret, died after Cotton visited the woman in March 1867. It includes lines like "Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string./Where, where?/Up in the air.". He threw her out, retaining custody of their son George. At that stage, only one of the nine kids she had with Mowbray was alive. Hell go like all the rest of the Cottons.. Cotton died in December of that year, from "gastric fever." On March 24, 1873, Mary Ann was hanged in a bungled execution. 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. Where, where? Though many of the people around her hadn't caught on to Mary Ann Cotton's murderous ways by the time her second husband had died, it's now rather obvious to people who have her whole story that she was using arsenic. Missedinhistory.com. He continued to suffer ill health; he died in October 1866 after a long illness characterised by paralysis and intestinal problems. According to PBS, there's even been a modern two-part television drama, Dark Angel, which premiered on PBS' Masterpiece Theater in 2017. She named her Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Cotton, partially to target her latest lover as the father of the child. Mary Ann was quickly arrested. Up in the air Sellin' black puddens a penny a pair. As Mary Ann Cotton, Dark Angelreported, Mary Ann blamed lax pharmacists for her young stepson's death. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. James Robinson was a shipwright at Pallion in Sunderland, whose wife Hannah had recently died. An inquest was held and the jury returned a verdict of natural causes. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. Her father died eight years later in a mining accident. She also began a relationship with Joseph Nattrass, History Collection reports, though the affair never resolved into marriage. Soon after Mowbray's death, Mary Ann moved to Seaham Harbour, County Durham, where she struck up a relationship with Joseph Nattrass. By the middle of the nineteenth century, there was almost an epidemic of poisoning so who knows how many murders were committed. As Discover Magazine reports, the great majority of female serial killer appear to murder for money. Frederick Jr. died in March 1872 and the infant Robert soon after. With thanks to Vivienne Smith, Durham; Joyce Malcolm, Newton Aycliffe; Alistair Fraser, the Western Front Association; John Dinning and Geoff Wall, the Ferryhill Heritage Centre; Tom Hutchinson, Bishop Auckland; Vi Steventon of Newton Aycliffe; Ian Smyth Herdman of Hartlepool and everybody else who has been in touch. 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. She officially died of hepatitis, though she died just over a week after her daughter came to tend to her. In 1872 Nattrass died, leaving his meagre belongings to Mary Ann. Mary Ann first Cotton left home at only 16 years old to work as a nurse, according to Britannica. 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. 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. Facts concerning Mary Ann are difficult to pin down, but. A Mr. Aspinwall was supposed to get the job, but the Attorney General, Sir John Duke Coleridge, chose his friend and protg Charles Russell.