One month later, when James' baby died of gastric fever, he turned to his housekeeper for comfort and she became pregnant. He died of an intestinal disorder in January 1865. Sing, sing, what can I sing? 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. 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. She also began a relationship with Joseph Nattrass, History Collection reports, though the affair never resolved into marriage. I cannot remember what was assumed, but my impression was that she craved the attention she got from taking care of the sick and then as a widow and the children seemed to be a means to ingratiate herself into a family and to take advantage of the grieving father, eventually marrying him and receiving the insurance from his passing. A Gannett Company. According to Mary Ann Cotton, Cotton wed Robinson in 1867. Mary Ann's first visit after Charles' death was not to the doctor but the insurance office. At the age of 16, she moved out to become a nurse at Edward Potter's home in the nearby village of South Hetton. I also trust their research diligence and on their old site they used to be able to publish their sources so you could follow-up if so inclined. The second, which took place in February 1873, was to center on the deaths of Nattrass, along with those of Robert and Frederick. Then Mary Ann's mother, living in Seaham Harbour, County Durham, became ill so she immediately went to her. On March 24, 1873, Mary Ann was hanged in a bungled execution. 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. Today we dive into the serial killer Mary Ann Cotton. The scene is the hanging gallery. Daily Mirror. Mary Ann Cotton's trial began on 5 March 1873. When that failed, within days she told parish officials that Charles Edward Cotton had died. One of her patients at the infirmary was engineer George Ward. According to the RadioTimes, a local Doctor Kilburn conducted a rushed inquest and determined that the boy had died of gastroenteritis. That year both Cottons sister and his youngest child died. 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. After moving frequently, the family settled in Hendon, Durham county, in about 1856. IN October 1894, Margaret, by now a 21-year-old widow, sailed from Boston, Massachusetts, on RMS Cephalonia, with her two toddlers, Clara and William, back to Liverpool. The Messed Up Truth About 19th Century Murderess Mary Ann Cotton. 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]. Their first child Margaret Isabella (Mary Isabella on her baptismal record) was born that November, but she became ill and died in February 1868. Death surrounded her from an early age. Daily Mirror. Mary Ann Cotton also had her own nursery rhyme of the same title, sung after her hanging on March 24, 1873. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. Only two of her children survived her, including this new arrival. However, the levels of arsenic discovered in Charles' remains were too high to pin it on the wallpaper. discoveries. Mary Ann and her daughter with Mowbray then went to live at the Robinson home. 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. 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. She apparently wanted to give Quick-Manning the dubious honor of becoming husband number five. 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. Her mother, Margaret, died after Cotton visited the woman in March 1867. Several petitions were presented to the Home Secretary, but to no avail. She was believed to have murdered up to 21 people, mainly by arsenic poisoning. 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. The life insurance policies were clearly a motive. As per History Collection, Cotton was hanged at Durham County Gaol on March 24, 1873. In 1852 she married William Mowbray, and over the next decade or so, the couple had eight or nine children. She officially died of hepatitis, though she died just over a week after her daughter came to tend to her. 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. Frederick followed his predecessors to the grave in December of that year, from gastric fever." THE baby was the daughter born to Mary Ann Cotton, of West Auckland, in Durham jail on January 7, 1873. They had a son named Robert in early 1871, but Mary Ann discovered that her former lover, Nattrass, lived just 30 miles away in the village of West Auckland and was no longer married. 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. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. By May 1872, Mary Ann Cotton had moved to West Auckland with her last remaining child, stepson Charles Cotton. She allegedly poisoned up to 21 people before being executed in 1873. She then allegedly told a local official that she could not marry Quick-Manning because of her seven-year-old stepson, Charles Edward Cotton. In Low Moorsley, Tyne & Wear. 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. At the end of her life, as she spoke with officials, Cotton did not offer an explanation for any of her murders. 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, the prosecutions evidence, notably the other arsenic-related deaths, proved insurmountable, and she was convicted and sentenced to death. Have you taken a DNA test? An English woman convicted of murdering her children. It is believed that she ki**ed three of her husbands so that she could collect their life insurance policies and may . She rekindled the romance and persuaded her new family to move near him. 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. Mary Ann subsequently worked as a hospital nurse in nearby Sunderland, and in 1865 she married a patient, George Ward. He, however, was engaged to another woman and she left Seaham after Nattrasss wedding. Affair with James Nattress, a married man, while married to Mowbray and possibly again, after Nattress was widowed, while she was "married" to Cotton. However, in April 1867 the girl and two of Robinsons children died. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please 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. Then he found that Mary Ann had been forcing his older children to pawn household valuables. That left behind Mary, her stepson Charles Cotton, and Mary Ann's 13 child still growing in her womb. Newspaper report of Cottons arrest. Cotton died in December of that year, from "gastric fever." mary ann cotton surviving descendants mary ann cotton surviving descendants. Like many of the other dead people in Cotton's wake, Ward presented symptoms that were alarmingly similar to arsenic poisoning. Margaret had acted as substitute mother for the remaining children, Frederick Jr. and Charles. Stuff You Missed in History Class (Podcast). Riley, who also served as West Auckland's assistant coroner, said she would have to accompany him. Though Britain passed the Arsenic Act of 1851 in an attempt to control the distribution of this deadly substance, it's clear that it wasn't all that difficult for Cotton to keep acquiring arsenic in her drive to kill the people around her. 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. Cotton was no exception. Mary Anns first port of call after Charles' death was not the doctors but the insurance office. Frederick Jr. died in March 1872 and the infant Robert soon after. Mary Ann received the insurance money, and she then left her daughter in the care of her mother. All three children had been subjects of small life insurance policies. Although his doctor acknowledged Wards poor health, he was surprised that the man died so suddenly. 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? Their second child George was born on 18 June 1869. However, it was accepted, and Russell conducted the prosecution. Mary Ann Cotton was in Sunderland on October 31, 1832. 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 . Serial killer Mary Ann Cotton is a female serial killer. She was charged with his murder, although the trial was delayed until after the delivery in Durham Gaol on 7 January 1873 of her thirteenth and final child, whom she named Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Cotton. The so-called fever mimicked the symptoms of arsenic poisoning, a fact which would later prove interesting to investigators. Sister of Robert Robson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Cotton. She sent her remaining child, Isabella, to live with her mother. Riley countered that the boy was a "little healthy fellow," but Charles died on July 12, 1872. Richard Quick Mann was a custom and excise man specialising in breweries and has been found in the records and this may be the real name of Mary Ann Cotton's lover. The last straw was when he found she had been forcing his children to pawn household valuables for her. He threw her out. [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 Robson was born on Halloween 1832 in Low Moorsley in County Durham. Depiction of Mary Ann Cotton. Soon enough, he and two of the children also died of "gastric fever." The move must have been Mary Ann's idea . contact the editor here. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA. Soon she became pregnant by him with her twelfth child. Ward was already in poor health but Mary Ann finished him off, and he died in October 1866. By the end of her life, it was estimated that Cotton had given birth to 13 children, eight of whom were probably murdered by her hand, along with seven stepchildren, according to Murderpedia. The insurance policy Mary Ann had taken out on Charles' life still awaited collection. Facts concerning Mary Ann are difficult to pin down, but. - Mary Ann Cotton, a widow, is in custody at West Auckland, charged with having poisoned her stepson, aged eight years. Soon her eleventh pregnancy was underway. Mary Ann, pregnant again, was arrested and charged with Charles Cotton's death. 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. She sent her surviving child, Isabella, to live with her mother. A short time later, she married William Mowbray in an 1852 ceremony. Up in the air Sellin black puddens a penny a pair. Soon enough, Margaret died of a mysterious gastrointestinal ailment, allowing Mary Ann to get closer to Frederick. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. Selling black puddings, a penny a pair. Our female killer of interest was born Mary Ann 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. 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. She was a Victorian wife and mother of 13 children who worked as a Sunday-school teacher and a nurse. Nattrass soon followed, though not before he put Mary Ann down as a beneficiary in his will. Hell go like all the rest of the Cottons.. BLOOMINGTON Kimberly Ann (Cotton) Smith, 65, of Bloomington went to her heavenly home at 2:53 p.m., on Thursday, January 5, 2023 surrounded by her family. A month later, when James' baby John died of gastric fever, he turned to his housekeeper for comfort and she became pregnant. YouTube. 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. 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. As per History Collection, her younger sister Margaret died in 1834, when Cotton would have been only 8 years old. For many people in Victorian Britain, being born into a working-class family meant that one's life was often touched by tragedy. A verdict of "natural causes" was found but on reporting in the paper, someone totalled up Mary Ann's moves around the north of England and revealed the death toll. Rumour turned to suspicion and forensic inquiry. Soon after the move her father fell 150 feet (46 m) to his death down a mine shaft at Murton Colliery. In 1852, at the age of 20, Mary Ann married colliery labourer William Mowbray in Newcastle Upon Tyne register office; they soon moved to Plymouth, Devon. 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. Her mother, Margaret, died after Cotton visited the woman in March 1867. The last straw was when he found she had been forcing his children to pawn household valuables for her. The place is Durham Gaol. It went like this: Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and she's rotten. [8], The Mary Ann Cotton case was partly dramatized on an episode of the 2022 BBC Radio podcast series Lucy Worsley's Lady Killers. 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. In September 1870 Mary Ann and Cotton were marriedthough she was still wed to Robinsonand she later gave birth to a son. Five days later, Mary Ann told Riley that the boy had died. [2] 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. She enjoyed crafting, hosting ceramics classes for many years, creating scrapbooks of family memories, and making special cards for every occasion. The following year Mary Ann went to visit her ailing mother, who died about a week after her return. Soon after Mowbray's death, Mary Ann moved to Seaham Harbour, County Durham, where she struck up a relationship with Joseph Nattrass. Her father died eight years later in a mining accident. Popular cultural sources have called him John Quick-Manning, though there appears to be no trace of a John Quick-Manning in the records of the West Auckland Brewery or the National Archives. One of her youngest relatives who lives today in London is Carla. His name is carved with countless thousands of others on the Menin Gate at Ypres. She only fell two feet, so the executioner had to push down on her shoulders. Reportedly just weeks after her arrival in 1866, one of his five children succumbed to gastric fever. A mortar shell exploded over his head and no trace was ever found of his body. Although she is often said to be Britains first female serial killer, this is a false claim. She got away with it so long because arsenic was extremely hard to detect as symptoms were often confused with those associated with gastric ailments. Mary Ann Cotton's trial, for allegedly murdering her stepson Charles, was delayed for several months so that she could give birth. Mary Ann had cashed in William's life insurance, equivalent to about 1,700 in today's money. In 1872 Nattrass died, leaving his meagre belongings to Mary Ann. Sing, sing, oh, what can I sing, Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string. Yet, he preserved a section of the boy's stomach in a jar. Sing, sing, oh what should I sing? 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. He is buried in Cambrai cemetery. Her attorney tried to argue that the boys death came as a result of accidental inhalation of arsenic from the wallpaper. She was hanged at Durham Gaol. After George Ward's death and the subsequent insurance payment, Britannica reports, Mary Ann Cotton became a housekeeper for widower James Robinson in 1866. One of the more chilling legacies of Cotton's time on Earth is a children's nursery rhyme. 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. 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. Though he appears to have worked as a skilled laborer who opened new mining shafts, the Robsons were working class. Riley grew suspicious and alerted the police. The couple was married in September 1870, but since Mary Ann had not divorced Robinson, it was a bigamous marriage. 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. At the beginning of it all, the girl who would become Mary Ann Cotton seemed, frankly, pretty unremarkable. None of these deaths are registered, as although registration was compulsory at the time, the law was not enforced until 1874. Riley, who also served as West Auckland's assistant coroner, said she needed to accompany him. That's likely why Cotton's mother quickly remarried, in order to keep her family away from the horrifying poverty and harsh conditions of Victorian workhouses. In March 1873 her three-day trial began. They married in September 1870, and Frederick died in December 1871 from the ever-present "gastric fever." Before their final break, Cotton had attempted to get Robinson to insure both himself and the remaining children. Her stepson, Frederick Jr., and Robert, her infant son with Frederick, died early 1872. He didnt. . The trap door wasnt placed high enough to break her neck. She was only ever convicted for the murder of one, though it led to her execution by hanging in 1873. 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. 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). He was also a widower who had lost two of his four children and lived in Northumberland. The word was that she had killed anything up to 21 of her husbands, lovers, children and stepchildren, and even her own mother making her Britains most prolific mass murderer until Harold Shipman. For weeks they have been One could simply walk down to the corner shop and buy enough arsenic to kill a man a few times over. Even her own daughters and sons, who might have had at least some biological hold on their mother in another life, weren't immune to Cotton's murderous impulses. Mary Ann backed off but not before ominously predicting that Charles would "go like all the rest of the Cotton family." This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. Mary Ann Cotton was charged with the murder of Charles Edward Cotton, and as she awaited trial in Durham Prison, she gave birth to her 13th and last child, Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Cotton, in January 1873. Death of Charles Edward Cotton and inquest, Mary Ann's downfall came when she was asked by a parish official, Thomas Riley, to help nurse a woman who was ill with smallpox. He hired Mary Ann as a housekeeper in November 1866. She grew a dislike of children while working as a housemaid, and this didn't stop once she had children of her own. At Ancestry DNA proved insurmountable, and he died in December 1871 from the.... March 1873, allowing Mary Ann as a housekeeper in November 1866 it went like:. Deaths are registered, as she spoke with officials, Cotton was Sunderland... 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