She told Riley that the boy was sickly and added: I wont be troubled long. 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. Shortly after her demise, according to The Invention of Murder, Cotton's exploits were used by the Victorians in all manner or moralistic and lurid attractions. Their second child George was born on 18 June 1869. Frederick Jr. died in March 1872 and the infant Robert soon after. Soon her eleventh pregnancy was underway. By May 1872, Mary Ann Cotton had moved to West Auckland with her last remaining child, stepson Charles Cotton. After the death of Mowbray, Mary Ann moved once again. Frederick Jr. died in March 1872 and the infant Robert soon after. Moreover, she was also forcing her stepchildren to pawn household items. 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. What clouds hung over the family? Mary Ann Cotton, ne Mary Ann Robson, also known as Mary Ann Mowbray, Mary Ann Ward, and Mary Ann Robinson, (born October 31?, 1832, Low Moorsley, Durham county, Englanddied March 24, 1873, Durham county), British nurse and housekeeper who was believed to be Britains most prolific female serial killer. Her stepson, Frederick Jr., and Robert, her infant son with Frederick, died early 1872. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. While some claimed that she was Britains first female serial killer, other women had previously been hanged for poisoning multiple people. 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. got your result, Mary Ann Cotton Family Tree Check All Members List, Merovingian Family Tree You Should Check It. Yet, he preserved a section of the boy's stomach in a jar. Her attorney tried to argue that the boys death came as a result of accidental inhalation of arsenic from the wallpaper. Mary Cotton was born in North England during the Victorian Period. 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 regarded as Britain's Greatest Female Mass Murderer. 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." He was seriously injured in 1918 on the Somme, but refused to be sent home, probably because he believed he would recover and rejoin the frontline. 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. However, it was accepted, and Russell conducted the prosecution. [8], The Mary Ann Cotton case was partly dramatized on an episode of the 2022 BBC Radio podcast series Lucy Worsley's Lady Killers. Reportedly just weeks after her arrival in 1866, one of his five children succumbed to gastric fever. Though many killers are male, it turns out that women have turned to serial murder as well. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Ann-Cotton, Hartlepool History Team - Biography of Mary Ann Cotton. Then came the First World War. As she was sentenced to hang, the second hearing fizzled out. Mary Ann Cotton's trial began on 5 March 1873. She was regarded as Britain's Greatest Female Mass Murderer. According to Mary Ann Cotton, Cotton wed Robinson in 1867. In Low Moorsley, Tyne & Wear. Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and forgotten, The first focused on Charles' death and took place in August of 1872. The last straw was when he found she had been forcing his children to pawn household valuables for her. A month later, when James' baby John died of gastric fever, he turned to his housekeeper for comfort and she became pregnant. 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. William and Mary Ann moved back to North East England where they had, and lost, three more children. Her mother, Margaret, died after Cotton visited the woman in March 1867. Although she is often said to be Britains first female serial killer, this is a false claim. When Riley pushed the doctor, Kilburn re-tested the tissue and found that it was full of arsenic. She died at age 54 in the spring of 1867, nine days after Mary Ann's arrival. 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. Soon after, Mary Ann learnt that her former lover, Joseph Nattrass, was living in the nearby village of West Auckland, and no longer married. The 1911 census lists Margaret, Robinson and her three sons living in Watt Street, Dean Bank. 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. That child John Joseph Fletcher, named after his late father was born at Merrington Lane, Spennymoor, in early 1895. Investigations into her behaviour soon showed a pattern of deaths. There, she discovered that no money would be paid out until a death certificate was issued. 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. Mary Anns trial began two months later, and the defense claimed that the deceased had inhaled arsenic dust from wallpaper dye, a conceivable explanation given that arsenic was then common in many household items. After she was finally apprehended in 1872, some estimated that she may have killed as many as 21 people, according to Britannica. And her killing spree started right here in. 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. She complained that the last surviving Cotton boy, Charles Edward, was in the way and asked Riley if he could be committed to the workhouse. That's likely why she killed her fourth husband. A Mr Aspinwall was first considered but the Attorney General, Sir John Duke Coleridge, whose decision it was, chose his friend and protg Charles Russell. An English woman convicted of murdering her children. Cotton was no exception. Rather quickly, she sent the daughter to live with her own mother, Margaret, and set out on her own once again. The census records, birth, death and marriage records also show no trace of him. 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. He went to the police, who arrested Mary Ann and ordered the exhumation of Charles' body. At least 15 of those were family members. 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. R > Robson | C > Cotton > Mary Ann (Robson) Cotton, Categories: Serial Killers of the 19th Century | This Day In History March 24 | Murderers | Death by Hanging | Serial Killers | Notables, WIKITREE HOME | ABOUT | G2G FORUM | HELP | SEARCH. Then he found that Mary Ann had been forcing his older children to pawn household valuables. "Mary Ann Cotton, a widow, is in custody at West Auckland, charged with having poisoned her stepson, aged eight years. 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. As Discover Magazine reports, the great majority of female serial killer appear to murder for money. Daily Mirror. 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. The . The place is Durham Gaol. Selling black puddings, a penny a pair. According to The Northern Echo, Mary Ann soon took up with a manager of the West Auckland Brewery, a man by the name of John Quick-Manning. Once again, Mary Ann collected insurance money in respect of her husband's death. 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. Robinson married Mary Ann at St Michael's, Bishopwearmouth on 11 August 1867. Their next child, George, was one of the rare few of Cotton's children who would survive her. It is said that the prisoner, who is comparatively a young woman, has. At the end of her life, as she spoke with officials, Cotton did not offer an explanation for any of her murders. 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. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. The defense in the case was handled by Mr. Thomas Campbell . The so-called fever mimicked the symptoms of arsenic poisoning, a fact which would later prove interesting to investigators. Mary Ann subsequently worked as a hospital nurse in nearby Sunderland, and in 1865 she married a patient, George Ward. 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. HSW Podcast: *Howstuffworks.com. Mary Ann Cotton, tied up with string. She probably would have got away with it for longer had she not been so keen to murder Charles Edward or at least not been so open about her desire to see him die. Their child, Mary Isabella, was born that November, but she became ill with stomach pains and died in March 1868. Robinson married Mary Ann at St Michael's, Bishopwearmouth on 11 August 1867. When that failed, within days she told parish officials that Charles Edward Cotton had died. He died in a field hospital on November 4 a week before the armistice. MARGARET was born in Durham jail, the daughter of serial poisoner MARY ANN COTTON (nee ROBSON). Cotton collected another insurance payout and moved on. They were married in August 1865, but the marriage didnt last long. 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. 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. Mary Ann Cotton ( ne Robson; 31 October 1832 - 24 March 1873) was an English convicted murderer who was executed for poisoning her stepson. During the Victorian era, arsenic was seemingly everywhere, to the point where it became the murderer's poison du jour. 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. She enjoyed crafting, hosting ceramics classes for many years, creating scrapbooks of family memories, and making special cards for every occasion. 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. 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. Mary Ann and her daughter with Mowbray then went to live at the Robinson home. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can 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." The delay was caused by a problem in the selection of prosecution counsel. The body of the stepson was examined and found to contain arsenic. It went like this: Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and she's rotten. Please report any comments that break our rules. It is said that she and William Mowbray had 4 children before returning to Murton. 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. Then Mary Ann's mother, living in Seaham Harbour, County Durham, became ill with hepatitis, so she immediately went to her. Mary Ann nursed the baby in her cell one visitor told The Northern Echo how he had encountered Mrs Cotton sitting on a stool close by a good fire, giving the breast to her baby until all avenues of appeal were exhausted. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please I could be remembering it wrong, though. She was believed to have murdered up to 21 people, mainly by arsenic poisoning. 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. Mary Ann was quickly arrested. 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. In 1872 Nattrass died, leaving his meagre belongings to Mary Ann. All three children were buried in the last week of April and first week of May 1867. 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. Added: I wont be troubled long stepson was examined and found that it was accepted and. 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