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Mr. Cyrus King Finds Relief
I discovered the following two stories while trawling through newspapers.com. Both articles were featured in the Thursday, 8 August 1872, edition of Stockton, California’s Daily Evening Herald. Driven to Desperation Smith Johnson, of Detroit, driven to desperation by the wiles of a widow, promised to marry her, and then attempted to get out of it Continue reading
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‘This Hoary Sinner’ James Wilson
At the Middlesex Sessions held in September 1823, James Wilson, a watchcase maker, of Northampton Row, Clerkenwell, London, was accused of ‘having repeatedly endeavoured to ravish his own daughter.’ Wilson’s wife died in 1819, leaving behind two daughters and a son. Sarah, the eldest daughter, was around fifteen when her mother died and was serving Continue reading
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Turning King’s Evidence: Hylas Parrish, Charles Callaghan and the Murder of Moses Merry
Hylas Parrish, an 18-year-old apprentice shoemaker, first met Charles Callaghan at Vauxhall Gardens in the summer of 1813, when he attended a fete held to celebrate the victory of Britain and her allies, Spain and Portugal, over Napoleonic France in the Battle of Vitoria. At the fete, Parrish paid a penny for a ride on Continue reading
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Hugh Monroe
By Jim Helvey, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53005166 South of the Canadian border, in the Two Medicine area of Glacier National Park, stands the imposing feature that is Rising Wolf Mountain. The author James Willard Schultz named the mountain in honour of his friend Hugh Monroe, a former Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and American Fur Company Continue reading
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The Battle of the Trough, 1756
The skirmish known as the Battle of the Trough was a minor engagement in the French and Indian War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years’ War). The action, which took place in present-day Hardy County, West Virginia, left seven colonists dead and four others wounded. In the aftermath of the disastrous defeat of Continue reading
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An Ingrain Swindler
As reported in The Victoria Daily Chronicle, Thursday, 24 September 1863. ‘An Ingrain Swindler– The Police are after a man who lately served a term of imprisonment at New Westminster for swindling Billy Ballou, the ex-Expressman, out of $35, about one year and a-half ago by representing that a certain bag contained gold dust when Continue reading
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‘Four Pounds…and Reasonable Charges’: Runaway Servants from the Pennsylvania Gazette
‘ Anyone reading the Pennsylvania Gazette in the 1750s could not have missed the numerous adverts placed by subscribers offering a reward and ‘reasonable charges’ for the return of runaway servants. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia claims that between the 16th and 18th Centuries, approximately 320,000 indentured servants sailed from the British Isles and other parts Continue reading
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The Orcadian Pirate
Although he was inextricably linked with the Orkney Isles, John Gow was born on the Scottish mainland at Wick, a stone’s throw from John O’Groats, around 1698. Like numerous others of his ilk, Gow ended his days at Execution Dock on the banks of the River Thames at Wapping on 11 June 1725. Gow spent Continue reading
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Hardened Villainy Displayed. Chapter 1. The Quiet Woman
The rain, which arrived on Wednesday evening, carried on a biting easterly and persisted throughout the following day. By Thursday at suppertime, news of the cancellation of the Gloucester Diligence had been received without complaint. George Tolley, Landlord of the Quiet Woman, listened as the rain lashed against the inn’s windows. In the hearth, Continue reading
Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men 