England
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Robert Thorley and the Footpad
On a Saturday afternoon in November 1812, Robert Thorley was riding from London to his home at nearby Petersham, along the Wandsworth road, when he noticed a woman dressed like a Quaker. Following the woman along the footpath was a man with an apron folded round him in the style of a carpenter. As Thorley… Continue reading
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The Mysterious Case at Balby
On Tuesday, 22 March 1852, an inquest was held in the South Yorkshire village of Wadworth, on the body of 19-year-old Hannah Adams, ‘who had come to her death under circumstances of a very extraordinary and painful nature.’ Hannah Adams was employed as a housemaid by Mrs. Shepphard, in the village of Balby, a short… Continue reading
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‘The Very Flames of Hell’ The Great Thunderstorm of 1638
By Original artist unknown, fl 17th century. Contemporary woodcut, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4986301 On the afternoon of Sunday, 21 October 1638, George Lyde, the Anglican minister of the church of St. Pancras, Widecombe in the Moor, Devon, preached before a congregation of 300 worshipers when: ‘a strange darkenesse,’ fell, ‘increasing more and more, so that the… Continue reading
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‘He is alive; go in and kill him.’ The Murder of George Morrey
Hannah Evans had not long retired to bed when she was awoken by ‘a great noise and two or three blows.’. It was the early hours of 12 April 1812. Hannah, a maid working at a farmhouse belonging to George and Edith Morrey in the village of Hankelow, Cheshire, had stayed up with her mistress… Continue reading
Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men 