Mary Ann was destitute and barely surviving on the streets, but she was bailed out by her friend, Margaret, who introduced the black widow to her brother, Frederick Cotton. Stuff You Missed in History Class, from where I took most of the information, has a great podcast on her. However, the levels of arsenic discovered in Charles' remains were too high to pin it on the wallpaper. , got your result about mary ann cotton family tree please comment if we missed anything here, please let us know. She was charged with the murder of Charles Edward Cotton, and her trial began in March 1873. It is believed that he was killed in a railway accident. Soon her twelfth pregnancy was underway. According to Mary Ann Cotton, Cotton wed Robinson in 1867. A Mr. Aspinwall was supposed to get the job, but the Attorney General, Sir John Duke Coleridge, chose his friend and protg Charles Russell. Last week, we covered the life and crimes of Mary Ann Cotton, also known as the West Auckland Poisoner. Accessed 14 August 2015. Mary Anns first port of call after Charles' death was not the doctors but the insurance office. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. "Black puddens" refers to black pudding, a type of sausage made with pig's blood. She took him in as a lodger while also starting a relationship with a man she knew as John Quick-Manning. Riley, who also served as West Auckland's assistant coroner, said she would have to accompany him. ", "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. The move must have been Mary Ann's idea . Have you taken a DNA test? Yet, according to Female Serial Killers, his cause of death was listed as cholera and typhoid. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. Despite all the deaths, there was still no evidence against Mary Ann, and she was completely free from suspicion. Mary Ann Cotton (ne Robson; 31 October 1832 24 March 1873) was an English convicted murderer who was executed for poisoning her stepson. Margaret died from a mysterious stomach problem which allowed Mary Ann to dig her claws into the Cotton family. After Frederick's death, Nattrass soon became Mary Ann's lodger. Margaret died at her home - 66, Church Lane, Ferryhill and left an Estate valued at 740, divided between her daughter CLARA and only surviving son - ROBINSON KELL. 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. Frederick Jr. died in March 1872 and the infant Robert soon after. Mary Ann Robson was born on 31 October 1832 at Low Moorsley,[1] County Durham to Margaret, ne Londsdale and Michael Robson, a colliery sinker; and baptised at St Mary's, West Rainton on 11 November. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Insurance had been effected on his life and those of his sons. Another daughter, Isabella, was born in 1858, and Margaret Jane died in 1860. 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. As per Female Serial Killers, the two were married in 1865, shortly after he was discharged from the hospital. Mary's mother remarried a few years later, but Mary hated her stepfather. One of her patients at the infirmary was engineer George Ward. Cotton's undoing came after she tried to have the son of her deceased husband sent to a workhouse. She asked him to take the young boy to a workhouse, but Riley refused unless Mary Ann agreed to enter the workhouse too. By the middle of the nineteenth century, there was almost an epidemic of poisoning so who knows how many murders were committed. When Mary Ann was eight, her parents moved the family to the County Durham village of Murton. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please 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. George Robinson was the other. discoveries. 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. The series also featured Alun Armstrong, Jonas Armstrong and Emma Fielding. The mother who murdered her own children was, though, a sensational story, and the media of the day led by The Northern Echos famous editor, WT Stead whipped up feelings against her. Mary Ann Cotton. She was found guilty and sentenced to die. Mary Ann Robson was born on Halloween 1832 in Low Moorsley in County Durham. 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. Mary Ann subsequently worked as a hospital nurse in nearby Sunderland, and in 1865 she married a patient, George Ward. After it became clear that young Charles Cotton had died of arsenic poisoning, authorities gave permission for the exhumation of three more of Mary Ann Cotton's alleged victims, the RadioTimes reports. She soon leftor was thrown outand was for a time homeless. She told Riley that the boy was sickly and added: I wont be troubled long. 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. But more than a dozen close friends and . 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. She named her Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Cotton, partially to target her latest lover as the father of the child. William became a foreman at South Hetton Colliery and then a fireman aboard a steam vessel. She rekindled the romance and persuaded her new family to move near him. Ward continued to suffer ill health and died on 20 October 1866 after a long illness characterised by paralysis and intestinal problems. Cotton and Mary Ann were bigamously married on 17 September 1870 at St Andrew's, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and their son Robert was born early in 1871. Their next child, George, was one of the rare few of Cotton's children who would survive her. An army of readers many anonymous, others marshalled by Tim Brown of Ferryhill Local History Society and some relatives have helped put us right. Cotton collected another insurance payout and moved on. However, the judge allowed the prosecutor to use evidence from the deaths of Nattrass and two of the Cotton children and ultimately, the overwhelming evidence sealed Mary Anns fate. Several petitions were presented to the Home Secretary, but to no avail. The following year Mary Ann went to visit her ailing mother, who died about a week after her return. Cotton was convicted of his murder and sentenced to death. Lest you think that works about Cotton fizzled out after the 19th century, look to the myriad of true crime books and drama that still focus on her. However, he died the following year, and Mary Ann reportedly collected money from another insurance policy. Cotton had been remanded in custody since her arrest in July 1872, first in Bishop Auckland before being taken to Durham county gaol as preparations got underway to exhume bodies of her alleged. 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. 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. The defense in the case was handled by Mr. Thomas Campbell Foster. Insurance had been taken out on his life and the lives of his sons. While some claimed that she was Britains first female serial killer, other women had previously been hanged for poisoning multiple people. Riley grew suspicious and alerted the police. Reportedly just weeks after her arrival in 1866, one of his five children succumbed to gastric fever. Mary Ann Cotton, also known as the Dark Angel, was a Victorian monster who murdered up to 21 people. This 19th century English woman is one of the earliest confirmed female serial killers in recorded memory. There is some speculation that she may have been pregnant before their marriage and that is why it was held at the registry office. The sheer number of children who met their deaths after coming into contact with the murderess exceeded even the juvenile mortality rate of a dangerous time before pediatricians and obstetricians were available to most people in Britain. She died at age 54 in the spring of 1867, nine days after Mary Ann's arrival. Margaret was born in 1873. Cotton had rather more luck at work, where she came across a patient named George Ward. It is quite clear that much of south Durham knew her life story, but it is also clear that she was accepted, and even admired, by that community. At the end of her life, as she spoke with officials, Cotton did not offer an explanation for any of her murders. The second, which took place in February 1873, was to center on the deaths of Nattrass, along with those of Robert and Frederick. Mary Ann Cottons trial, for allegedly murdering her stepson Charles, was delayed for several months so that she could give birth. Then Mary Ann's mother, living in Seaham Harbour, County Durham, became ill so she immediately went to her. 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. After George Ward's death and the subsequent insurance payment, Britannica reports, Mary Ann Cotton became a housekeeper for widower James Robinson in 1866. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. Within a few days, Charles Edward had died, and when Riley found out, he urged the doctor to avoid writing the death certificate until the cause of death was fully investigated. The delay was caused by a problem in the selection of prosecution counsel. 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. It may well be that the name of the excise man was in fact Richard Quick Mann. 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." Selling black puddings, a penny a pair. Mary Ann never confessed to any of the deaths, and the number of her victims is uncertain, though most sources believe she killed upwards of 21 people. 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. A court-appointed lawyer put forth the idea that Charles had ingested arsenic through wallpaper, says the RadioTimes. Mary Ann had cashed in William's life insurance, equivalent to about 1,700 in today's money. There, she discovered that no money would be paid out until a death certificate was issued. According to Mary Ann Cotton, her father was a coal miner. "Mary Ann Cotton." Gastric fever also claimed Williams life in 1864 and the lives of two other children soon afterward. They married at St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, on 28 August 1865. 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. Then the local newspapers latched on to the story and discovered Mary Ann had moved around northern England and lost three husbands, a lover, a friend, her mother, and a dozen children, all of whom had died of stomach fevers. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). He died in a field hospital on November 4 a week before the armistice. Mary Ann Cotton was an English serial killer convicted of poisoning her stepson Charles Edward Cotton in 1872. She is believed to have murdered up to 21 people in total. Robinson refused to meet with his estranged wife in person, though he sent his brother-in-law. James Robinson was a shipwright at Pallion in Sunderland, whose wife Hannah had recently died. 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. He threw her out, retaining custody of their son George. 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. He went to the police, who arrested Mary Ann and ordered the exhumation of Charles' body. contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. William and Mary Ann moved back to North East England, where William worked as a fireman aboard a steam vessel sailing out of Sunderland, then as a colliery foreman. She gained employment as nurse to an excise officer recovering from smallpox, John Quick-Manning. HP10 9TY. That man was recorded as "John Quick-Manning," though it's possible that he gave Mary Ann a partially false name. Wife of George Ward; William Mowbray; Frederick Cotton and James Robinson Soon after Mowbray's death, Mary Ann moved to Seaham Harbour, County Durham, where she struck up a relationship with Joseph Nattrass. Mary Ann Cotton - Dark Angel: Britain s First Female Serial Kille, Pen & Sword Publishing, 2012. Their second child George was born on 18 June 1869. The mother had to take care of three children, while suffering with the depression owing to her husband's death. 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. She was hanged at Durham Gaol. Mary (Robson) Cotton is Notable. 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. 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