HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-06-10T10:39:24.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Victorian Britain's fearless female felons
items: Reading, writing and retribution: inside Victorian prison schools
items: Sex, sadism and sugared death: 8 scandals that rocked Victorian Britain
items: The floating hell of prison hulks
items: Timeline: a history of prisons in Britain
items: Living in fear: the dangers of Victorian London
items: The real history behind Victorian thriller ‘The Limehouse Golem’
items: The women killed by Jack the Ripper
items: A brief history of capital punishment in Britain
items: Your guide to Jack the Ripper

Victorian Britain's fearless female felons
type: item
date: 2025-06-12T08:00:53.000Z
creator: Rosalind Crone
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Life in Victorian Britain
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
description: Drugging, fraud, even murder – women couldn’t really commit such heinous crimes, could they? Rosalind Crone explores five audacious female-led felonies from the 18th and 19th centuries
encoded: 1. The Victorian spiking crisis Female thieves took to drugging men’s drinks with opiates before cleaning out their victims’ pockets On 2 January 1865, Elizabeth Bagwell (alias Elizabeth Manning) was convicted at the Middlesex Sessions of “larceny from the person”, and sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude. It was a harsh punishment, reflecting the fact that she already had three previous convictions – but also that she was no ordinary pickpocket. Bagwell had spiked the drink of James Rintoul, a London cab driver, at her lodgings off Edgware Road, according to press reports of her committal hearing at the Marylebone Police Court. The drugged glass of gin she gave James was, he claimed, “so hot that it burnt my mouth”. He fell unconscious, and later woke to find himself “alone in the room, and in darkness. My gold watch and chain were gone… my ring also [and] 25 shillings from my pocket.” He had fallen victim to a crime commonly called ‘hocussing’, derived from ‘hocus pocus’ – the term used since the 17th century for conjuring, trickery or sleight of hand. By the late 19th century, ‘hocus’ had become shorthand for drugged liquor. Hocussing had become more prevalent by that time, likely because of the ready availability of cheap drugs including opium (in the form of laudanum), morphine and chloroform. Particularly in convivial social settings such as Victorian public houses, it was easy for thieves to slip drugs into drinks undetected. With their victims bewildered or unconscious, hocussers had time to search pockets thoroughly, remove any valuable jewellery and escape the scene of the crime, making pursuit and prosecution difficult. Poisoners in prison Hocussing was deployed by women and men against victims of both sexes. As a weapon of the weak, poison enabled female thieves to overcome stronger male victims. Men who had been lured by the promise of sex with women hocussers may have been reluctant to prosecute, for fear of reputational damage. Certainly, by 1865…

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Reading, writing and retribution: inside Victorian prison schools
type: item
date: 2024-11-18T09:00:18.000Z
creator: Rosalind Crone
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Education
subject: Life in Victorian Britain
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
description: Many Victorian gaols provided schooling for their inmates, decades before it was mandated in wider society. So what, asks Rosalind Crone, drove this great educational crusade?
encoded: On 26 February 1848, 19-year-old Thomas Sumpter appeared in the dock at Berkshire Assizes, accused – and quickly convicted – of stealing a sheep. Nothing unusual in that, given the times: livestock theft was hardly uncommon in the first half of the 19th century. What was more curious was the apparent motive behind Sumpter’s offence. Having been recently released from Reading Gaol, he committed the crime with the express intent of ensuring his prompt return to the prison where he had been memorising sections of the Bible. He’d been receiving lessons in reading, and he didn’t want to stop. Sumpter was one of three convicts who had been given early release from Reading Gaol in autumn 1845, following an unprecedented decision by the local authorities. Having been sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, each had served six to eight months – and in that time had become poster boys for the success of a new regime at the prison. To aid rehabilitation, education was prioritised over labour: prisoners spent large amounts of time learning to read and write, as well as memorising passages from the Bible. Having each committed to memory the whole of the New Testament up to Ephesians, at the time of their release the three men were lauded as star pupils whose characters had been transformed. That ‘transformation’, though, proved short-lived. All three soon re-offended, including Sumpter. Word spread about both the system and the unfortunate relapses, and the prison became known as the Read-Read-Reading Gaol. This account is somewhat at odds with our idea of the Victorian prison as a place of ‘hard labour, hard board and hard fare’. Yet in the 1840s, when there was no universal elementary education and many working-class children were denied the opportunity to attend school, many prisons in England and Wales had schools in which inmates learned reading, writing and sometimes more besides. And despite the scandals sparked by those three ‘transformed’ inmates, prison schools were here…

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Sex, sadism and sugared death: 8 scandals that rocked Victorian Britain
type: item
date: 2024-05-02T05:44:12.000Z
creator: Rosalind Crone
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Life in Victorian Britain
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
description: A killer-sweet scare, a criminal trial that threatened to bring down a prominent politician, cruelty in the workhouses, and a horrific murder spree: life in Victorian Britain was not without its scandals. Rosalind Crone investigates eight headline-grabbing events that caused the Victorians to rise up in outrage
encoded: The mother of sex scandals: Caroline Norton, a future prime minister and a change in custody laws In 1827, 19-year-old Caroline Sheridan, granddaughter of the famous playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan – himself the subject of a scandal – married George Norton, heir to his family’s fortune. It was a disastrous match. George turned down work while waiting for his inheritance, so the family became dependent on Caroline’s earnings as a poet and novelist. George drank and was often violent towards his wife. All the while, Caroline’s flamboyance and literary flair was attracting some powerful admirers, including a future prime minister, Lord Melbourne. In April 1836, after yet another heated argument, George barred Caroline from the family home and prevented her from seeing their three sons, all aged less than seven. In the early 19th century, the law decreed that a wife’s property – and any children – belonged to her husband, so there was little Caroline could do about it. Naturally, she was distraught, especially as she knew the pain George was inflicting on her children by “cursing me thro them”, as she wrote to Lord Melbourne. If that wasn’t bad enough, in June 1836 George sued Lord Melbourne for adultery with his wife. A successful prosecution was the necessary first step in divorce proceedings. For George, it was also a money-making venture as he demanded that Lord Melbourne pay him £10,000 in damages. The trial was a sensation. The court was “crowded to excess”, and newspaper readers awaited eagerly the potentially salacious testimony. One maid claimed she “saw Lord Melbourne kiss Mrs Norton”, and another that, after a visit from Lord Melbourne, Caroline’s “collar and hair were generally tumbled… She would also wash her hands [and] put fresh rouge on her face.” A coachman’s testimony that he saw Caroline lying on the hearthrug with her clothes “up”, showing “the thick part of her thigh”, promised to prove decisive – until he admitted being sacked for drinking on …

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The floating hell of prison hulks
type: item
date: 2023-01-05T09:14:53.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: General Modern
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
description: Anna McKay delves into the development, use and abolition of floating prisons – and the horrible experiences of those incarcerated on board
encoded: Decried by reformers as “wicked Noah’s arks” and “rotten leaky tubs”, prison hulks were a looming presence off the shores of 18th- and 19th-century Britain and its empire. Large former navy ships were docked on the Thames and elsewhere, housing convicts awaiting transportation, often in hideous conditions. Dr Anna McKay explains to David Musgrove why these floating prisons existed, what life was like on board, and why the system eventually fell out of use. Read more about the brutal history of prison hulks

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Timeline: a history of prisons in Britain
type: item
date: 2021-06-04T09:55:13.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: General Modern
subject: Georgian
subject: Industrial revolution
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
description: What are the key dates to know about in the development of prisons in Britain? Rosalind Crone shares 14 milestones in the evolution of imprisonment, from the Norman conquest to the Victorians…
encoded: In an episode of our ‘Everything you wanted to know’ podcast series, Rosalind Crone answered key questions on the history of prisons in Britain, from what life was like in Victorian prisons to the real state of the food. Listen to the full episode here and find out more about key milestones below… 1078 | The construction of the central keep of the Tower of London, built by William I following the Norman conquest of England. The Tower was first used as a prison for enemies of the king in about 1100. 1166 | The Assizes of Clarendon, a series of ordinances through which Henry II ordered sheriffs of every county to build gaols to keep in safe custody those accused of felonies (serious crimes) until they could be tried by the newly created itinerant royal judges (justices of the assize). From about the 12th century, the obligation to establish and maintain a gaol in order to keep the peace was included in royal charters granted to towns. These gaols were the responsibility of the towns’ corporations (or governing bodies). 1352 | Imprisonment for debt, previously confined to those who owed money to the crown, was extended to those who owed money to private individuals. Read more: What was it like to be a Prisoner of War during the Hundred Years’ War? 1556 | Bridewell Hospital in London became a ‘house of correction’ for idle apprentices, rogues and vagabonds, disorderly women and petty offenders. The idea of the bridewell or house of correction to manage social problems associated with poverty spread across England and Wales, so that be the early 1600s there were approximately 170 such institutions. Not only did the bridewell foster the use of sentences of imprisonment for petty offenders, but it also introduced the notion of ‘reform’, that imprisonment could be used not just to punish but to transform criminals or the socially deviant into more productive members of society. 1777 | The publication of John Howard’s State of the Prisons in England and Wales, which exposed …

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Living in fear: the dangers of Victorian London
type: item
date: 2020-12-22T08:00:25.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Death
subject: Life in Victorian Britain
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
description: From the terror of being strangled by violent thieves to tales that the sewers were infested with a squealing band of pigs, 19th-century Londoners spent much of their time living in fear. Emma Butcher and Tim Blythe reveal what seven such scare stories can tell us about the psyche of the imperial capital
encoded: The garrotting panic of 1862 Victorian London was a sprawling metropolis, an imperial capital, the nerve-centre of the mightiest nation on Earth. Yet it was also a city wracked by fear. Confronted by rapid industrialisation, crowded slums and graphic media reports of a thriving criminal underbelly, many Londoners may have come to the conclusion that danger lurked in every shadow. And a single mugging in 1862 apparently confirmed their fears. On 17 July, Hugh Pilkington, the Liberal MP for Blackburn, was walking home from a late sitting in the Commons when he was choked and robbed (he survived the attack). The press latched on to this incident and ramped up its coverage on street violence, despite no indication that criminal activity had increased. The public panicked, believing that criminals stalked the streets, searching for victims to strangle or ‘garrotte’. Victorian London’s East End: what can a foul murder tell us about life in the city? The media’s sensationalism linked the mythical rise in violence to ‘ticket-of-leave’ men – convicted criminals who were granted conditional parole – and the recent reduction of criminals transported to Australia. To combat this threat, Punch produced a number of cartoons demonstrating how individuals could deal with the risk of garrotting, such as by walking back-to-back in pairs or by wearing protective clothing in the form of a collar studded with huge spikes (the first Metropolitan Police officers were given these collars as standard issue). <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2020/08/00-PCL108220_cmyk-f6c2f52.jpg" width="1392" height="1808" alt="A satirical cartoon shows a man wearing an array of anti-garrotting spikes. A single mugging in 1862 convinced many that London was at the mercy of violent thieves. (Photo by Topfoto)" title="A satirical cartoon shows a man wearing an array of anti-garrotting spikes. A single mugging in 1862 convinced many that London was at the mercy of violent thi…

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The real history behind Victorian thriller ‘The Limehouse Golem’
type: item
date: 2020-07-21T08:30:00.000Z
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Historical people
subject: Life in Victorian Britain
subject: TV interest
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
description: Starring Bill Nighy, Olivia Cooke and Douglas Booth, The Limehouse Golem is a Victorian murder mystery thriller based on a novel by Peter Ackroyd. The story follows a seasoned detective (Bill Nighy) as he hunts a ruthless serial killer through the streets of Victorian London. Here, producer Stephen Woolley talks to History Extra about the real history behind the film, currently showing on Netflix...
encoded: From the murky underworld of Victorian music halls to life in 19th-century Limehouse – we speak to The Limehouse Golem producer Stephen Woolley about the real history behind the film... Q: What inspired you to take this film on board? A: The film is based on a book — Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem by Peter Ackroyd – which I was given in the mid-90s. What attracted me to the story was the subversion that takes place. You may think it’s just another Victorian murder mystery, but it’s actually so much more than that: it turns what you expect on its head. One aspect that really interested me in the book was the setting, Limehouse [a district in east London]. Ackroyd is a great writer and an obsessive London enthusiast – he’s written terrific biographies on Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens and Nicholas Hawksmoor [a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late 17th and early 18th centuries]. So as a Londoner myself, and as someone who has made films that are set in and around the city, I immediately thought that this would make a really fun movie. Q: What sort of Victorian London do we see in this film? A: Limehouse was one of the poorest districts in London, but it was also very cosmopolitan and attracted people from a broad variety of backgrounds. There were people in Limehouse who had political ideas, such as Karl Marx [played by Henry Goodman in the film], and there were people who had ideas about the future, including [novelist and teacher] George Gissing [played by Morgan Watkins]. And, of course, there were crazy people – psychopaths and people who treated human life like it was nothing – such as the ‘Golem’ in the film. Q: Three out of four of the Golem suspects are real people from history (Karl Marx, George Gissing and comedian and entertainer Dan Leno). What was the reason for this and what did it add to the story? A: This was Peter Ackroyd’s choice, as he wrote the book. I believe he wanted to show how much Limehouse was part of a bigg…

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The women killed by Jack the Ripper
type: item
date: 2019-03-25T15:37:08.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Life in Victorian Britain
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
description: Hallie Rubenhold discusses the little-known life stories of Jack the Ripper’s five victims
encoded: Hallie Rubenhold discusses her new book The Five, which uses the untold stories of Jack the Ripper’s victims to reveal what life was like for working-class women in Victorian London. Read Hallie Rubenhold interview on The Five here.

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A brief history of capital punishment in Britain
type: item
date: 2019-03-12T16:00:58.000Z
creator: Professor Lizzie Seal
subject: General Modern
subject: Period
subject: Death
subject: Historical people
subject: Murder
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
description: Between the late 17th and early 19th century, Britain’s ‘Bloody Code’ made more than 200 crimes – many of them trivial – punishable by death. Writing for HistoryExtra, criminologist and historian Lizzie Seal considers the various ways in which capital punishment has been enforced throughout British history and investigates the timeline to its abolition in 1965
encoded: British forms of punishment From as early as the Anglo-Saxon era, right up to 1965 when the death penalty was abolished, the main form of capital punishment in Britain was hanging. Initially, this involved placing a noose around the neck of the condemned and suspending them from the branch of a tree. Ladders and carts were used to hang people from wooden gallows, which entailed death by asphyxiation. In the late 13th century the act of hanging morphed into the highly ritualised practice of ‘drawing, hanging and quartering’ – the severest punishment reserved for those who had committed treason. In this process, ‘drawing’ referred to the dragging of the condemned to the place of execution. After they were hanged, their body was punished further by disembowelling, beheading, burning and ‘quartering’ – cutting off the limbs. The perpetrator’s head and limbs were often publicly displayed following the execution. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2018/03/GettyImages-82658584-35a6b36.jpg" width="3169" height="5174" alt="The execution of the Regicides of King Charles I, following the restoration of the monarchy, 19th October 1660. Parliamentary soldiers Francis Hacker and Daniel Axtell are respectively hung, and hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Lithographed from a contemporary print. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" title="The practice of being hung, drawn and quartered was generally reserved for those who had committed treason, says Seal. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" /> Later, the ‘New Drop’ gallows – first used at London’s Newgate Prison in 1783 – could accommodate two or three prisoners at a time and were constructed on platforms with trapdoors through which the condemned fell. The innovation of the ‘long drop’ [a method of hanging which considered the weight of the condemned, the length of the drop and the placement of the knot] in the later 19th century caused death by breaking the condemned’s neck, which was dee…

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Your guide to Jack the Ripper
type: item
date: 2018-08-31T04:50:57.000Z
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
subject: Where history happened
description: Who was Jack the Ripper? Here, Clive Emsley and Alex Werner reveal the life and times of the Victorian murderer, and tell you everything you need to know about the yet unsolved murder cases
encoded: The murders Within just a few short weeks, the Ripper slashed and mutilated five prostitutes in London’s East End Shortly before 4am on 31 August 1888, a cart driver found the body of Mary Ann ‘Polly’ Nichols in Buck’s Row, close to Bethnal Green. She was on her back. Her skirt had been pulled up round her waist. Her throat had been slashed so deeply that she had nearly been decapitated, and there were deep cuts to her abdomen. This was the first of the Whitechapel Murders that are commonly attributed to Jack the Ripper. Just over a week later, at about 6am on 8 September, the body of Annie Chapman was discovered in a yard in Hanbury Street. Her injuries were similar to those of Polly Nichols, but some of her internal organs had also been cut away and removed; her small intestines lay by her right shoulder. On 30 September came ‘the double event’. Elizabeth ‘Long Liz’ Stride was found first, but her injuries were not as severe as those of the earlier victims; the assumption was that the killer had been disturbed during his butchery. And if that was the case he had quickly found a second victim. Catherine Eddowes was killed soon after, and not far from Stride. Her intestines had been ripped out and the killer had taken away her left kidney and uterus. Saturday 10 November was the day of the Lord Mayor’s Show in London. What should have been one of the highlights of the capital’s social calendar was marred by the revelations of a fifth, even more horrendous murder. Whereas the previous victims had been killed in the street, Mary Kelly’s body was found on a bed in a shabby lodging house in Miller’s Court. Indoors, the killer had been able to take his time. Kelly was savagely mutilated and body parts and internal organs were left on a table beside the bed. Other killings were linked with Jack the Ripper – both at the time and in later years – but these five murders are now generally acknowledged as the sum total of his grisly work. All of them took place in a confined a…

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