Oxford Crime Death And Debauchery

Searching the archives of the university, the Public Record Office, the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies, this work collects more than 100 accounts that paint a picture of Oxford's seedier side. Using court records and newspaper accounts, it brings together crime stories dating from 1750 to 1920, including: infamous murders, hangings, and more.

Searching the archives of the university, the Public Record Office, the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies, this work collects more than 100 accounts that paint a picture of Oxford's seedier side. Using court records and newspaper accounts, it brings together crime stories dating from 1750 to 1920, including: infamous murders, hangings, and more.

London: Crime, Death & Debauchery is an alternative history of the darker side of Britain's capital city. No other book on London covers this topic in such a complete fashion, with cases ranging from the Restoration to the early nineteenth century. It weaves macabre accounts into an entertaining criminal history accessible to all. Featuring countless stories of infamous misdeeds and scandalous behaviour, the book includes duelling, murder, gaol breaks, rioting, body snatchers, robbery, suicide, drinking, infanticide, gambling, highwaymen, fraud and executions. Illustrated with a series of engravings, drawings and photographs that help to paint a picture of historic London's seedier side, Neil R. Storey brings together a selection of tales to shock, scare and entertain.

The killing of new-born children is an intensely emotional and emotive subject. The hidden nature of this crime has made it an area incredibly difficult subject area for historians to approach up until now. This work provides the first detailed history of infanticide in mainland Britain from 1600 to the modern era.

Oxfordshire Murders brings together twenty-five murderous tales, some which were little known outside the county, and others which made national headlines. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most heinous crimes ever committed in Oxfordshire. They include the deaths of two gamekeepers, brutally murdered in 1824 and 1835; Henrietta Walker, killed by her husband at Chipping Norton in 1887; Mary Allen, shot by Harry Rowles at Cassington in the same year; and Anne Kempson, murdered by Henry Seymour, a door-to-door salesman, in Oxford in 1931. Nicola Sly's carefully researched and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Oxfordshire's history.

A Grim Almanac of Oxfordshire is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from the county’s past.There are murders and manslaughters, including the killing by Mrs Barber of her entire family in 1909 while temporarily insane, and the brutal murder of four-year-old Edward Busby in 1871, killed by his mother to prevent his father ill-treating him. There are bizarre deaths, including those of four-year-old Charles Taylor, who was accidentally kicked clean through a top storey window in 1844 by a child playing on a swing, George Sheppard, who was struck by a cricket ball during a match in 1905, and of the vicar of Bucknell, who starved himself to death in 1935.There is an assortment of calamities which include strange and unusual crimes, devastating fires, rail crashes, explosions, disasters, mysteries, freak weather and a plethora of uncanny accidents.Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Oxfordshire’s grim past. Delve into the dreadful deeds of Oxford’s past, if you dare...

What did it mean to be a spectator during the lifetime of Shakespeare or of Aphra Behn? In Early Modern Spectatorship contributors use the idea of spectatorship to reinterpret canonical early modern texts and bring visibility to relatively unknown works. While many early modern spectacles were designed to influence those who watched, the very presence of spectators and their behaviour could alter the conduct and the meaning of the event itself. In the case of public executions, for example, audiences could both observe and be observed by the executioner and the condemned. Drawing on work in the digital humanities and theories of cultural spectacle, these essays discuss subjects as various as the death of Desdemona in Othello, John Donne's religious orientation, Ned Ward's descriptions of London, and Louis Laguerre's murals painted for the residences of English aristocrats. A lucid exploration of subtle questions, Early Modern Spectatorship identifies, imagines, and describes the spectator's experience in early modern culture.

Oxford University is famed for the intelligence and innovation of its students. However, not all the undergraduates have devoted their talents to academia; instead they spent their time devising ingenious and hilarious pranks to play on their unsuspecting dons. This fascinating volume recalls some of the greatest stunts and practical jokes in the university's history, including those by Oscar Wilde, Percy Shelly, Richard Burton and Roger Bacon. Ranging from the stunt that gave Folly Bridge its name and a nineteenth-century jape that resulted in the expulsion of all the students from University College, to the long-running rivalry between Town and Gown and the exploits of the infamous Bullington Club, this enthralling work will amaze and entertain in equal measure – and may well prove a source of inspiration for current students wishing to enliven their undergraduate days.