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. That left behind Mary, her stepson Charles Cotton, and Mary Ann's 13 child still growing in her womb. 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. He, however, was engaged to another woman and she left Seaham after Nattrasss wedding. The body of the stepson was examined and found to contain arsenic. Ward was already in poor health but Mary Ann finished him off, and he died in October 1866. Soon she became pregnant by him with her twelfth child. 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. It is believed that she ki**ed three of her husbands so that she could collect their life insurance policies and may . 29 July 2015. An examination ultimately revealed the presence of arsenic in his stomach. Her preferred method of killing was poisoning with arsenic. The following year Mary Ann went to visit her ailing mother, who died about a week after her return. Riley grew suspicious and alerted the police. Then he found that Mary Ann had been forcing his older children to pawn household valuables. As Nattrass had very few possessions, she was once again in financial difficulty. "Black puddens" refers to black pudding, a type of sausage made with pig's blood. After three minutes, she died of strangulation. Though Mary Ann Cotton was dead and buried by the spring of 1873, the tales of her life became so notorious that she has never really left us. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. Soon after Mowbray's death, Mary Ann moved to Seaham Harbour, County Durham, where she struck up a relationship with Joseph Nattrass. Soon her eleventh pregnancy was underway. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. Riley countered that the boy was a "little healthy fellow," but Charles died on July 12, 1872. Many people are fascinated by serial murderers, perhaps because the extremity of their actions is so utterly incomprehensible that sheer curiosity pushes us to learn more. However, the infant mortality was falling as the century progressed, making Cotton's mishaps all the more striking. After three years there, she returned to her mother's home and trained as a dressmaker. She soon leftor was thrown outand was for a time homeless. Cotton took her daughter, Isabella Jane, who had been living with Margaret, with her. A court-appointed lawyer put forth the idea that Charles had ingested arsenic through wallpaper, says the RadioTimes. Mary Ann Cotton's now-inevitable trial was delayed, as it soon became clear to officials that she was pregnant. One month later, when James' baby died of gastric fever, he turned to his housekeeper for comfort and she became pregnant. In March 1870, Margaret died from a mysterious stomach problem which allowed Mary Ann to dig her claws into the Cotton family. However, he died the following year, and Mary Ann reportedly collected money from another insurance policy. By the time they got married in August 1867, three of Robinsons children and his mother had died. Up in the air Sellin' black puddens a penny a pair. By now, she had become pregnant with a child by an excise officer named Richard Quick Mann. While some claimed that she was Britains first female serial killer, other women had previously been hanged for poisoning multiple people. Cotton was born on October 31, 1832, in a village near Sunderland. Cotton died in December of that year, from "gastric fever." Mary was born in October 1832 at Low Moorsley (now part of Houghton-le-Spring in the City of Sunderland) and baptised at St Mary's, West Rainton on 11 November. Mary Ann's first visit after Charles' death was not to the doctor but the insurance office. He was John Quick- Manning, who was probably the excise officer at West Auckland Brewery and who was definitely married to someone else. . Once again, Mary Ann collected insurance money in respect of her husband's death. The insurance policy Mary Ann had taken out on Charles' life still awaited collection. Although she is often said to be Britains first female serial killer, this is a false claim. Newspaper report of Cottons arrest. He hired Mary Ann as a housekeeper in November 1866. In 1871, the new fivesome moved to West Auckland: Mary Ann, Frederick Cotton, his sons Frederick Junior and Charles Edward, and the new baby, Robert Robson. 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. In 1852 she married William Mowbray, and over the next decade or so, the couple had eight or nine children. Perhaps at this point, it would be best to draw a discrete veil over the family tree, except to say that Margaret lived into old age with the stigma of being the daughter of one of Britains most notorious killers. Mother of Margaret Jane Mowbray; Isabella Mowbray; Margaret Jane Mowbray; John Robert Mowbray; Robert Robson Cotton and 3 others; Mary Isabella Robinson; George Robinson and Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Fletcher Kell less The doctor who attended Charles had kept samples, and they tested positive for arsenic. An English woman convicted of murdering her children. She was found guilty and sentenced to die. Someone had either inadvertently or, as some suspect, intentionally miscalculated the drop needed to break her neck and bring death instantaneously. contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. She rekindled the romance and persuaded her new family to move near him. During the Victorian era, arsenic was seemingly everywhere, to the point where it became the murderer's poison du jour. Depiction of Mary Ann Cotton. According to Psychology Today, female serial murderers often have a drive that's pretty distinct from their male counterparts. That is not to say she was entirely innocent, although it does seem very unlikely that she murdered her own mother, who died of hepatitis. [2] The only birth recorded was that of their daughter Margaret Jane, born at St Germans in 1856. That is until she grew overconfident and made a remarkable blunder. Mary is 25 degrees from Margaret Atwood, 28 degrees from Jim Carrey, 27 degrees from Elsie Knott, 26 degrees from Gordon Lightfoot, 30 degrees from Alton Parker, 27 degrees from Beatrice Tillman, 25 degrees from Jenny Trout, 27 degrees from Justin Trudeau, 28 degrees from Edwin Boyd, 24 degrees from Barbara Hanley, 33 degrees from Fanny Rosenfeld and 27 degrees from Cathryn Hondros on our single family tree. Memories is aware that there are quite a lot of direct descendants of Mary Ann Cotton living in our area, and weve been asked to let their sleeping dogs lie. Mary Anns first port of call after Charles' death was not the doctors but the insurance office. It is believed that he was killed in a railway accident. 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. There are further versions, slightly more crude, still passed on in school playgrounds in the region, such as: She lies in her coffin with her finger up her bottom. - Mary Ann Cotton, a widow, is in custody at West Auckland, charged with having poisoned her stepson, aged eight years. As History Collection reports, his wife was paid via yet another life insurance policy and was left with two stepsons. A short time later, she married William Mowbray in an 1852 ceremony. She was regarded as Britain's Greatest Female Mass Murderer. But in late March 1870 Margaret died from an undetermined stomach ailment, leaving Mary Ann to console the grieving Frederick Sr. Mary Ann Robson Cotton (1832-1873) - Find A Grave Mary Cotton was born in North England during the Victorian Period. It includes lines like "Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string./Where, where?/Up in the air.". Riley went to the village police and convinced the doctor to delay writing a death certificate until the circumstances could be investigated. By the end of the following year Cotton and two more children had died; again Mary Ann reportedly received an insurance payout. Many seem to act out their crimes in stealthier ways, often using poison and frequently for attention, sympathy, financial security, or some combination of the above. In 1852, 20-year-old Mary Ann married colliery labourer William Mowbray at Newcastle Upon Tyne register office; they soon moved to South West England. She officially died of hepatitis, though she died just over a week after her daughter came to tend to her. So, by the summer of 1865, Mary Ann, widow Mowbray, had buried her husband William and at least eight, if not nine, of her own children. 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. THE baby was the daughter born to Mary Ann Cotton, of West Auckland, in Durham jail on January 7, 1873. It appears that, sometime around the birth, he fled town, with some reports indicating that he went so far as to leave the country, while others claim that he reconciled with his wife and lived a relatively quiet existence thereafter. She probably would have got away with it for longer had she not been so keen to murder Charles Edward or at least not been so open about her desire to see him die. Mary Ann Cotton's trial began on 5 March 1873. As the miner's cottage they inhabited was tied to Michael's job, the widow and children would have been evicted. Mary Ann was charged with the murder of Charles Edward Cotton, and while she was in jail, a daughter was born in January 1873; that infantwho was reportedly her 13th childand another offspring were the only ones to outlive their mother. They married at St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, on 28 August 1865. 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. Last week, we covered the life and crimes of Mary Ann Cotton, also known as the West Auckland Poisoner. She allegedly poisoned up to 21 people before being executed in 1873. They included Joseph Nattrass, the lover who had added Mary Ann to his will, along with her son Robert and stepson Frederick Cotton, Jr. Nattrass' remains showed that he, too, had been poisoned. By the time Nattrass was dead, Mary Ann had poisoned Robert, her infant son with Cotton, and Frederick Jr., her stepson. The last straw was when he found she had been forcing his children to pawn household valuables for her. Cotton asked the man to circulate a petition in yet another attempt to save her, which did happen, yet it had no real effect on her ultimate fate. She was employed in various jobs, including Sunday school. [8], The Mary Ann Cotton case was partly dramatized on an episode of the 2022 BBC Radio podcast series Lucy Worsley's Lady Killers. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. She was convicted of just the one murder, of her young stepson, but the evidence against her was vague and circumstantial, and it is extremely doubtful that it would stand up in a modern court of law. William died of an intestinal disorder in January 1865. Authorities also exhumed the bodies of Nattrass and two other Cotton children, and all were determined to have been poisoned with arsenic. Up in the air. A Mr. Aspinwall was supposed to get the job, but the Attorney General, Sir John Duke Coleridge, chose his friend and protg Charles Russell. Only two of her children survived her, including this new arrival. The series also featured Alun Armstrong, Jonas Armstrong and Emma Fielding. Mary Ann claimed to have used arrowroot to relieve his illness and said Riley had made accusations against her because she had rejected his advances. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Then Mary Ann's mother, living in Seaham Harbour, County Durham, became ill so she immediately went to her. When that failed, within days she told parish officials that Charles Edward Cotton had died. Mary's mother remarried a few years later, but Mary hated her stepfather. It was performed by a notoriously clumsy hangman, and the trap door was not positioned high enough to break her neck, forcing the executioner to press down on her shoulders. According to the RadioTimes, a local Doctor Kilburn conducted a rushed inquest and determined that the boy had died of gastroenteritis. One could simply walk down to the corner shop and buy enough arsenic to kill a man a few times over. In March 1873 her three-day trial began. First, her sister Margaret died in 1834, only a few months after being born. She was charged with his murder, although the trial was delayed until after the delivery of her last child in Durham Gaol on 10 January 1873, whom she named Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Cotton. She persuaded him to move his family closer, and in December 1871, Cotton died of gastric fever. Born in October 1832 in County Durham, England, Cotton was the daughter of Michael and Margaret Robson. Though many killers are male, it turns out that women have turned to serial murder as well. Soon her twelfth pregnancy was underway. Hell go like all the rest of the Cottons.". That's likely why she killed her fourth husband. Regardless of her counterarguments, Mary Ann was still to die. It went like this: Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and she's rotten. Mary Ann backed off but not before ominously predicting that Charles would "go like all the rest of the Cotton family." The Cotton case would be the first of several famous poisoning cases he would be involved in during his career, including those of Adelaide Bartlett and Florence Maybrick. Shortly after her demise, according to The Invention of Murder, Cotton's exploits were used by the Victorians in all manner or moralistic and lurid attractions. Insurance had been taken out on his life and the lives of his sons. 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2022-11-07