This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's 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. After moving frequently, the family settled in Hendon, Durham county, in about 1856. This page was last edited on 12 January 2023, at 20:32. 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 then found work as a housekeeper for James Robinson, a widower. 29 July 2015. In 1867, Mary Ann's stepfather George Stott married his widowed neighbour, Hannah Paley. After her sentencing, Mary Ann Cotton attempted to save herself through various means, from hoping for a pardon to appear to arguing that everyone else in her life had failed her. At that stage, only one of the nine kids she had with Mowbray was alive. The last straw was when he found she had been forcing his children to pawn household valuables for her. She asked Riley if he could commit Cotton to a workhouse and when that suggestion was rebuffed, she said this to Riley: I wont be troubled long. "Mary Ann Cotton, a widow, is in custody at West Auckland, charged with having poisoned her stepson, aged eight years. As Discover Magazine reports, the great majority of female serial killer appear to murder for money. Mary Ann Cotton's now-inevitable trial was delayed, as it soon became clear to officials that she was pregnant. She apparently complained to a parish official named Thomas Riley that her stepson, Charles Edward Cotton, was preventing her from marrying Quick Mann. She gained employment as nurse to an excise officer recovering from smallpox, John Quick-Manning. She was regarded as Britain's Greatest Female Mass Murderer. Soon after Mowbray's death, Mary Ann moved to Seaham Harbour, County Durham, where she struck up a relationship with Joseph Nattrass. Sister of Robert Robson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Cotton. The body of the stepson was examined and found to contain arsenic. STREET LIFE: Watt Street, Dean Bank, Ferryhill, on an Edwardian postcard which dates from the time that Mary Ann Cottons daughter was living in the street. They married at St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, on 28 August 1865. When Cotton gave birth to her and Robinson's child, her infant daughter quickly died of "convulsions." Cotton collected another insurance payout and moved on. Like many of the other dead people in Cotton's wake, Ward presented symptoms that were alarmingly similar to arsenic poisoning. Frederick 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. 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. The delay was caused by a problem in the selection of prosecution counsel. Her father died eight years later in a mining accident. He is buried in Cambrai cemetery. Mary Ann, pregnant again, was arrested and charged with Charles Cotton's death. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Mary Ann Cotton, also known by the surnames Mowbray, Robinson and Ward, was a nurse and housekeeper suspected of poisoning as many as 21 people in 19th-century Britain. She was regarded as Britain's Greatest Female Mass Murderer. Rumour gave rise to suspicion and scientific investigation. Frederick Jr. died in March 1872 and the infant Robert soon after. A court-appointed lawyer put forth the idea that Charles had ingested arsenic through wallpaper, says the RadioTimes. As the miner's cottage they inhabited was tied to Michael's job, the widow and children would have been evicted. 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. However, in 1870 Mary Ann met another widower, Frederick Cotton, who was the brother of a friend. At the time of her trial, there were reports of four or five of their children dying young while they were living away from County Durham. mary ann cotton surviving descendants. The Cotton case was the first of several famous poisoning cases he would be involved in during his career, including those of Adelaide Bartlett and Florence Maybrick. Five days later, Mary Ann told Riley that the boy had died. Margaret was born in 1873. It is believed that she ki**ed three of her husbands so that she could collect their life insurance policies and may . He threw her out. Mary Ann Robson Cotton, was a serial killer convicted of murdering her mother, 11 of her 13 children, her stepson and 3 of her 4 husbands by arsenic poisoning. She was believed to have murdered up to 21 people, mainly by arsenic poisoning. Her preferred method of killing was poisoning with arsenic. Yet, he preserved a section of the boy's stomach in a jar. Mary Ann's daughter Isabella, from the marriage to William Mowbray, was brought back to the Robinson household and soon developed bad stomach pains and died; so did another two of Robinson's children. After she was finally apprehended in 1872, some estimated that she may have killed as many as 21 people, according to Britannica. Mary Ann received a life-insurance payment of 5 10s 6d for Isabella. Please report any comments that break our rules. As per History Collection, Cotton was hanged at Durham County Gaol on March 24, 1873. She was believed to have murdered up to 21 people, mainly by arsenic poisoning. Death of Charles Edward Cotton and inquest, Mary Ann's downfall came when she was asked by a parish official, Thomas Riley, to help nurse a woman who was ill with smallpox. Cotton's undoing came after she tried to have the son of her deceased husband sent to a workhouse. After the death of her first husband and the utter decimation of her young family, Mary Ann Cotton took the life insurance money and found work as a nurse. Mary Ann was subject to two court hearings, separated by a period of time set aside for her to give birth to her final child. Soon enough, he and two of the children also died of "gastric fever." Thank you for visiting mary ann cotton family tree page. She died at age 54 in the spring of 1867, nine days after Mary Ann's arrival. Mary Ann Cotton, tied up with string. As Mary Ann Cotton, Dark Angelreported, Mary Ann blamed lax pharmacists for her young stepson's death. A month later, when James' baby John died of gastric fever, he turned to his housekeeper for comfort and she became pregnant. Selling black puddings, a penny a pair. However, the BBC points out that you're not alone. Ward continued to suffer ill health and died on 20 October 1866 after a long illness characterised by paralysis and intestinal problems. The ships manifest shows they were bound for Pennsylvania a coalmining area where Joseph presumably planned to find work. Riley grew suspicious and alerted the police. 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. Yet, the 7-year-old Charles was, to her mind, a serious impediment to her plans. The census records, birth, death and marriage records also show no trace of him. Robinson married Mary Ann at St Michael's, Bishopwearmouth on 11 August 1867. Around this time she took up with a former lover, Joseph Nattrass, but later became . However, the couple did not divorce. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. Her death was registered by her son ROBINSON the day after she died. Mary Ann Cotton was in Sunderland on October 31, 1832. Mary (Robson) Cotton is Notable. Instead, Cotton dropped only two feet and proceeded to choke, still alive. Her funeral service will be at 10:00 . He decided to throw her out of their home and retained custody of their surviving child, George. It is said that she and William Mowbray had 4 children before returning to Murton. In 1843, Mary Ann's widowed mother, Margaret (ne Lonsdale) married George Stott, with whom Mary Ann did not get along. Was still legally married to James Robinson, Mary Ann & Mowbray's children: (3 rumored but unsubstantiated children), Mary Jane (-1860), Margaret Jane (-1865), John Robert (-1864), Isabella (-1867), George Ward (-1866), husband (briefly) - already ill and in the hospital when they met and married, 5 children of James Robinson & his late wife, Hannah, Margaret Lonsdale Robson Stott, mother (-1867), Child of Mary Ann & James Robinson: Margaret Isabella (-1868), 4 Children of Frederick & Unknown Cotton: 2 (before 1869) plus Frederick Jr and Charles Edward Cotton (-1872) - for whose murder she was arrested, tried and hung, Child of Mary Ann & Frederick Cotton: Robert Robson Cotton (-1870), Frederick Cotton, Sr, bigamous (she was the bigamist, not him) husband (-1871), Lady Killers, BBC Radio 4, Episode 7: Mary Ann Cotton (more info on. Here's the messed-up truth about this notorious 19th century murderess. Around this time she took up with a former lover, Joseph Nattrass, but later became pregnant by another man, John Quick-Manning. It had no taste, no odor, no color, nothing that would alert the potential poison victim to its presence in their food or drink until the substance had already begun to take effect. Then her friend Margaret Cotton introduced her to her brother, Frederick, a pitman and recent widower living in Walbottle, Northumberland, who had lost two of his four children. A mortar shell exploded over his head and no trace was ever found of his body. The couple would go on to have at least eight children, though, by the time they had settled into a home in Hendon, England, in 1856, some had already died of what was termed "gastric fever." The lives of William and of their children were insured by the British and Prudential Insurance office and Mary Ann collected a payout of 35 on William's death (equivalent to 3,560 in 2021, about half a year's wages for a manual labourer at the time) and 2 5s for John Robert William. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to Popular cultural sources have called him John Quick-Manning, though there appears to be no trace of a John Quick-Manning in the records of the West Auckland Brewery or the National Archives. Her stepson, Frederick Jr., and Robert, her infant son with Frederick, died early 1872. The census records, birth, death and marriage records also show no trace of him. Some substances, like cyanide and strychnine, were also readily available but produced obvious results. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. An English woman convicted of murdering her children. [7] The drama was inspired by the book Mary Ann Cotton: Britain's First Female Serial Killer by David Wilson, a criminologist. Mary Ann was desperate and living on the streets. However, the infant mortality was falling as the century progressed, making Cotton's mishaps all the more striking. Affair with James Nattress, a married man, while married to Mowbray and possibly again, after Nattress was widowed, while she was "married" to Cotton. Mary was only ever convicted of one murder, the poisoning with arsenic of her 7-year-old stepson, Charles Edward Cotton. I cannot remember what was assumed, but my impression was that she craved the attention she got from taking care of the sick and then as a widow and the children seemed to be a means to ingratiate herself into a family and to take advantage of the grieving father, eventually marrying him and receiving the insurance from his passing. Few people who lived with Mary Ann Cotton were shown mercy, not least the children who were so unfortunate as to enter her orbit. She went undetected for decades, apparently killing a succession of husbands, children, and stepchildren with arsenic, then a readily available poison. She was hanged at Durham County Gaol on March 24, 1873, but it was a bungled execution. They married in Monkwearmouth on 28 August 1865. The defence at Mary Ann's trial claimed that Charles died from inhaling arsenic used as a dye in the green wallpaper of the Cotton home. 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. One of her patients at the infirmary was engineer George Ward. She was later found guilty and executed. All three children had been subjects of small life insurance policies. Mary Ann Cotton, she's tied up with string. The trial got going on March 3 and Mary Ann was found guilty of the one murder four days later. She and her only surviving child, Isabella, had moved back to County Durham. Then Mary Ann's mother, living in Seaham Harbour, County Durham, became ill so she immediately went to her. By the end of the following year Cotton and two more children had died; again Mary Ann reportedly received an insurance payout. 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. The series also featured Alun Armstrong, Jonas Armstrong and Emma Fielding. Riley went to the village police and convinced the doctor to delay writing a death certificate until the circumstances could be investigated. Though she's been gone for nearly a century and a half, Cotton remains one of the most shocking female killers in modern history. Geni requires JavaScript! Enter a grandparent's name. If so, login to add it. Perhaps this is what caused the young family, in May 1893, to sail from Liverpool on RMS Umbria to New York for a new life. 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. In September 1870 Mary Ann and Cotton were marriedthough she was still wed to Robinsonand she later gave birth to a son. 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. The doctor testified that there was no other powder on the same shelf in the chemist's shop as the arsenic, only liquid; the chemist himself claimed that there were other powders. 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 11 children, all of whom had died of stomach fevers. Isabella lasted a few weeks until she died of "gastric fever," and she was soon followed by two more of Robinson's children, who succumbed to "continued fever" and yet another case of "gastric fever," according to death records. 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. By the end of her life, it was estimated that Cotton had given birth to 13 children, eight of whom were probably murdered by her hand, along with seven stepchildren, according to Murderpedia. She is believed to have murdered up to 21 people in total. He went to the police, who arrested Mary Ann and ordered the exhumation of Charles' body. 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