The Invention of Murder (68 page)

33
ha, ha, ha:
Cited in M. Willson Disher,
Blood and Thunder: Mid-Victorian Melodrama and its Origins
(London, Frederick Muller, 1949), p.123.
favourite melodies:
Cited in William Knight,
A Major London ‘Minor’: The Surrey Theatre, 1805–1865
(London, Society for Theatre Research, 1997), p.62.

34
Alluded to by the Daily Press:
The playbill is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Theatre Collection.
pool of fire to be his pond: Observer,
‘Surrey Theatre’, 24 November 1823;
The Times,
18 November 1823.

35
truculent looking hag
Walter Scott,
The Journal of Sir Walter Scott,
ed. W.E.K. Anderson (Edinburgh, Canongate, 1998), pp.543–4.
impossible to sustain: Examiner,
‘The King v. The Proprietors of the Surrey Theatre’, 30 November 1823.

36
views of Probert’s cottage:
The unattributed cutting is in a scrapbook devoted to the case, in the British Library, shelfmark 6497.d.1.

37
no defence could be mounted:
William Holdsworth,
A History of English Law
(London, Methuen, 1966), p.192.
semi-literate at best: Antony E. Simpson, Witness to the Scaffold: English Literary Figures as Observers of Public Executions: Pierce Egan, Thackeray, Dickens, Alexander Smith, G. A. Sala, Orwell (Lambertville, NJ, True Bill Press, 2008), p.66.
Hunt and Probert had done it:
His defence speech was reprinted in, among others,
Bell’s Life,
11 January 1824.

38
the heads of the people:
‘An Account of the Last Moments and Execution of William Probert’ (Gateshead, W. Stephenson, [1825]), in the Bodleian Library, Harding, B9/1.59.
Sunday newspapers’ account:
Marcia Pointon, ‘Painters and Pugilism in Early Nineteenth-Century England’,
Gazette des Beaux-Arts,
6, Octobre 1978, p.138.
noted the
Chronicle: The
Observer
advertised in the
Derby Mercury,
31 December 1823;
Bell’s Weekly Dispatch
advertised in the
Hull Packet,
15 December 1823.
Palmer, Probert and Williams: Bell’s Life, 28 March 1868, p.7.

39
early in the day:
Alexander Smith, ‘A Lark’s Flight’, in
Dreamthorp
(London, Strahan & Co., 1863), p.99.
Weare’s body into the bushes:
‘Scene of the Murder in Gill’s-Hill-Lane’ (London, J. Catnach, [1823–4]).

40
Did drink his reeking blood:
‘The Hertfordshire Tragedy; or, the Fatal Effects of Gambling. Exemplified in the Murder of Mr. Weare and the Execution of John Thurtell’ (London,
J. Catnach, [1824]).
affecting beyond description:
Untitled broadside, Bodleian Library, Crim 590 P186a(27).
was a murdered man:
G.M. Macaulay,
British History in the Nineteenth Century, 1782–1901
(London, Longmans, 1922), p.171.

41
worse than those who are:
George Borrow,
The Romany Rye
([1857], Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984), pp.275–7.
in the dissecting room: The Times,
‘The Body of Thurtell and the Phrenologists’, 13 January 1823, p.3.
in the next Number: Egan, Account of the Trial of Thurtell and Hunt, prelim page, unnumbered.
entirely realistic: Susan Wheeler, ‘Medicine in Art: The Lancett Club at a Thurtell Feast, by Thomas Rowlandson’, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Science, 57, 3, 2002, p.330.

42
few windfalls like him:
William Makepeace Thackeray, ‘Solitude in September’,
National Standard of Literature, Science, Music, Theatricals and the Fine Arts,
14 September 1833, 37, vol. 2 (London, Thomas Hurst, 1833), pp.158–9.
confess his being hoaxed:
Broadside sales in Charles Hindley,
The Life of J. Catnach, Late of Seven Dials, Ballad Monger
(London, Reeves & Turner, [1878]), p.4. These figures should be treated with caution. In
The Catnach Press: A Collection of the Books and Woodcuts of James Catnach …
(London, Reeves & Turner, [1869]), pp.142–3, Hindley wavers between the number of presses Catnach had for the job – four on one page, eight on the next, then back to four again; ‘The Hoax Discovered’ (London, W. Chubb, [1823–24]), cited in Borowitz,
Thurtell-Hunt Murder Case,
pp.89–90.
Irish Champion, Langan himself
Coburg: Allardyce Nicoll,
A History of Early Nineteenth Century Drama, 1800–1850
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1930), vol. 2, p.468; Surrey: Playbill reproduced in Borowitz,
Thurtell-Hunt Murder Case;
Langan: advertisement,
The Times,
29 January 1824, p.2, and passim other days.
by hardened villains:
Hannah Maria Jones,
The Gamblers; or, The Treacherous Friend: A Moral Tale, Founded on Recent Facts
(London, E. Livermore, 1824), pp.669–70. Biographical information, John Sutherland,
The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction
(Harlow, Longman, 1988).

43
botched robbery:
It has long been recognized that
Pelham
itself draws on an earlier novel, William Godwin’s
Caleb Williams
(1794), for what would later be called detective-story elements – crime, pursuit, revelation – including Bulwer taking a variant of the name ‘Tyrrel’ from Godwin for one of his main characters. Yet Jones’s entirely obscure novel
The Gamblers
is another influence on Bulwer: four years before
Pelham, The Gamblers
not only used the name Tyrrell, but also had a lead character named Pelham.
sold quite quickly: The Times,
advertisement, 21 February 1824, p.1.
reading about THURTELL:
William Cobbett,
Rural Rides,
ed. Ian Dyck ([1830], Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2001), pp.259–60.

44
their own line:
Thomas and Jane Carlyle,
The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle,
eds. Charles Richard Sanders, Clyde de L. Ryals, Kenneth J. Fielding et al. (Durham, Duke University Press, 1970–2005), 21 January 1824, vol. 3, p.16; Watson,
Trial of Thurtell and Hunt,
p.48. The erroneous report appeared in the
Quarterly Review,
37, 1828, p.15; its unreliability was obvious at the time, as the journalist added ‘We quote from memory’; George Eliot,
The Mill on the Floss,
ed. Gordon S. Haight ([1860], Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996), p.272; William Makepeace Thackeray,
Vanity Fair,
ed. J.I.M. Stewart ([1848], Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1968), p.796. John Harwood,
Miss Jane, the Bishop’s Daughter
(London, Richard Bentley, 1867), Vol. 3, p.1.
the licence was refused:
Henry Young and J.J. Cave, ‘The Gipsey of Edgware, or, The Crime in Gills Hill Lane’, unpublished playscript, for Marylebone Theatre, August 1862, licence refused, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 53015 (O).
wot lived in Lyons Inn:
The verse, and Browning’s memory of it, in Charles Kegan Paul,
Memories
(London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Tribner, 1899), p.338.
New Globe Theatre: Observer,
29 November 1868, p.6.

45
co-proprietor of a girls’ school: The details of Corder’s crime, trial and execution are compiled from: Bell’s Life, 27 April, 4 May, 1, 15 June, 10 August 1828; Manchester Guardian, 26 April 1828; Morning Chronicle, 24, 25, 28 April, 1, 29 May, 8, 9, 11, 12, 30 August 1828; Observer, 27 April, 4 May, 10, 11, 17 August 1828; The Times, 23, 24, 28 April, 1, 29 May, 10, 21 June, 4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 18 August 1828. Contemporary reports include: [Anon.] An Accurate Account of the Trial of William Corder, for the Murder of Maria Marten, of Polstead, in Suffolk … to which are added, an explanatory preface, and fifty-three of the letters Sent by various Ladies, in answer to Corder’s Matrimonial Advertisement… (London, George Foster, [1828]); [Anon], Advertisement for Wives (W. Foster, London, 1828); Anon., The Trial of William Corder for the murder of Maria Marten, in the Red Barn, at Polstead, including the matrimonial advertisement… (3rd edn, 1828); J. Curtis, An Authentic and Faithful History of the Mysterious Murder of Maria Marten and A Full Development of the Extraordinary Circumstances which led to the Discovery of her Body, ed. Jeanne and Norman Mackenzie ([1828], London, Pilot, 1948).
imprudent connexion:
‘Horrible Murder. An account of a most horrid, bloody, and savage Murder …’ (John Muir, Prince’s Street, 1828), Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, Crime 1 (47).

46
off the track:
‘Atrocious Murder of a Young Woman in Suffolk’, broadside, reprinted in Hindley,
The Catnach Press,
p.180.
its absence at the trial itself Observer,
‘Dreadful Murder’, 27 April 1828, has mention of the dream (only twice); neither the
Observer,
‘Norfolk Circuit. – Suffolk Assizes’, 10 August, nor
The Times,
‘Summer Assizes’, 8 August, in their transcripts of the trial, makes any mention of it.

47
under the Red Barn floor:
‘Murder of Maria Martin by W. Corder’ (Liverpool, John White, [1828]), Bodleian Library, Firth c.17(111).
reach of scepticism:
W.T. Moncrieff,
The Red Farm, or, The Well of St. Marie,
no. 611 in Dick’s Standard Plays (Surrey, 1842; London, John Dicks, [1885]), p.1.
secrecy may be relied on: Reproduced in An Accurate Account of the Trial of William Corder, pp.5–6.

48
razors, dogs, and hay: Douglas Jerrold, Wives by Advertisement; or, Courting in the Newspapers. A Dramatic Satire in One Act ([1828], London, John Dicks, [1888]), pp.2, 3, 59.

50
less in this town:
The congregation of 5,000 and the Stoke-by-Nayland fair: Catherine Pedley, ‘Maria Marten, or, The Murder in the Red Barn: The Theatricality of Provincial Life’,
Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film,
31, 2004, pp.30, 28; the Cherry Fair and ballad-singers: Curtis,
Authentic and Faithful History,
pp.73–4; the judge’s comments,
The Times,
‘Summer Assizes’, 9 August 1828, and trial transcript, Curtis,
Authentic and Faithful History,
pp.118–19.
the boiling of the eggs: ‘Lord’ George Sanger, Seventy Years a Showman: My Life and Adventures in Camp and Caravan the World Over (London, C. Arthur Pearson, [1926]), pp.18–19.

51
inquest on the child: J.J. Tobias, Crime and Police in England, pp.124–5; Bristol Mercury, 4 October 1873, p.3.
burn all my letters:
‘A Full Account of the Trial and Conviction of Wm. Corder …’ (Gateshead, Stephenson 1828), Bodleian Law Library, Crim 590 P186a (40). 53
gesture for his readers:
Mr Hyatt,
The Sinner Detected. A Sermon Preached in the Open Air near the Red Barn at Polstead …
(London, Westley & May, [1828]); Mr Pilkington in
Morning Chronicle, ‘Polstead Sermons’, 30 August 1828; Mr Hughes, A Sermon on the Power of Conscience, with an application to the Recent Trial and Condemnation of William Corder … (Bury St Edmund’s, T.C. Newby, [1828]); ‘A Suffolk Clergyman’, An Address to My Parishioners and Neighbours on the Subject of the Murder lately committed at Polstead, in Suffolk (London, Seeley & Son, [1828]), passim, and final service, pp.18–19; V.A.C. Gatrell, The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People, 1770–1868 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994), p.44.
Maria and Frederick Manning [Robert Huish and William Maginn?], The Red Barn, A Tale, Founded on Fact (London, Knight & Lacey, 1828); biographical details: Helen R. Smith, New Light on Sweeney Todd, Thomas Peckett Prest, James Malcolm Rymer and Elizabeth Caroline Grey (London, Jarndyce, 2002), pp.13–14.

54
accelerate his death: The Times,
‘Confession and Execution of William Corder …’, reprinted in Hindley,
The Catnach Press,
p.187; Gatrell,
Hanging Tree,
p.54; ‘Conduct, Confession, and Execution of Corder’, 12 August 1828.

55
without any outdoor clothes:
I am grateful to the fashion historian Colin McDowell for his reading of this word.
made plaster casts:
‘A Copy of Verses, on the Execution of Wm. Corder, For the Murder of Maria Marten …’ ([no printer or place of publication], [1828]), Bodleian Library, Johnson Ballads 2416; ‘A Full Account of the Trial and Conviction of Wm. Corder …’ Bodleian Law Library, Crim 590 P186a (40);
Observer,
‘Execution’, 17 August 1828; Curtis,
Authentic and Faithful
…, p.191.

56
Camera obscura of the murder: For information about the relics, see: Observer, 17 August 1828; Morning Chronicle, 3 June 1831; The Times, 20 April 1943; Hull Packet and Humber Mercury, 14 July 1829; Literary Gazette, June 1829, p.427; Curtis, Authentic and Faithful…, pp.190–92; Kaleidoscope, September 1828, p.83; Gatrell, The Hanging Tree, pp.256–8. cavalier costume: Mayhew, London Labour, vol. 3, p.140.
population was under twenty: Martin J. Wiener, Reconstructing the Criminal: Culture, Law and Policy in England, 1830–1914 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990), p.17.

57
filled with benches:
James Greenwood,
The Wilds of London
(London, Chatto & Windus, 1874), pp.13–14.
THE MURDER IN THE COTTAGE:
James Grant,
Sketches in London
(London, W.S. Orr & Co., 1838), pp.162–3, 183.