Have you taken a DNA test? The census revealed that her boys were working underground William was a collier and John was a pony driver. The first focused on Charles' death and took place in August of 1872. John joined the Green Howards, rose to be a lance corporal, and was killed, on June 11, 1917, at the Battle of Messines, near Ypres. Nattrass soon followed, though not before he put Mary Ann down as a beneficiary in his will. Frederick Jr. died in March 1872 and the infant Robert soon after. Facts concerning Mary Ann are difficult to pin down, but this was definitely her eighth child she had several miscarriages and there may have been other children. Mary Cotton was born in North England during the Victorian Period. 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. According to Psychology Today, female serial murderers often have a drive that's pretty distinct from their male counterparts. Mary Ann Robson was born on Halloween 1832 in Low Moorsley in County Durham. She apparently complained to a parish official named Thomas Riley that her stepson, Charles Edward Cotton, was preventing her from marrying Quick Mann. Several petitions were presented to the Home Secretary, but to no avail. According to the RadioTimes, a local Doctor Kilburn conducted a rushed inquest and determined that the boy had died of gastroenteritis. A Mr. Aspinwall was supposed to get the job, but the Attorney General, Sir John Duke Coleridge, chose his friend and protg Charles Russell. Though he appears to have worked as a skilled laborer who opened new mining shafts, the Robsons were working class. Once again, she profited from the insurance policy, but her spree was about to come to an end. 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. 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. Thank you for visiting mary ann cotton family tree page. At the end of her life, as she spoke with officials, Cotton did not offer an explanation for any of her murders. They had a son named Robert in early 1871, but Mary Ann discovered that her former lover, Nattrass, lived just 30 miles away in the village of West Auckland and was no longer married. The couple met when Robinson hired Mary Ann as his housekeeper in November 1866. The word was that she had killed anything up to 21 of her husbands, lovers, children and stepchildren, and even her own mother making her Britains most prolific mass murderer until Harold Shipman. . As she was sentenced to hang, the second hearing fizzled out. Omissions? The attending doctor later gave evidence that Ward had been very ill, yet he had been surprised that the man's death was so sudden. He went to the police, who arrested Mary Ann and ordered the exhumation of Charles' body. We meet Mary Ann as a loving wife and mother, newly returned to her native North East of England. 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. Mary Ann Cottons trial, for allegedly murdering her stepson Charles, was delayed for several months so that she could give birth. Where, where? Dark Angel, is based on the extraordinary true story of the Victorian poisoner Mary Ann Cotton, played by Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt. The trap door wasnt placed high enough to break her neck. Up in the air Sellin' black puddens a penny a pair. 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. She enjoyed crafting, hosting ceramics classes for many years, creating scrapbooks of family memories, and making special cards for every occasion. Last week, we covered the life and crimes of Mary Ann Cotton, also known as the West Auckland Poisoner. At the time of her trial, The Northern Echo published an article containing a description of Mary Ann as given by her childhood Wesleyan Sunday school superintendent at Murton, describing her as "a most exemplary and regular attender", "a girl of innocent disposition and average intelligence", and "distinguished for her particularly clean and tidy appearance."[2]. Russell's appointment over Aspinwall led to a question in the House of Commons. That left behind Mary, her stepson Charles Cotton, and Mary Ann's 13 child still growing in her womb. Though many killers are male, it turns out that women have turned to serial murder as well. After she was finally apprehended in 1872, some estimated that she may have killed as many as 21 people, according to Britannica. 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. Her stepson, Frederick Jr., and Robert, her infant son with Frederick, died early 1872. 2008 - 2022 INTERESTING.COM, INC. By the end of the following year Cotton and two more children had died; again Mary Ann reportedly received an insurance payout. At the beginning of it all, the girl who would become Mary Ann Cotton seemed, frankly, pretty unremarkable. Although her father fell down a THE baby was the daughter born to Mary Ann Cotton, of West Auckland, in Durham jail on January 7, 1873. When Mary Ann christened the baby with its distinctive surname, it identified the father. The defense in the case was handled by Mr. Thomas Campbell . She officially died of hepatitis, though she died just over a week after her daughter came to tend to her. On March 24, 1873, Mary Ann was hanged in a bungled execution. Mary Ann Cotton Shes dead and forgotten, She lies in a grave with her bones all-rotten; Sing, sing, oh, what can we sing, Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string. William and John went off to fight. Mary Ann was desperate and living on the streets until 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. The insurance policy Mary Ann had taken out on (the still living) Charles' life still awaited collection. He was John Quick- Manning, who was probably the excise officer at West Auckland Brewery and who was definitely married to someone else. In 1843, Mary Ann's widowed mother, Margaret (ne Lonsdale) married George Stott, with whom Mary Ann did not get along. Mary Ann Robson Cotton (1832-1873) - Find A Grave Mary Cotton was born in North England during the Victorian Period. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused. Although she began a relationship with a man named Joseph Nattrass, she moved once again, this time to Sunderland, after another one of her children died from gastric fever. Hell go like all the rest of the Cottons.". Whether or not he suspected his wife of something worse than fraud isn't clear, but we do know that Robinson refused, saving their lives. 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. Her father's body was delivered to her mother in a sack bearing the stamp 'Property of the South Hetton Coal Company'. Moreover, she was also forcing her stepchildren to pawn household items. Mary Ann Cotton was an English serial killer convicted of poisoning her stepson Charles Edward Cotton in 1872. In Low Moorsley, Tyne & Wear. Neither came home. A Gannett Company. Despite her sole conviction for murder, she is believed to have been a serial killer who killed many others including 11 of her 13 children and three of her four husbands for their insurance policies. 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. Around this time she took up with a former lover, Joseph Nattrass, but later became pregnant by another man, John Quick-Manning. 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. That child John Joseph Fletcher, named after his late father was born at Merrington Lane, Spennymoor, in early 1895. 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. Authorities also exhumed the bodies of Nattrass and two other Cotton children, and all were determined to have been poisoned with arsenic. Then Nattrass became ill with gastric fever, and died just after revising his will in Mary Anns favour. Sing, sing, what can I sing? Riley, who also served as West Auckland's assistant coroner, said she would have to accompany him. Corrections? Robinson, meanwhile, had become suspicious of his wife's insistence that he insure his life; he discovered that she had run up debts of 60 behind his back and had stolen more than 50 that she had been expected to bank. Reportedly just weeks after her arrival in 1866, one of his five children succumbed to gastric fever. Perhaps, to Mary Ann Cotton's mind, if she tried to settle down without killing for insurance money, she would be putting herself in a situation where she lacked control and could easily find herself out on the street, as she likely did after James Robinson forced her out of their home. The second, which took place in February 1873, was to center on the deaths of Nattrass, along with those of Robert and Frederick. (The lack of documentationsuch as birth and death certificatesleaves many details of Mary Anns life open to dispute.) As per Female Serial Killers, the two were married in 1865, shortly after he was discharged from the hospital. 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