The Invention of Murder (71 page)

123
going mad:
Mary Elizabeth Braddon,
One Life, One Love
(London, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1890).
the ages to come: C.L. Pirkis, The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (London, Hutchinson, 1894), p.73.
Ellen Terry’s niece:
Production information: Tyson,
Eugene Aram,
p.135.

124
seventeen pups: Kirby’s Wonderful and Scientific Museum: or, Magazine of Remarkable Characters… (London, R.S. Kirby, 1804), p.523; Ipswich Journal, 9 August 1806, p.4. the real murderer: Amelia Opie, ‘Henry Woodville’, in The Works of Mrs. Amelia Opie (Philadelphia, Crissy & Markley, 1843), vol. 2, pp.385–411.

125
to enlighten her
Thomas Edward Hook,
Killing No Murder, with … the scene suppressed by order of the Lord Chamberlain
(5th edn, London, C. Chapple, 1811), p.31; Anon., ‘The Murder’d Guest’, unpublished playscript, December 1826, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 42881 (11) ff.526–53b. (The siting of the production at Drury Lane is from Nicoll,
A History of Early Nineteenth-Century Drama);
Anon., ‘The Murderers of the Round Tower Inn’, unpublished playscript, for performance Royal West London and Olympic Theatres, February 1830, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 42900 (6) ff.209–87.
for £5 each:
Disher,
Blood and Thunder,
p.90; [Wilkie Collins],
Household Words,
‘Dramatic Grub Street’, 17, 6 March 1858, p.267. (The authorship for the unsigned articles in
Household Words
has, throughout these notes, followed the sourcing of Anne Lohrli,
Household Words: A Weekly Journal 1850–59 … based on the
Household Words
Office Book
… (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1973).) Jerrold: Michael R. Booth,
English Melodrama
(London, Herbert Jenkins, 1965), p.48; Dickens on Moncrieff: Dickens to John Forster, 7 September 1837, in Dickens,
Letters,
vol. 1, p.304.
had come out: S.J. Adair Fitz-Gerald, Dickens and the Drama, Being an Account of Charles Dickens’s Connection with the Stage and the Stage’s Connection with Him (London, Chapman & Hall, 1910), pp.83ff., 121–6; Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, ed. Michael Slater ([1838–9], Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1986), p.727. with these quotations: Kilgarriff, The Golden Age of Melodrama, p.239.
Cockney apprentice: Edward Fitzball, Jonathan Bradford!, or, The Murder at the Roadside Inn! (London, John Duncombe, [?1833]), p.33.

126 one striking effect:
Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle,
16 December 1833, p.3, advertisement. Fitzball’s name appears nowhere in this advertisement, and it may be that for copyright reasons this was not his version. But the pioneering effect it described certainly was.
applauded unanimously: Edward Fitzball, Thirty-five Years of a Dramatic Author’s Life
(London, T.C. Newby, 1859), pp.239, 241.
Many perfect comedies: Figaro in London, 27 July 1833, p.120.
notice in
The Times:
The Times,
‘Surrey Theatre’, 7 October 1833.
horse with the same name: Derby runners, Derby Mercury, 9 July 1834, p.2.
excluding Sundays:
Advertisements appear in the
Examiner
on 7 October, 1 and 15
December 1833 giving the number of performances; for the longer theatre runs in the
1850s, see Booth, Theatre in the Victorian Age, p.13.

127
had three performances: Advertisements in Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 14 and 18 November 1833, p.1 in both issues.
Man came wooing:
Productions appear in advertisements in:
Caledonian Mercury,
24 August 1833, p.2;
Jackson’s Oxford Journal,
7 September 1833, p.3;
Liverpool Mercury,
25 October 1833, p.350;
Ipswich Journal,
18 January 1834, p.3;
Freeman’s Journal,
14 and 18 November 1833, p.1;
Belfast News-Letter,
24 December 1833, p.1;
Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle,
16 December 1833, p.3.
of the gaol: Thomas Greenwood, Jack Sheppard; or, The Housebreaker of the Last Century (London, John Cumberland & Son, [1839?]), p.15.

128
lawyer who vanished:
Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell, ‘A Dark Night’s Work’ (1863) in
The Works of Elizabeth Gaskell,
vol. 4, ‘Novellas and Shorter Fiction III’, ed. Linda Hughes (London, Pickering & Chatto, 2006); the Knutsford murder story and its Gaskell connection appears in John Geoffrey Sharps,
Mrs Gaskell’s Observation and Invention: A Study of Her Non-Biographic Works
(Fontwell, Sussex, Linden Press, 1970), pp.354–5.
dead, as in
Bradford: Sheridan Le Fanu, ‘Some Account of the Latter Days of the Hon. Richard Marston’ (1848);
The Evil Guest
([1851], London, Downey & Co., [1892?]); A
Lost Name
(New York, Arno Press, 1977; facsimile edn of London, Richard Bentley, 1868).
incidents of the tragedy:
Charles Dickens, ‘The Holly Tree Inn: The Guest’,
Household Words,
12, Christmas Special, December 1855, p.5.

129
alive at this moment: [Thomas Peckett Prest?], Jonathan Bradford, or, The Murder at the Road-side Inn. A Romance of Thrilling Interest (London, E. Lloyd, [1851]), pp.110, 140. It is James and Smith who attribute the authorship to Prest, in Penny Dreadfuls and Boys’ Adventures.
by the proprietor
[John Hollingshead], ‘Street Memories’,
Household Words,
17, December 1857, p.10.

130
world collapsed:
Martin Meisel,
Realizations: Narrative, Pictorial, and Theatrical Arts in Nineteenth-Century England
(Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1983), p.25, discusses Augustus Egg in connection with
The Corsican Brothers,
but the Jack Sheppard/Jonathan Bradford links are my own. For more on
The Corsican Brothers,
see also my
Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian England
(London, HarperCollins, 2006), pp.333–5.
reliance can be placed: Captain L. Benson, The Book of Remarkable Trials and Notorious Characters. From ‘Half-Hanged Smith’, 1700 – To Oxford, who Shot at the Queen, 1840 (London, Chatto & Windus, [1871]), p.121.

131
for the final curtain: Dion Boucicault, The Colleen Bawn, or, The Brides of Garryowen. A Domestic Drama (London, Thomas Hailes Lacy, 1860).
open trapdoor:
Richard Fawkes,
Dion Boucicault
(London, Quartet, 1979), p.118.
night before proceeding:
I am grateful to Tobias Hoheisel for suggesting the possible
mechanics of Boucicault’s leap.
The Times,
‘The Adelphi’, 27 December 1860.
while life remains: George Bernard Shaw, Our Theatres in the Nineties, (London, Constable,

1932), vol. 2, p.29. I am grateful to Zoë Anderson for this reference.

132
Woman in White perfume: Sheppardiana: Hollingsworth, Newgate Novels, p.140; Woman in White spin-offs: Deborah Wynne, The Sensation Novel and the Victorian Family Magazine (Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2001), p.38.
Bawn quick-step:
The music for all these pieces, and many more, can be found in the British Library catalogue.

133
earlier Colleens Bawns:
Colleen cabs: Nicholas Daly, ‘The Many Lives of the Colleen Bawn: Pastoral Suspense’,
Journal of Victorian Culture,
12, 1, 2007, p.5; fashion advertisements:
Le Follet: Journal du Grand Monde
…, 1 April 1861,
Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine,
‘The Fashions’, 1 August 1861,
Le Follet,
1 August 1861,
Ladies’ Monthly Magazine,
‘Le Monde Eléganté [sic]’, 1 September 1861; Sydney Hodges:
John Bull and Britannia,
22 June 1861, p.395; greyhound:
Bell’s Life,
24 March 1861, p.5; rowing club:
Bell’s Life,
28 July 1861, p.6.

134
a horrid villain:
The details of Ellen Hanley’s murder and both trials have been compiled from:
Belfast News-Letter,
24 September 1862;
Examiner,
25 July, 6 August 1820;
Glasgow Herald,
14 August 1820;
Pall Mall Gazette,
29 November 1867;
The Times,
4, 8 August 1820; Revd Dr Richard Fitzgerald of Ballydonohoe,
The Colleen Bawn: The True History of Ellen Hanley. By One who Knew Her in Life and Saw Her in Death
([1868], Tralee, Kerryman, 1931); Daly, ‘Many Lives of the Colleen Bawn’; O’Connell to his wife: Maurice R. O’Connell, ed.,
The Correspondence of Daniel O’Connell
(Dublin, Irish University Press for the Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1972), vol. 2, p.243.

136
reprieve might be obtained: M.J. Whitty, Tales of Irish Life, Illustrative of the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the People (London, J. Robins, 1824).

137
observance of the penitent:
Gerald Griffin,
The Collegians; or, The Colleen Bawn
([1829], London, George Routledge, [?1860]).
they appeared in Griffin:
Playbill in the Fillingham Collection, British Library, shelfmark 1889.b.10/6.
times in a fortnight: M. Willson Disher, Melodrama: Plots that Thrilled (London, Rockliff, 1954), p.6.
a rarity: Manchester Times, ‘Art and Literary Gossip’, 27 October 1860. which he accepted: Davis, Britannia Diaries, p.19.

138
well-born heiress:
Anon., ‘The very latest Edition of The Cooleen [sic] Drawn, from a novel source, or, The Great Sensation Diving Belle’, unpublished playscript, for performance at the Royal Surrey Theatre, October 1861, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 53007 (O); Henry J. Byron,
Miss Eily O’Connor. A New and Original Burlesque
(London, Thomas Hailes Lacy, [1862]); ‘Andrew Halliday Duff’ [pseud. of William Brough and Andrew Halliday],
The Colleen Bawn Settled at Last. A Farcical Extravaganza
(London, Thomas Hailes Lacy, [1862]); First performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, July 5th, 1862; Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 53014 (Z).

139
musical version: Bell’s Life, 15 June 1862, p.3.
a small boat: The Colleen Bawn, or, The Collegian’s Wife,
Purkess’s Penny Pictorial Play ([London, G. Purkess, n.d.]).
at the Britannia:
Sunderland and D’Arc marionettes, McCormick,
Victorian Marionette Theatre,
pp.109, 121–2. Britannia Theatre, playbill dated 3 October 1881, in the Victoria and Albert Theatre Collection.

140
with pieces of wood:
Palmer,
Police and Protest,
pp.308–9. I am indebted to Palmer for the information and interpretation in this paragraph.
142 constables on the beat: Cobb, The First Detectives, p.102.
144 Murderer Daniel Good: Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, 9 May 1842, p.2.

146
to dispose of the body:
The outline of Daniel Good’s crime, pursuit and trial is taken primarily from: Old Bailey trial transcript, ref. t18420509–1705;
Bell’s Life,
10, 17, 24 April, 15, 29 May 1842;
Era,
10, 17, 24 April, 15, 29 May 1842;
Examiner,
9, 14, 16, 23, 30 April, 28 May 1842;
Morning Chronicle,
11, 14, 19, 22 April, 14, 24 May 1842;
The Times,
8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28 April, 13, 24 May 1842; and Cobb,
The First Detectives,
pp.183ff.

147
had been a railway worker:
‘The Life, Trial, and Execution of D. Good, for the Murder of Jane Jones’ (London, Paul, [1842]), and ‘Apprehension of D. Good at Tonbridge for the Murder of Jane Jones …’ (London, Paul & Co., [1842]), both in the Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, Broadsides: Murders and Executions, Large Folder.
hours to live: Illustrated London News, 21 May 1842, p.30.

148
violated the constitution: The Times, 2 December 1845, p.4.
four plainclothes men:
For the development of the Birmingham force, Michael Weaver, ‘The New Science of Policing: Crime and the Birmingham Police Force, 1839–1842’,
Albion,
26, 2, 1994, pp.289–308.

149
living off the working classes:
Robert D. Storch, ‘The Policeman as Domestic Missionary’.
round a shilling
‘The Righteous Peeler’,
The London Singer’s Magazine: A Collection of All the Most Celebrated and Popular Songs as Sung at the London Theatres…
(London, John Duncombe, [1839?]), vol. 2, p.197. The British Library catalogue offers 1838 for the date of this publication, but the Police Act 1839 parodied in the lyrics indicates a date of at least 1839.

152
guilty as charged:
Accounts of the life, crime and trial of Rush have been compiled from:
Bell’s Life,
3, 10, 17, 24 December 1848, 1, 8, 22 April 1849;
Daily News,
4 December 1848, 23 April 1849;
Era,
10, 17, 24 December 1848, 14 January, 1, 8 April, 13 May 1884;
Examiner,
2, 9, 16, 23 December 1848, 31 March, 7 April, 5 May 1849, ‘False Reliance’[attributed to Dickens], 2 June 1849;
Ipswich Journal,
9, 23 December, 13 January, 31 March, 7, 28 April 1849;
John Bull,
2, 16, 25 December 1848, 31 March, 7, 21 April, 26 May 1849;
Lloyd’s Weekly,
14 January, 1, 15 April 1849;
Morning Chronicle,
16, 21 December 1848;
The Times,
28, 30, 31 March, 2, 3, 4, 5 April 1849. The
Norwich Mercury’s
special supplement, ‘Norwich Mercury Extraordinary’: Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, Broadsides: Murders and Executions, folder 7 (34). Anon.,
A Full Report of the Trial of James Blomfield Rush for the Murder of Mr. Jermy and His Son …
(15th edn, London, W.M. Clark, [1849]);
An Introductory Narrative and a Revised Report of the Trial and Execution of J.B. Rush, for the Murder of Isaac Jermy, of Stanfield Hall Esq. and of his Son, Isaac Jermy Jermy, Esq …
(Norwich, Bacon & Kinnebrook, 1849);
The Life, Trial, and Execution of James B. Rush, for the Stanfield Hall Murders!
(London, Birt, [1849]);
The Stanfield Hall Assassinations! Authentic Report of the Trial, Conviction and Extraordinary Defence of Jas. Bloomfield [sic] Rush …
(2nd edn, London, Cleave, [1849]); a modern outline of the trial can be found in W. Teignmouth Shore,
Trial of James Blomfield Rush
(Edinburgh, William Hodge, 1928). The idea that Emily Sandford was the source of the forged documents is my own.