Mary Ann Cotton

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Mary Ann Cotton

• By Leia Hockaday

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Mary Ann Cotton --She's dead and she's
rotten!She lies in her bedWith her eyes wide
open.  Sing, sing!"Oh, what can I sing?Mary
Ann Cotton is tied up with string. Where,
where?"Up in the air -- selling black puddings a
penny a pair."
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Her Life.
Mary Ann Cotton was born into a young family.
When her parents married, they were younger than
twenty. Her father was a miner and he didnt
bring much money home for the family. When she
was eight, her family moved and so they had to go
to another school. When at school, she found it
hard to make friends. Her family was broken apart
by the death of her father when he was at work
after he fell down a mine shaft. Her mother
re-married. Mary disliked her new step father.
But he brought wealth to the family. Mary Ann got
a job at a nearby house at the age of sixteen.
She served there for three years. When she left,
she started to train as a dressmaker.
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Her Story
Mary Ann Cotton is famous for being the first
female serial killer in Britain. She is thought
to have killed five husbands, their children and
other family members. In total, its thought she
killed 21 or more people. A pattern emerged.
She married a man and then her husband died.
They were soon followed by her children. She
moved around the north-east to avoid detection.
She poisoned her victims with arsenic but it
wasnt until she was found guilty after she
poisoned her step-son, Charlie that the real
truth emerged. When she was arrested, her
victims body were tested and traces of arsenic
was found.
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1st Husband
Mary Ann married a miner called William Mowbray
secretly in Devon, where she became pregnant for
the first time. She eventually had five children
but four of them died. William and Mary moved
to the North East and she had another three
children. All three of the children and William
died.
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Another Relationship.
After William died, Mary Ann and her remaining
children moved to Seaham where she started seeing
a local man called Joseph Natress. Joseph was
engaged to someone else and Mary Ann was unable
to break that relationship up. On the day Joseph
Natress married his fiancé, Mary Ann fled to
Sunderland with only one child, having earlier
buried her three and a half year old daughter.
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2nd Husband.
Mary Ann and her only surviving child Isabella
went to live in Sunderland. Isabella went to live
with her grandmother whilst Mary Ann worked at
The Sunderland Infirmary, House of Recovery for
the Cure of Contagious Fever, Dispensary and
Humane Society. Here she had free access to the
drugs supply. One of her jobs was to clean the
wards with soap and arsenic. She was very popular
with the patients and eventually married former
patient George Ward an engineer in Monkwearmouth
in August 1865. Not long after the wedding,
George became ill and developed health problems.
In October 1866, he died. Still nobody had
grown suspicious about the deaths of her husbands
and all but one of her children who had died from
very similar illnesses.
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3rd Husband
In November 1866, Mary Ann became housekeeper to
James Robinson whose wife, Hannah, had died
earlier One of Jamess children became ill, two
days before Christmas, with gastric fever and
died. He turned to Mary Ann for comfort and later
she became pregnant with his child. Whilst still
living with Robinson, Mary Anns mother became
ill so she immediately went to Seaham Harbour,
where her mother and daughter lived. Her mother
started getting better but days later, began
complaining of stomach pains. She died nine days
after Mary Ann had arrived. Isabella and Mary
Ann went back home with James, where Isabella
developed bad stomach pains. Isabella and two of
Jamess children died. All three children were
buried within two weeks of each other at the end
of April 1867. The couple had their first baby
a daughter called Mary Isabella. But she became
ill with the same illness as the other children.
James was surprised when to receive letters
telling him about money that Mary Ann had spent.
When he asked his remaining children, it turned
out that she had pawned a lot of his possessions
without his permission. James threw Mary out and
she took their daughter with her. In 1869, Mary
Ann asked a woman to look after Mary Isabella
whilst she posted a letter. She never returned
and Mary Isabella went to live with her father.
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4th Husband
In 1870, a friend, Margaret Cotton introduced
Mary Ann to her brother, Frederick a widower
whod recently lost two of his four children
from his previous marriage. He had a sister who
acted as Charlies and Frederick Juniors mother.
Unfortunately, she too died of a stomach illness.
Mary soon attached herself to Frederick and his
family and became pregnant with Fredericks
child. Adding to her list of crimes she married
in Frederick in September of 1870 even though she
was still married to James Robinson Mary Ann
decided to keep her first husband name Mowbray.
Mary Ann insured Frederick and his two sons.
Mary gave birth to a son, Robert, in 1871. She
had heard that Joseph Natress, a former
boyfriend, had become single and she moved
herself and family to go and live with him. In
December of 1871, Frederick Cotton died of the
same illness everyone had.
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5th Husband.
After Frederick died, Joseph Natress moved in
with Mary Ann. She got a job as a nurse for John
Quick-Manning and again it wasnt long before she
became pregnant with his child. She couldnt
marry Quick-Manning as she was still part of the
Cotton family. Frederick Junior died in 1872
and was soon followed by her young son Robert.
Natress also became ill with gastric fever.
Joseph would soon follow! He would be Mary Ann
Cottons last husband.
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Green Wallpaper.
Frederick Cottons son, Charles, was still alive.
Mary Ann sent him to get some arsenic from the
chemist. He wasnt allowed to buy it because he
was under the age of 21. One of Mary Anns
friends were asked if they would collect it. In
July of that year, Charles died of gastric fever.
Mary Anns neighbours became suspicious of Mary
Ann as they were aware of the line of husbands
and children that had died. Before Charles had
died, Mary Ann had tried to get him in a
workhouse but she refused because she had to go
with him. She had told Thomas Reily that he would
no longer be in the way. Also hell go like the
rest of the Cotton family. He grew in suspicion
when he had seen Charles and he was healthy and
five days later had died. Reily wanted to look
into the situation and told the doctor not to
sign the death certificate. Mary Ann went to
collect the money she was owned because of his
death. She was told she couldnt collect it
because she needed proof of a Death Certificate.
Mary Ann went to collect the certificate but it
hadnt been signed. Mary Ann found out that
Thomas Reily wanted to look into the death of
Charles. She was fuming and put Reily in charge
of the funeral costs. Word went round West
Auckland about her murders and soon the newspaper
publishers became involved. At the time her
wedding with Quick-Manning was being planned.
When he found out about all of this, he refused
to see Mary Ann and he didnt want anything to do
with her. The doctor had kept samples of Charles
body and he carried out tests. The test for
arsenic was positive so the authorities were
informed and they arrested Mary Ann for the death
of Charles.
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Her trial began in March of 1873. She was found
guilty of the murder of Charles Cotton after
research went into his death. She was arrested
and wrote letters to family members and
supporters and also to James Robinson. She wanted
him to bring their children to visit her jail. He
ignored her letter though. Finally, March 24th
came. She was hung. The hangman had misjudged the
hanging and so she took three minutes to finally
die.
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• Recent modernisation of the prison meant some of
  the graves of executed criminals were disturbed.
  Their bodies were removed and cremated. Mary Ann
  Cotton was one of those

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Note to Sarah

• Theres two images of Mary Ann Cotton from your
  archive. Ones a real photo in which she looks
  normal but the second is a drawing made up to
  make her look evil/ sinister. Id like to have
  these as an exercise in which pupils are asked
  the following questions
• Describe the ways the two are similar
• How are they different?
• Which is most reliable in showing what Mary Ann
  Cotton was like?
• If you were editor of a newspaper which of these
  would you use and why?
• Why do you think the bottom picture has been put
  together in this style?