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Poison Panic: Arsenic Deaths in 1840s Essex
True crime that "will appeal to readers interested in gaining an insight into the lives of women accused of murder in the mid 19th century" (Essex Family Historian).
For a few years in the 1840s, Essex was notorious in the minds of Victorians as a place where women stalked the winding country lanes looking for their next victim to poison with arsenic. Though that terrible image may not have much basis in truth, it was a symptom of an anxiety-filled time . . .
The 1840s were also known as the "hungry '40s," when crop failures pushed up food prices and there was popular unrest across Europe. The decade culminated in a cholera epidemic in which tens of thousands of people in the British Isles died. It is perhaps no surprise that people living through that troubled decade were captivated by the stories of the "poisoners" that death was down to "white powder" and the evil intentions of the human heart.
Sarah Chesham, Mary May, and Hannah Southgate are the protagonists of this tale of how rural Essex, in a country saturated with arsenic, was touched by the tumultuous 1840s.
"Barrell's meticulous research and eye for detail recreate lurking threats, and these scandalous true stories are as compelling as any crime fiction." --History of War
"An intriguing read that brings a forgotten history to light and reveals past attitudes to women--and a national fear that gripped Victorian Britain." --Family Tree Magazine
"This book will fascinate not only historians of true crime and those with an interest in genealogy but any reader seeking a story that would make Agatha Christie proud." --All About History
For a few years in the 1840s, Essex was notorious in the minds of Victorians as a place where women stalked the winding country lanes looking for their next victim to poison with arsenic. Though that terrible image may not have much basis in truth, it was a symptom of an anxiety-filled time . . .
The 1840s were also known as the "hungry '40s," when crop failures pushed up food prices and there was popular unrest across Europe. The decade culminated in a cholera epidemic in which tens of thousands of people in the British Isles died. It is perhaps no surprise that people living through that troubled decade were captivated by the stories of the "poisoners" that death was down to "white powder" and the evil intentions of the human heart.
Sarah Chesham, Mary May, and Hannah Southgate are the protagonists of this tale of how rural Essex, in a country saturated with arsenic, was touched by the tumultuous 1840s.
"Barrell's meticulous research and eye for detail recreate lurking threats, and these scandalous true stories are as compelling as any crime fiction." --History of War
"An intriguing read that brings a forgotten history to light and reveals past attitudes to women--and a national fear that gripped Victorian Britain." --Family Tree Magazine
"This book will fascinate not only historians of true crime and those with an interest in genealogy but any reader seeking a story that would make Agatha Christie proud." --All About History
212 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 20, 2019
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84 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 18, 2016
Painting with colorful stories of specific events, Poison Panic took me on an interesting investigation into where the truth sometimes gets lost. I loved how the author used specific details to show how rumors spread and become the new truth. Moments in the book reminded me how easily the witch trials got out of hand. Very enjoyable and enlightening read!
March 3, 2017
Fascinating insight into the world of early forensics, this book is well-written and engaging. I recommend it to anyone interested in both social history and early crime detection but it is also a really good read in itself.
December 28, 2017
In the 1840s the level of literacy was still low across the United Kingdom, but stories of crimes committed didn’t need to be read by everyone for them to spread, especially when the crime was murder, even more so if committed by a woman and panic inducing when the means by which a person was slayed was poison.
In Essex the county was the unfortunate scene of the panic induced by tales told both orally and by the newspapers about a number of women put on trial for poisoning unwanted relations using arsenic. There were calls for regulations and a strong sense that there was a shadowy group of women who were acting in cahoots or at least devising a method to poison people and walk away from the horrific crime with no stain on their character.
Helen Barrell’s book, Poison Panic, delves into the facts, and the fiction, of these events using all available sources to examine the cases and to evaluate whether there was any sense of collusion between the women whose crimes feature here.
This book is jam-packed, not just with the details of the three women Sarah Chesham Mary May and Hannah Southgate whose crimes in rural Essex led to wariness about that gentle hand at home who was in charge of preparing the food, slipping some of the notorious white powder into the dish, but also on some of the social history. We learn just how rudimentary their homes were, the rats that plagued the household were hopefully kept at bay with arsenic, houses where one man’s struggle with the results of arsenic poisoning were more than a slight inconvenience for his downstairs neighbours and houses where money from a burial club might just make it worthwhile to bump of an unsuspecting relative?
I’m a fan of investigations into Victorian crimes and can only applaud Helen Barrell in her presentation of the interlinking stories in Essex. With plenty of pictures, including photographs, illustrations from the magazine Punch as well as the very useful maps that underpin how closely or conversely how far apart the women lived from each other in a time where transport for wives of agricultural labourers wasn’t an option. To give a little perspective the author uses information from her own family in the village of Wix to give some context to the scene of crime. The author uses the Census of 1841 to provide additional evidence as well as the newspapers of the time who went to the same sort of lengths they do nowadays to keep the reader’s attention. It is fascinating to see how years after the poisonings these stories were wheeled out, dusted down complete with inaccuracies and served up fresh for what was sometimes a whole new generation of readers years after the events.
All fascinating stuff but for me, having read quite a large amount about this particular crime over the last couple of years, it is good to have some real cases that directly influenced the government to act in bringing in laws surrounding the sale of poison. Not, as the author is keen to point out that those early laws would have stopped the three women investigated in this book getting their hands on the white stuff.
In Essex the county was the unfortunate scene of the panic induced by tales told both orally and by the newspapers about a number of women put on trial for poisoning unwanted relations using arsenic. There were calls for regulations and a strong sense that there was a shadowy group of women who were acting in cahoots or at least devising a method to poison people and walk away from the horrific crime with no stain on their character.
Helen Barrell’s book, Poison Panic, delves into the facts, and the fiction, of these events using all available sources to examine the cases and to evaluate whether there was any sense of collusion between the women whose crimes feature here.
This book is jam-packed, not just with the details of the three women Sarah Chesham Mary May and Hannah Southgate whose crimes in rural Essex led to wariness about that gentle hand at home who was in charge of preparing the food, slipping some of the notorious white powder into the dish, but also on some of the social history. We learn just how rudimentary their homes were, the rats that plagued the household were hopefully kept at bay with arsenic, houses where one man’s struggle with the results of arsenic poisoning were more than a slight inconvenience for his downstairs neighbours and houses where money from a burial club might just make it worthwhile to bump of an unsuspecting relative?
I’m a fan of investigations into Victorian crimes and can only applaud Helen Barrell in her presentation of the interlinking stories in Essex. With plenty of pictures, including photographs, illustrations from the magazine Punch as well as the very useful maps that underpin how closely or conversely how far apart the women lived from each other in a time where transport for wives of agricultural labourers wasn’t an option. To give a little perspective the author uses information from her own family in the village of Wix to give some context to the scene of crime. The author uses the Census of 1841 to provide additional evidence as well as the newspapers of the time who went to the same sort of lengths they do nowadays to keep the reader’s attention. It is fascinating to see how years after the poisonings these stories were wheeled out, dusted down complete with inaccuracies and served up fresh for what was sometimes a whole new generation of readers years after the events.
All fascinating stuff but for me, having read quite a large amount about this particular crime over the last couple of years, it is good to have some real cases that directly influenced the government to act in bringing in laws surrounding the sale of poison. Not, as the author is keen to point out that those early laws would have stopped the three women investigated in this book getting their hands on the white stuff.
September 5, 2016
Welcome to what I like to think of as one of the quirky little corners of history. In the 1840’s, in the Essex region of England, there was a rash of deaths by poisoning that created panic in the local population. This was due in part to the easy access people had to poisons. Author Helen Barrell came upon this while researching her own family history. She has done a wonderful job of telling the stories of the prominent cases of the time. I found the book to be really engaging and an enjoyable read. She has researched the press coverage of these cases and also the government records of the people involved and what happened to them after their cases were resolved. One of the things I like about this kind of book is that it gives the background that led to some of the laws and cultural norms that exist in our society today. In this episode of British history, you can see the beginnings of our current regulation of drugs and chemicals. I think that readers who are interested in history will really enjoy this book.
Alinefromabook’s rating: THUMBS-UP!
Alinefromabook’s rating: THUMBS-UP!
June 23, 2024
Murder by Poison
What a fascinating book! Lessons learned about the temptation and lure of money when you live in abject poverty.
This book gives you a look into the infancy of policing and forensic science. We see the raw view of the best and worst of both with all its flaws.
Perhaps as many injustices as justices In this system so heavily reliant on hearsay and flawed new policing and science.
An interesting read.
What a fascinating book! Lessons learned about the temptation and lure of money when you live in abject poverty.
This book gives you a look into the infancy of policing and forensic science. We see the raw view of the best and worst of both with all its flaws.
Perhaps as many injustices as justices In this system so heavily reliant on hearsay and flawed new policing and science.
An interesting read.
June 29, 2019
Too much like a text book
Read
September 18, 2022An interesting topic, but it was hard to keep track of who was who with various remarriages and mention of side characters and relatives.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews