Infanticide and Baby-farming in Victorian England - (History of Crime, Deviance and Punishment) by Mark Jackson (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book explores the social and cultural responses to infanticide and baby-farming in Victorian England, focusing particularly on the Torquay Murder of 1865.

Book Synopsis

This open access book explores the tragic case of the Torquay Murder of 1865, when the body of a young boy was discovered abandoned on the outskirts of Torquay in Devon, England. Having identified the child as three-month-old Thomas Harris, local police arrested the child's mother, Mary Jane Harris, and his nurse, Charlotte Winsor, and charged them both with murder.

Through careful analysis of a range of original sources including police and inquest reports, court and prison records, witness depositions, newspaper accounts, census records, medical and legal texts, Home Office documents and letters, Mark Jackson reconstructs the complex story of the Torquay murder and explores the personal and political consequences of England's first baby-farming scandal. Situating the case within the context of mid-Victorian concerns over rising rates of illegitimacy and infanticide, debates about the abolition of capital punishment and attempts to regulate child-care and adoption practices, this book examines the impact this landmark trial had on British law and society.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by University of Exeter, UK.

Review Quotes

"An evocative and gripping account of a mid-Victorian case of child murder in the bustling, genteel sea-side town of Torquay, in Devon. Not only does Professor Jackson provide a forensic account of the arrest, trials and lives of two women - an unmarried mother and a childminder - accused of killing a four-month-old baby boy, but he uses this case to explore the complex and contradictory society that often placed women in impossible situations and failed to deal adequately with the fall out. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of child protection, criminal justice, and nineteenth-century society."
Rosalind Crone, The Open University, UK

By focussing on the two trials resulting from the death of a single infant, Mark Jackson combines a gripping narrative with a wealth of detail about the legal and medical professions, the development of criminal procedure and evidence, and the practice of 'baby farming'. Infanticide and baby-farming are key issues in understanding the historical interplay of gender, crime and justice, and this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in these aspects of Victorian society.
Tony Ward, Professor of Law, Northumbria University, UK

Jackson turns his historical eye onto the intriguing case of the 'Torquay murder', providing new insights into nineteenth century anxieties about illegitimacy, baby-farming, gender, and crime. He is a masterful storyteller.
Joanna Bourke, Professor Emerita at Birkbeck, University of London, UK

About the Author

Mark Jackson is Professor of the History of Medicine at University of Exeter, UK. He has written extensively on the history of crime and medicine and is the author of over 20 books including New-Born Child Murder: Women, Illegitimacy and the Courts in Eighteenth-Century England (1996) and Infanticide: Historical Perspectives on Child Murder and Concealment 1550-2000 (ed., 2002).