Commentary
This broadside report begins: 'A Full True and Particular Account of a Cruel and Dreadful MURDER, committed on the Bodies of Two ORPHAN CHILDREN, by Mrs LONG, their Mother-in-law, at Gainsboro', in Linconshire, on the 26th January, 1824, and who also attempted to Cut her own Throat.' This report sold for a penny and was published in Edinburgh by Alexander Turnbull. This story sounds like a Grimm fairy tale; Mrs Long was a widow caring for her husband's three small children when she became involved with a 'Mr J. B r' but he would not agree to marry a woman with three children. So Mrs Long resolved to kill the children so that she could be with her lover, locked them in a cellar for three days and eventually murdered two of them. Then, realising what she had done, she attempted to kill herself but was saved. The report ends by wishing Mrs Long a speedy recovery so she may pay for her crime with her life. The interesting woodcut, depicting two bodies hanging at the scaffold in front of a huge crowd, forecasts her punishment.
View Transcription | Download PDF Facsimile
|
 |
Date of publication:
1824 shelfmark: F.3.a.14(18)
View larger image
|
