Cambridge Library Collection - British and Irish History, 19th Century: Collection of Reports of Celebrated Trials, Civil and Criminal

A solicitor with offices in Scarborough, William Otter Woodall (1837-1914) was a prominent member of the local community. This work, edited by Woodall and first published in 1873, brings together reports of seven notable and intriguing nineteenth-century civil and criminal trials as case studies for the benefit of the legal profession. (It was intended as the first of a series, but no further volumes were published.) The book includes the case of the so-called 'Quaker' poisoner John Tawell, executed in 1845, who was the first person to be arrested with the aid of the electric telegraph and about whose fate several popular ballads were written; that of Abraham Thornton in 1818 - for the murder of Mary Ashford - who claimed the right to the ancient Norman tradition of trial by battle; and that of Reverend William Bailey, transported for life in 1843 to Van Diemen's Land for forgery. This colourful, engaging work will appeal to anyone with an interest in the law or true crime stories.

Preface; 1. The trial of Abraham Thornton; 2. The appeal of murder; 3. The trial of Josiah Phillips; 4. The trial of the case Smyth v. Smyth; 5. The trial of the Rev. William Bailey; 6. The trial of John Tawell; 7. The trial of Louis Bonafous, in religion Frere Leotade for the murder of Cecile Combettes.