Subjects
The History of Suicide in England, 1650–1850
Editors: Mark Robson, Paul S Seaver, Kelly McGuire, Jeffrey Merrick and Daryl Lee
978 1 85196 980 7: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00
978 1 85196 981 4: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00
‘What Cato did, and Addison approved, cannot be wrong’. Eustace Budgell’s famous suicide note of 1737 was written at a point when, it has been argued, older attitudes to suicide were being challenged. However, many commentators continued to view suicide as a crime against the laws of God and man, punishable by the forfeiture of property and a shameful burial, while some physicians viewed suicide as an act of lunacy, and thought that suicides could not be culpable. This two-part, eight-volume, reset edition draws together a range of sources from the early modern era through to the industrial age, to show the changes and continuities in responses to the social, political, legal and spiritual problems that self-murder posed, and to illustrate the nature of the lively and vibrant contemporary debates about and depictions of suicide.
In addition to general commentary on suicide, materials relate to selected high-profile cases, including Charles Blount, Robert Clive, George Hesse, Samuel Romilly and Lord Castlereagh. Sources are varied and include newspaper and magazine reports, sermons, pamphlets, legal and medical material, ballads, poetry, plays and novels. Most of this material has not been republished before.
New editorial material includes a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index. This edition will be essential for scholars of Social History, Legal History, Religious Studies, History of Crime and Historical Sociology.
- Covers the crucial transition between early modern and modern attitudes to suicide in England
- Contains over 130 full texts and significant extracts
- New editorial material contextualises primary sources through discussion of key legal terms
- Editorial material includes a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes, endnotes
- Consolidated index in the final volume
Sample pages
Contents
Part I: 1650–1750
Volume 1: 1650–1673
General Introduction – Mark Robson
Introduction to Volumes 1 and 2
Suicide and the Broadside Ballad: Anon., The Faithful Lovers Downfal: The Death of Fair Phillis who Killed Her Self for Loss of her Philander (c.1644–80); Anon., The Lamenting Ladies Last Farewell to the World (c.1650–80); Anon., The Divils Cruelty to Mankind (1662); Anon., A Godly Warning for All Maidens by the Example of Gods Judgements Shewed upon One Jermans Wife of Clifton in the County of Nottingham, Who Lying in Child-Bed, Was Born Away and Never Heard of After (c.1670); Anon., The Dying Damsels Doleful Destiny: Or, True love Requited with Evil (c.1671–1704); Anon., Loves Lamentable Tragedy (c.1671–1704); Anon., The London Damsels fate by Unjust Tyrany: Or, The Rash Lover (c.1672–96); Anon., A Tragical Story of Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor (1677); Anon., Loves Downfal (c.1678–80); Anon., The Unnatural Mother: Being a True Relation of One Jane Lawson, Once Living at East-Barnet, in Middlesex; Who Quarreling with Her Husband, Urged Him to Strike Her, and Thereupon the Same Night, Being the First of Sept. 1680, Drowned Her Self and Two Poor Babies in a Well (c.1680–1); Anon., The Damosels Tragedy: Or, True love in Distress (c.1682–1703); Anon., The Fair Maid of Dunsmore's Lamentation (c.1683); Anon., Whitney's Dying Letter to His Mistress That Betray'd Him: With Her Answer (1692). Thomas Beard, 'Of Such as Have Murdered Themselves' (1631); William Denny, Pelecanicidium, or The Christian Advisor against Self-Murder (1653; Anon., A Sad Caveat to all Quakers. Not to Boast Any More That They Have God Almighty by the Hand, When They Have the Devil by the Toe (1657); [Owen Stockton], Counsel to the Afflicted, Or Instruction and Consolation for Such as Have Suffered Loss by Fire (1667); [J Shafte], The Great Law of Nature, or Self-Preservation Examined, Asserted, and Vindicated from Mr Hobbes His Abuses (1673); Anon., A True Account of the Late, Most Doleful, and Lamentable Tragedy of Old Maddam Gwinn, Mother to Maddam Elenor Gwinn; Who Was Unfortunately Drowned, in a Fish-Pond, at Her Own Mansion-House, Near the Neat-Houses (1679); John Collinges, Defensative Armour against Four of Sathan’s Most Fiery Darts: Viz. Temptations to Atheistical and Blasphemous Impressions and Thoughts, Self-Murther, Despair, and Presumption (1680)
Volume 2: 1674–1699
Short Texts: Anthony Wildgoose, The Young-Mans Second Warning-Peece (1643); Anon., The Troubled-Spirited Mans Departing (1653); Anon., Sad and Deplorable News from Fleet-Street (1674); Anon., Sad and Lamentable News from Rumford (1674); Anon., The Sad Effects of Cruelty Detected (1675); Anon., Strange and Lamentable News from Dullidg-Wells (1678); Anon., The Sad and Dreadful Relation of a Bloody and Cruel Murther (1684); Anon., An Account of the Most Strange and Barbarous Action (1685); Anon., A Sad and Dreadful account of the Self-Murther of Robert Long, Alias Baker (1685); Anon., Sad and Dreadful News from Dukes-Place Near Aldgate (1686); Anon., A Full and True Relation of the Murther of Doctor Urthwait (1689); Anon., A Sad and Lamentable Account of the Strange and Unhappy Misfortune of Mr John Temple (1689). Thomas Philpot, Self-Homicide-Murther (1674)
The Earl of Essex's Suicide: Anon., An Account of How the Earl of Essex Killed Himself in the Tower of London (1683); Embroyan-fancy of anti-Jack Presbyter, A New Poem on the Dreadful Death of the Earl of Essex, Who Cut His Own Throat in the Tower (1683); Anon., A True Narrative of the Bloody Murther of the Earl of Essex, Upon Himself, Being Now a Prisoner in the Tower (1683); Henry Danvers, Murder Will Out (1689); Robert Ferguson, An Enquiry into, and Detection of the Barbarous Murther of the Late Earl of Essex (1684); Laurence Braddon, Essex's Innocency And Honour Vindicated (1690); 'Notes on the Death of the Earl of Essex' (1683)
John Child: John Child, A Second Argument, for a More Full and Firm Union amongst All Good Protestants (1684); Anon., Sad and Lamentable News from Brick-Lane in the Hamlet of Spittle Fields (1684); Thomas Plant and Benjamin Dennis (eds), The Mischief of Persecution Exemplified (1688). Charles Gildon, 'An Account of the Life and Death of the Author' (1695). Willis, The Occasional Paper: [Richard Willis], 'In a Letter to a Friend' (1697); [Richard Willis], 'Concerning Self-Murder' (1698). Nathaniel Whaley, ‘Of Murther Particularly Duelling and Self-Murther’ (1698); Anon., A Reply to the Hertford Letter (1699)
Volume 3: 1700–1716
Introduction to Volumes 3 and 4
John Adams, An Essay Concerning Self-Murther (1700). Satires on Suicide: Anon., A Step to Oxford (1700); W Withers, Some Thoughts Concerning Suicide, or Self-Killing (1711). John Jeffery, Felo de Se: Or a Warning against the Most Horrid and Unnatural Sin of Self-Murder (1702); Anon., 'A Vindication of Self-Muder', Post Angel (1702); Daniel Defoe, Review of the Affairs of France (1704); J B, Apstophonia, or Self-Murther Arraigned and Condemned (1705); John Dunton, ‘That the Self-Murder of the Pagans was Justifiable’, Athenian Sport (1707); Thomas Knaggs, A Sermon against Self-Murder (1708); John Prince, Self-Murder Asserted to be a Very Heinous Crime; in Opposition to all Arguments Brought by the Deists, to the Contrary (1709); 'A Sin to Die for Love?', British Apollo (1709); John Edwards, from Theologica Reformata (1713); John Cockburn, A Discourse of Self-Murder (1716); William Fleetwood, 'Three Sermons upon the Case of Self-Murder', Relative Duties to Parents and Children, Husbands and Wives, Masters and Servants (1716); Sir George Mackenzie, ‘Self-Murder’, The Works (1716–22)
Volume 4: 1717–1750
Newspapers: Reporting Suicide
Religious and Moral Periodical Essays: Anon., 'Of Suicide' (1732); Anon., The Prompter (1736); James Mauclerc, 'Concerning Self-Murder' (1745); Anon., 'Letter to the British Gazette' (1728); Anon., Universal Spectator (1732). Diabolical Influence: Isaac Watts, Defense against the Temptation to Self-Murther (1726); Anon., A Discourse upon Self-Murder (1732). Commentaries on 'Lunacy' and the Law: Matthew Bacon, 'Felo de se' (1736–66); Philanthropus, 'To the Old Whig' (1737); Philadelphus, 'To the Author of Read's Journal' (1731); Ralph Freeman, 'The Merits of the Crafts-Men Consider'd' (1738); Ralph Freeman, The Daily Gazetteer (1739); Anon., Present State of the Republick of Letters (1728). Suicide and Free Thought: Anon., 'On Suicide' (1732); Anon., Weekly Miscellany (1737); Anon., The Christian Free-Thinker (1740); Simon Berington, A Dialogue between the Gallows and a Freethinker (1744); M Deslandes, 'If There Be Valour in Suicide?' (1745); Alberto Radicati, Count of Passerano, A Philosophical Dissertation upon Death (1732); Socrates, 'Remarks upon a Pamphlet Call'd A Philosophical Dissertation On Death, &c.' (1732). The Case of Richard and Bridget Smith: Anon., Gentleman's Magazine (1732); Anon., 'Domestick Occurrences in April 1732' (1732); Alexander Pope, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty-Eight (1738). Cato: Anon., The Free-Thinker (1718); Philadelphus, 'To the Author of Read's Journal' (1731); John Henley, Cato Condemn'd (1730); John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, Cato’s Letters (1733); Philalethes, Cato. Two Letters (1721); Anon., Universal Spectator (1734); Samuel Catherall, Cato Major (1725). Duelling, Suicide and the 'Code of Honour': Anon., 'Self-Murther the Effect of Cowardice and Atheism' (1728); James Foster, ‘Of Duels and Self-Murder’ (1744); Hercules Vinegar, pseud [Henry Fielding], and T U, The Champion; or, The Evening Advertiser (1741); Anon., Westminster Journal (1747); Anon., ‘Suicide: or Self–Murder’ (1726). Fanny Braddock and Gambling: Anon., London Evening Post (1731); Anon., 'Of the Unhappy Self-Murther of Mrs Fanny Braddock at Bath' (1731); [Lydia Granger], Modern Amours (1733); Anon., 'Mr Morgan' (1736). Women's Suicide: [Sarah Chapone], The Hardships of the English Laws in Relation to Wives (1735); Septimus and Henry [Baker], Universal Spectator (1730); [Eliza Haywood], Lady's Weekly Magazine (1747). Love Suicide and Literature: Richard Gwinnett, Pylades and Corinna (1732); Anon., The Fair Suicide (1733); Anon., The Oxfordshire Tragedy; or, The death of Four Lovers (c.1736–63); Eliza Haywood, The British Recluse (1721); Richard Savage, The Wanderer: A Vision (1729). The English Malady from Other Perspectives: Anon., 'Of Suicide or Self-Murder' (1732); William Lloyd, Letters from a Moor at London to His Friend in Tunis (1726); Anon., The German Spy (1740). Eustace Budgell, Liberty and Property (1732); Zachary Pearce, A Sermon on Self-Murder (1736), John Tillard, 'Whether the Heathens Encouraged, or Approved of Self-Murder?' (1742)
Part II: 1750–1850
Volumes 5 and 6: 1750–1799 (Editor: Jeffrey Merrick)
Robert Blair, The Grave (1753); Francis Ayscough, A Discourse against Self-Murder (1755); Anon., The Coroner’s Guide (1756); John Dreghorn, Lord Maclaurin, The Philosopher’s Opera (1757); Wellins Calcott, A Collection of Thoughts Moral and Divine (1759); Anon., Durham Tragedy (1760); The Life, Travels and Adventures of Christopher Wagstaff (1762); Charles Collington, ‘Of Suicide’, Medicina Politica (1765); Anon., Two Letters, one to John Wilkes...the Other, to a friend, on Suicide and Madness (1767); Anon., ‘Unreasonableness and Impiety of Suicide Considered’, Clergyman of the Church of England, Several Affecting Considerations Respecting the Unbeneficed Clergy (1769); William Auckland, Baron Eden, ‘Of Suicide’, Principles of Penal Law (1771) ; William Hawkins, A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown (1771); ‘Suicide’, Connoisseur, Beauties of English Prose (1772); Jean Pierre Grosley, ‘Suicide’, A Tour to London (1772); [Mary Dawes Blackett], Suicide, a Poem (1773); Matthew Henry Cooke, ‘On Suicide or Self-Murder’, The Newest and Most Complete Whole Duty of Man (1773); Caleb Fleming, A Dissertation upon the Unnatural Crime of Self-Murder (1773); John Francis, ‘On Self-Murder’, Sermons Preached on Several Occasions (1773); R Graves, The Spiritual Quixote (1773); Anon, Suicide, a Poem (1773); John Herries, An Address to the Public on the Frequent and Enormous Crime of Suicide (1774); Anon., Rationalist, Duelling and Suicide Repugnant to Revelation, Reason and Common Sense (1774); Anon., Suicide, an Elegy (1775 ); Anon., Considerations on Some of the Laws relating to the Office of a Coroner (1776); Granville Sharp, A Tract on the Law of Nature and Principles of Action in Man (1777); George Colman, The Suicide (1778); John Marks Moffat, The Duty and Interest of Every Private Person (1778); [Sir Herbert Croft], Love and Madness (1780); Anon, ‘The Suicide’ Adventures of a Hackney Coach (1781); Anon, ‘Letter to a Gentleman who had attempted to Commit Suicide’, Literary Amusements (1782); Elizabeth Cobbold, Poems on Various Subjects (1783); Anon., A Collection of Letters...with some Thoughts on the Prevalent...Crimes of Duelling and Suicide (1784); Anon., Essay on the Immortality of the Soul (1784); Anon., An Asylum for Fugitive Pieces (1785 ); Mrs A M Bennet, Agnes, or Memoirs of a Welch Heiress (1785); Henry Headley, Fugitive Pieces (1785); Anon., A Dissertation or Discourse on Suicide (1785); George Gregory, ‘An Impartial Inquiry into the Reasonableness of Suicide’, Essays Historical and Moral (1785); Richard Hey, A Dissertation on Suicide (1785); Louis S Mercier, ‘Self Murder’, The Nightcap (1785); William Paley, ‘Suicide’, The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785); Anon., Friend to Mankind, A Caveat against Suicide (1786); Ann Yearsley, Poems on Various Subjects (1787); Anon., Reuben, or the Suicide (1787); James Dallaway, Stanzas on the Death of C (1788); Philip Thicknesse, Memoirs & Anecdotes (1788); William Rowley, A Treatise on Female... Diseases (1788); Camisis, ‘Ode to Chatterton’ (1789); Charles James, ‘Suicide’, Poems, (1789); Thomas Warton, ‘The Suicide’, Poems (1789); Edmund Burton, Suicide, a Dissertation (1790); G S, Short Expostulations and Thoughts on Suicide (1790); Charles Moore, A Full Inquiry into the Subject of Suicide (1790); Rev George Neal, Essays on Modern Manners (1790); Jane Timbury, ‘The Suicide’, The Philanthropic Rambler (1790); Mary Robinson, The Beauties of Mrs R (1791; John Rannie, Poems (1791); Herbert Croft, A Sermon 1791 preached at Prittlewell, in the county of Essex, on the 18th of September 1791, soon after the Riots at Birmingham and the Self-Murder of Mr Sutherland (1791); Charles James, Suicide Rejected (1791); John Coates, An Answer to the Justification of Suicide (1792); Rev John Garnons, ‘On Suicide’, Sermons on Various Subjects (1792); Vicesmus Knox, ‘Against Despair and Suicide’, Sermons (1792); Nathan Drake, Poems (1793); William Davy, A System of Divinity (1795-1805); P Courtier, Poems (1796); Charles Dibden, The Pedlar (1796); [Hannah More,] Robert and Richard; or, The ghost of poor Mary, who was drowned in Richard’s millpond (1796); Edward Barry, ‘Self-Murder’, Theological, Philosophical and Moral Essays (1797); George Beaver, A Sermon against Self-Murther (1797); Mr Addison, Interesting Anecdotes (1797); John Gorton, Tubal to Seba. The Negro Suicide (1797); George Gregory, A Sermon on Suicide (1797); Joseph James, Extraordinary Case of Suicide (1797); Perseval Adams, Elegant Anecdotes (1798); Clergyman of Kent, ‘On Suicide’, Crude Thoughts on Prevailing Subjects (1798); Rev George Heath, The New Bristol Guide (1799); The Meteors, ‘The Triumph of Genius’ (1800); The Pocket Remembrancer (1800); Anon., Egbert, or the Suicide (1800); Sydney Smith, Two Volumes of Sermons (1809); John Britton, An Historical and Architectural Essay (1813); Selected articles from Annual Register, Argus, Connoisseur, Diary, E Johnson’s Sunday Monitor, Evening Mail, Felix Farley’s Journal, Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, General Advertiser, General Evening Post, General Intelligencer, Gentleman’s Magazine, Gray’s Inn Journal, Hoey’s Dublin Mercury, Lady’s Magazine, London Chronicle, London Daily Advertiser, London Evening Post, London Magazine, London Recorder, Monthly Register of Literature, Monthly Review, Morning Chronicle, Morning Post, New London Magazine, Oracle, Public Advertiser, Read’s Weekly Journal, Scientific Magazine, Sentimental Magazine, St. James’s Chronicle, The Asylum or Weekly Miscellany, The Attic Miscellany, The Englishman, The Entertainer, The Oeconomist, The Quiz, The Times, The World, Town and Country Magazine, Universal Museum, Weekly Register, Westminster Journal, Westminster Magazine, Whitehall Evening Post, World
Volumes 7 and 8: 1800–1849 (Editor: Daryl Lee)
Anon., Bateman’s Tragedy (1790–1840); Anon., Sequel to Maria (1790–1840); Anon., Fair Maria (1796–1853); Anon., Dreadful Occurrence; Murder and Suicide at Wigton (1800); John Impey, The Office and Duty of Coroners (1800); Anon., The Cruel Father, and Constant Lover (1802–19); Anon., The Rambling Boy (1802–19); Anon., Sequel to Poll of Plymouth (1802–19); Anon., The Watery Grave (1802–19); Edward H East, A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown (1803); Gentleman of the Law, A New Conductor Generalis (1803); Anon., The Sailor and the Ghost (1805); Anthony Highmore, A Treatise on the Law of Idiocy and Lunacy (1807); George Custance, A Concise View of the Constitution of England (1808); William Hart, Anti-Suicide, A Poem (1809); Anna Seward, ‘Written in the Blank Page of the Sorrows of Werter’, The Poetical Works (1810); William Combe, ‘The Suicide’, The English Dance of Death (1815); Anon., A New Song called Maria (1815–55); Anon., The Unfaithful Lover (1816–43); Anon., A Remedy for Self-Murder (1819); Anon., William and Dinah (1819–44); Anon., An Account of Three Awful Instances of Self-Murder which has Occurred during this Week (1823); John Ayton Paris, Medical Jurisprudence (1823); J S Forsyth, A Synopsis of Modern Medical Jurisprudence (1829); Sir John Jervis, A Practical Treatise on the Offices and Duties of Coroners (1829); A P Perceval, A Clergyman’s Defence of Himself (1833); Henry Wood, A Few Leading Facts (1833); Forbes Winslow, The Anatomy of Suicide (1840); Anon., The Suicide Club (1845); Anon., Lines Occasioned by the Death of William Murdin of Little Oakley, who was found Drowned in a Pond (1847); Selected articles from Oracle and The Times
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