Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Esther Dyson was this morning placed at the bar, charged with the wilful murder of her female bastard child, at Eccleshill [Ecclesall?], near Rotherham, on the 24th of September last.

In consequence of the prisoner labouring under the infirmity of having been been born deaf and dumb, the greatest interest was excited, and the galleries were crowded on the opening of court.

The prisoner is 26 years of age, but does not appear so old. She is rather tall, and of slender make. She has light hair and complexion, and of rather a pleasing and pensive cast of feature. She was dressed in a coloured silk bonnet, a light calico printed dress, and a red cloth cloak. She had the appearance of a respectable female in the lower walks of life.

The Clerk of the Arraigns having read over the indictment, which contained four counts, in which the charge was differently stated, put the question, “Guilty or Not Guilty,” to which, in consequence of her infirmity, she made no answer.

The Jury was then impanelled, pro forma, to try whether she stood mute of malice, or from the act of God.

James Henderson was then sworn, who deposed that he had known the prisoner eleven years, and that he could communicate ideas to her by signs. He was then sworn to interpret the various questions to the prisoner.

In reply to a question from the Judge, the witness stated that the prisoner had no counsel – that she had no father, mother or relative, except a brother, who was himself deaf and dumb.

His Lordship said she must have counsel, and at his request Sir Gregory [Allnall] Lewin undertook to conduct the defence.

James Henderson, who had known the prisoner eleven years, endeavoured to make the prisoner understand, by signs, that she might object to any of the gentlemen of the Jury, but he failed in making her comprehend the nature of the question.

The jury returned a verdict – “that the prisoner was not sane.”

The judge then directed her to be remanded, and every proper means taken to instruct her. In a previous part of the proceedings, the judge said he should reserve the point for the consideration of the judges, whether she should be tried upon the charge, or confined during the King’s pleasure.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Comment

Tip of the hat to David Scrimgeour (Scrimgeour 2015), who includes the detailed report from the Leeds Intelligencer and tells of the inquest prior to the hearing and of Dyson’s subsequent career in the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

What led Dyson to this terrible deed? Who was the father? Was she raped?

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Assizes (24) W/G ·
• At Her Majesty’s pleasure (1) W/G ·
• Deaf-mute (1) W/G ·
• Deafness (3) W/G ·
• Decapitation (5) W/G ·
• Ecclesall (2) W/G ·
• Ecclesfield (9) W/G ·
• Filicide (3) W/G ·
• Insanity (2) W/G ·
• Jury (7) W/G ·
• Legitimacy (family law) (8) W/G ·
• Murder (38) W/G ·
• Muteness (2) W/G ·
• Rotherham (21) W/G ·
• 📌Sheffield (80) W/G ·
• Sign language (1) W/G ·
• West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum (3) W/G ·
• 📌York (165) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Tip of the hat to David Scrimgeour (Scrimgeour 2015), who includes the detailed report from the Leeds Intelligencer and tells of the inquest prior to the hearing and of Dyson’s subsequent career in the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

What led Dyson to this terrible deed? Who was the father? Was she raped?

Something to say? Get in touch

Similar

10 December 1769: Part of the northern ballad about Bill Brown, a Brightside (Sheffield) steelworker and hare-poacher killed by gamekeepers today near Rotherham

6 March 1684: The highwayman and racketeer John Nevison is captured at an alehouse near Sandal Castle, Wakefield

14 April 1792: The ballad of Spence Broughton, hung this day at the York Tyburn for robbing the Sheffield and Rotherham mail

8 February 1745: Pioneering but pennyless philologist Eugene Aram murders a wealthy Knaresborough wastrel

9 October 2010: Following years of sexual abuse by Pakistani men, Laura Wilson (17) is murdered by Ashtiaq Ashgar (17) near Meadowhall, Rotherham, in what police call an “honour killing”

27 July 1612: Jennet Preston, the only Yorkshirewoman among the Pendle witches, is found guilty at York of the murder of Thomas Lister of Westby Hall, Gisburn (Ribble Valley)

30 July 1798: The homeward-bound Greenland whaler Blenheim fights off a Royal Navy press gang in Hull harbour, killing two boarders

5 August 1605: Debauched and ruined, Walter Calverley is crushed to death today at York for the murder of two sons at Calverley Hall (Bradford), but is revived by 1830s schoolboy ghost-raisers as the Rev. Samuel Redhead (age ca. 55)

20 March 1840: A judge finds that Charles Brown (52) feigned deafness to try to evade the gallows for sexually assaulting young Frederick Haselm at Hull

25 May 1728: King Jessop, the fighting rector of Treeton (Rotherham), is buried at Sheffield, and remembered for his punch and his parody

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Necrology op cit. John Hobson says he was called King Jessop (Hobson 1877). Henry Parke, curate at Wentworth: “Great Jessop is a sound divine, / His sense is strong and masculine” (Parke 1819).

I haven’t found Jessop’s parody, but here is a translation of the original, borrowed from Edward Miller’s Doncaster (Miller 1804):

At the seat called The Wood, near Edlington, in the vicinity of Doncaster, Robert Molesworth, Esq. two years before he was created Viscount, had the remains of a favourite greyhound sent down from London, and buried there; over which animal he placed a small square altar monument with a Latin inscription, thus translated:

Stay, traveller,
Nor wonder that a lamented Dog
Is thus interred with funeral honour.
But ah, what a dog !
His beautiful form and snow-white colour,
Pleasing manners and sportful playfulness,
Affection, obedience, and fidelity,
Made him the delight of his master,
To whose side he closely adhered.
With his eager companions of the chase,
He delighted in attending him.
Whenever the mind of his lord depressed,
He would assume fresh spirit and animation.
A master, not ungrateful for his merits,
Has here in tears deposited his remains
In this marble urn.
M.F.C.

Tradition says, the above dog saved his master’s life in the following manner: when going to the privy, he pulled him by the flap of his coat, and would not let him proceed. On a second attempt, the dog behaved in the same manner. Surprised at this interruption, he ordered one of his servants to go to the place, who, on opening the door, was immediately shot dead by a villain there concealed, whose intention was most probably to rob the house when the family had retired to rest (Miller 1820).

Here is a fairly useless photo of the dog monument ca. 1930. Has anyone got something better?

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