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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: fallingonabruise on Thursday 23 July 09 18:06 BST (UK)

Title: Died at Holloway prison, Can't find cert.
Post by: fallingonabruise on Thursday 23 July 09 18:06 BST (UK)
I'm trying to find the death cert for my great gran,
who died in Holloway prison.
by that time she was known as Mary elizabeth Wilson.
I have one of her wedding certs from 1914 which says she was 26 when married
which makes her born in 1888,
but her reprive from the death sentence in 1958 she was supposed to be 68 which would make her birthyear 1890,
shes supposed to have died aged 70 , so
she could have died between 1958 and 1960.
 ???
could anyone help please ?
Title: Re: Died at Holloway prison, Can't find cert.
Post by: avm228 on Thursday 23 July 09 18:35 BST (UK)
Hi

I too cannot find her death 1958-1960, but see this site:

http://www.murderuk.com/poisoners_mary_wilson.html

According to that she was 64 in June 1957 (suggesting a birth abt 1893) and served four and a half years in prison before dying aged 70 (suggesting a death about 1963).

What a story!

Anna
Title: Re: Died at Holloway prison, Can't find cert.
Post by: avm228 on Thursday 23 July 09 18:59 BST (UK)
Hi again

The only reasonable fit I can find is this one:

Death Dec qtr 1962

Mary E. WILSON aged 73

Islington 5c 1054

Anna :)
Title: Re: Died at Holloway prison, Can't find cert.
Post by: jorose on Thursday 23 July 09 19:09 BST (UK)
The Times, Thursday, Jan 10, 1963; pg. 5; Issue 55595; col C
Mrs Mary Elizabeth Wilson, of the village of Windynook, co. Durham, the widow who was sentenced to death in 1958 for poisoning two husbands and then reprieved, has died in Holloway prison, London, it was learnt yesterday. She was 71.

ETA: Presuming that it took some time for the papers to get wind of her death, the one that Anna found looks close.
Title: Re: Died at Holloway prison, Can't find cert.
Post by: fallingonabruise on Thursday 23 July 09 22:15 BST (UK)
this age thing is really confusing !! according to this paper written about the public reaction to her reprieve, she was 68 in 1958
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:bK0fwZEFpi4J:www.britsoccrim.org/volume8/5Seal08.pdf+mary+wilson+fashion+murder&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

but the one Anna has found looks like it might be the one,
I've just ordered her last wedding cert to see if her father is John Cassidy , to prove the first wedding cert to John Knowles, I got is really her.
I can't find her birth cert either (address on wed.cert. was Aklington)

anyway thanks to all that have replied, you are all brilliant , thank you  ;D
Title: Re: Died at Holloway prison, Can't find cert.
Post by: lorca on Wednesday 05 March 14 14:24 GMT (UK)
Mary Elizabeth Cassidy was my great grans sister (Margaret Cassidy). There is a record of her christening on familysearch:


father:   Joannis Cassidy
mother:   Mariae Regan Cassidy
Name:   Maria Elizabeth Cassidy
Christening Date:   30 Jun 1889
Christening Place:   Our Blessed Lady and St. Joseph, Broom, Durham, England

As I recall all the Cassidy family were strong Catholics

Moderator comment: edited for content, copyright infringement removed

[edit] OOPS... thank for sorting out my error.
Title: Re: Died at Holloway prison, Can't find cert.
Post by: jan57 on Wednesday 05 March 14 15:13 GMT (UK)
  In addition to Lorca's post  this seems  to be  her  birth  registration ,  ( given that   they  had   a few weeks to register  the birth ,  and  Catholics tended   to baptise their children  fairly  quickly   after the  birth

  Mary Elizabeth Cassidy

Date of Registration:
Jul-Aug-Sep 1889

Registration district:
Lanchester

Inferred County:
Durham

Volume:
10a

Page:
287