Mary Ann Ansell, a

housemaid A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maid ...

, was

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Prison, England on 19 July 1899, for poisoning her sister Caroline, who was an inmate in an

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea * ...

. Her

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was asserted to be to obtain £11.5s from a

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which she had taken out on Caroline. She sent her a small piece of cake or pastry, like a flat jam sandwich, the middle of which was very yellow and contained phosphorus poison. Her sister had been an inmate at Leavesden Asylum in Abbots Langley. At 18 or 22 years old (reports differ), she was the youngest woman to be hanged in the UK in the 'modern era' (after the 1868 reform act, so non-public, and also by the 'long drop' method). Before Ansell's execution, there was considerable public pressure for a reprieve, on the grounds of her sex, youth, and perceived lack of

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(both of herself, and of other members of her family). The

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passed a resolution calling for clemency. Some newspapers, including the ''

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'' under the headline "A One-sided Investigation", asked for a reprieve. Three

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were asked in the

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in relation to her case, and more than 100 MPs signed a petition that her life be spared. However, the Home Office was unwilling to reprieve a poisoner, this murder being considered a

premeditated Malice aforethought is the "premeditation" or "predetermination" (with malice) required as an element of some crimes in some jurisdictions and a unique element for first-degree or aggravated murder in a few. Insofar as the term is still in use, ...

act, and poisoning an especially heinous crime under English law. In 1900, her case was cited in an academic study of the limits to criminal responsibility.

References

1899 deaths 19th-century executions by England and Wales Executed English women Poisoners British female murderers People convicted of murder by England and Wales English people convicted of murder Executed people from London Sororicides 1899 murders in the United Kingdom {{UK-crime-bio-stub