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A History of Infanticide in Britain c. 1600 to the Present

DOI: 10.1057/9781137349125

ISBN: 978-1-349-36140-3

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK - Springer Journals

Nov 4, 2015

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Chapter 1Investigating Infanticide — An Enduring Phenomenon

Kilday, Anne-Marie

Pages: 1 –22

[Infanticide is an intensely emotional and emotive subject — one that has been a central part of human experience from the outset. It leaves strong feelings in its wake, which has led to sorrow, anger and a desire (in modern times) for whole societies to hide this phenomenon from their...
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Chapter 2The Archetype of Infanticide in the Early Modern Period

Kilday, Anne-Marie

Pages: 23 –50

[On 13 April 1681 a servant woman called Ann Price was arraigned and then tried at the Old Bailey ‘for felloniously Murthering her Bastard Male-Infant in the Parish of St Margaret’s, Westminster’.2 The court heard Ann confess that she ‘was got with Child’ after having a relationship with a...
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Chapter 3Murderous Mothers and the Extended Network of Shame

Kilday, Anne-Marie

Pages: 51 –76

[In the previous chapter, we examined the perceived archetypal characteristics of new-born child murder in the early modern period. We also identified the circumstances that could result in the conception of illegitimate infants in the British Isles and further afield. In this chapter, we need to...
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Chapter 4Monsters of Inhumanity? Methods of Infant Disposal

Kilday, Anne-Marie

Pages: 77 –110

[In this chapter we will investigate the different options open to women in the pre-modern period who experienced an unwanted pregnancy. Although new-born child murder constituted a significant proportion of recorded female criminality, as we established in previous chapters, the offence was not...
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Chapter 5The Pendulum of Opinion: Changing Attitudes to Infanticide

Kilday, Anne-Marie

Pages: 111 –150

[These forthright and visceral comments contain two key themes that will be examined in this chapter. First, it builds on the analysis carried out in Chapter 2, examining how infanticide was regarded by contemporaries during the nineteenth century. The chapter will also investigate the extent to...
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Chapter 6Explaining Infanticide: Motives for Murder

Kilday, Anne-Marie

Pages: 151 –182

[As we saw in Chapter 4, the options for infant disposal that were open to pregnant women in Britain before the twentieth century were limited. Abortion, infant abandonment, wet-nursing and baby-farming were all problematic because of their potential fallibility, the expense they necessitated and...
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Chapter 7The Modern Debate: Getting Away With Murder?

Kilday, Anne-Marie

Pages: 183 –217

[In this final chapter, we will trace the history of infanticide since 1900. This was an era of both continuity and change in relation to new-born child murder. Even in the present day, various ‘historical’ aspects of infanticide have endured. Instances of child murder still persist in modern...

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