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Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity from 1850 pp 161–188Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

‘13 Yards Off the Big Gate and 37 Yards Up the West Walls’. Crime Scene Investigation in Mid-nineteenth Century Newcastle upon Tyne

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice ((PHPPJ))

Abstract

On 27 February 1863, George Vass was convicted of the murder of Margaret Docherty in Newcastle upon Tyne on New Year’s Eve. The crime, trial, and execution were widely reported. The care and skill demonstrated in the police handling of the crime scene runs counter to the popular perception of constables as unskilled men whose chief function was crime prevention rather than detection. There was recognition of the need to gather evidence for the legal process, suggesting a level of professionalism. Research into nineteenth-century policing often focuses on London, but the case considered in this chapter indicates a level of sophistication in policing and a methodical, almost scientific, approach to crime scene analysis in Newcastle in 1863 that has perhaps not previously been appreciated.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    R.M. Gardner and T. Bevel, Practical Crime Scene Analysis and Reconstruction, London: CRC Press, 2009: Rear cover.

  2. 2.

    M.T. Miller and P. Massey, The Crime Scene a Visual Guide, London: Elsevier, 2016.

  3. 3.

    L.T. Roach, ‘Detecting crime: Part I—Detection and the police’, Criminal Law Review, May 2002: 379–390.

  4. 4.

    It was the observation of Alison Adam in response to our paper at the British Crime Historians Symposium 2016 that made us aware of how unusual our findings in the case of Regina v George Vass might be and sparked our deeper research into the police investigation. Our thanks are recorded here.

  5. 5.

    J. Evans, ‘The Newcastle upon Tyne City Police 1836–1969’, Journal of the Police History Society, 1988, 3: 74–79.

  6. 6.

    For an overview, see C. Steedman, Policing and the Victorian Community: The Formation of English Provincial Police Forces, 1856–80, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984. Studies addressing policing in major provincial towns and cities include: R. Swift, Police Reform in Early Victorian York, 1835–1856, York: University of York, 1988; D. Taylor, ‘Crime and policing in early Victorian Middlesbrough, 1835–55’, Journal of Local and Regional Studies, 11, 1991; M. Weaver, ‘The new science of policing: Crime and the Birmingham Police Force, 1839–1842’, Albion 1994, 26: 289–308.

  7. 7.

    I. Bridgeman and C. Emsley, A Guide to the Archives of the Police Forces of England and Wales, Bodmin and King’s Lynn: Police History Society, 1991. The question of records of provincial forces is discussed in C. Emsley, The English Police a Political and Social History, London: Longman, 1996, p. 276.

  8. 8.

    Emsley’s Guide states that the Northumbria Police Archive includes ‘Guidance and Government of the Police Force. Newcastle upon Tyne. 1836’ but we have been unable to trace this item.

  9. 9.

    Municipal Corporations Act 1835 (5 and 6 William IV, chap. 76). The first report of the first Committee in Newcastle was 11 February 1836.

  10. 10.

    Emsley, The English Police, p. 276.

  11. 11.

    Newcastle Daily Journal, 13 February 1836.

  12. 12.

    The Watch Committee minutes refer to ‘Superintendent’, although the terms Chief Officer, Chief Constable or Chief Inspector may also be used, which suggests the nomenclature might have been inconsistent. This variation in terminology is considered in M. Stallion and D.S. Wall, The British Police: Forces and Chief Officers 1829–2012, Braintree: The Police History Society, 2011, p. 48.

  13. 13.

    R. Cowley, A History of the British Police: From its Earliest Beginnings to the Present Day, Stroud: The History Press, 2011, p. 157.

  14. 14.

    Cowley, History of the British Police, p. 28.

  15. 15.

    S. Wade, Plain Clothes and Sleuths, Stroud: The History Press, 2007, p. 42.

  16. 16.

    Newcastle Courant, 11 December 1846.

  17. 17.

    J. Collingwood Bruce, Reid’s Handbook to Newcastle upon Tyne, London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green, 1863, p. 132.

  18. 18.

    Reports of Commissioner, Police (Counties and Boroughs), Reports of the inspectors of constabulary for the year ended 29th September 1864, made to Her Majesty’s principal secretary of state, under the provisions of the Statute 19 & 20 Vict. c. 69, 1864, p. 90.

  19. 19.

    House of Commons Papers, Reports of Inspectors of Constabulary to the Secretary of State 1861–62, 1863.

  20. 20.

    Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, 7 December 1861.

  21. 21.

    C. Emsley, The Great British Bobby, London and New York: Quercus, 2009, p. 143. On recruitment, see C. Emsley and M. Clapson, ‘Recruiting the English Policeman c. 1840–1940’, in D. Taylor (ed.), The New Police in the Nineteenth Century, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997, pp. 161–177.

  22. 22.

    Emsley, The English Police, p. 192.

  23. 23.

    Emsley, The English Police, Table 9.1. See also Taylor, New Police, p. 48.

  24. 24.

    Emsley, Great British Bobby, pp. 142–143; see also Emsley, English Police, p. 191. Taylor similarly noted: ‘In the eyes of many chief constables and recruiting sergeants, the ideal recruit was an agricultural labourer’, Emsley, New Police, p. 47.

  25. 25.

    Emsley, Great British Bobby, p. 143, quotation at p. 149.

  26. 26.

    J.W. Osterburg and R.H. Ward, Criminal investigation: A Method for Reconstructing the Past: A Study Guide, Newark, NJ: LexisNexis and Matthew Bender, 2007.

  27. 27.

    Gardner and Bevel, Practical Crime Scene Analysis, p. 1.

  28. 28.

    TNA: ASSI 44/180.

  29. 29.

    Newcastle Courant, 9 January 1863.

  30. 30.

    Newcastle Daily Journal, 6 January 1863; reported in identical words in Newcastle Courant, 9 January 1863.

  31. 31.

    Gardner and Bevel, Practical Crime Scene Analysis, pp. 1–2.

  32. 32.

    Emsley, Great British Bobby, p. 118.

  33. 33.

    C. Emsley, ‘The origins of the modern police’, History Today, 49(4): 8–14, p. 11.

  34. 34.

    Newcastle Courant, 6 March 1863—our emphasis.

  35. 35.

    Taylor, New Police, Table 3.3.

  36. 36.

    Tyne and Wear Archives, MD.NC/274/2, Watch Committee reports, February 1860–June 1867, p. 408.

  37. 37.

    Newcastle Courant , 6 March 1863.

  38. 38.

    Newcastle Daily Journal, 28 February 1863.

  39. 39.

    Newcastle Daily Journal, 28 February 1863.

  40. 40.

    Newcastle Courant, 9 January 1863.

  41. 41.

    Newcastle Courant, 9 January 1863.

  42. 42.

    B. Morris, ‘History of criminal investigation’, in T. Newburn, T. Williamson and A. Wright (eds.), Handbook of Criminal Investigation, Abingdon: Willan, 2007, pp. 15–40, with reference to the ‘heroic period’ 1829–1878, p. 19.

  43. 43.

    Table 4 in Return of Judicial Statistics of England and Wales, 1862 and 1863.

  44. 44.

    A. Browne and S. J. Nichols, The Police Officers Catechism or Handbook, 5th ed., London: Shaw & Sons, 1877, p. 11.

  45. 45.

    We have been able to locate only the fifth edition of the Catechism. This is a revised edition and therefore it may be assumed that the original edition was produced in the 1860s.

  46. 46.

    J. F. Archbold, Archbold’s Snowden’s Magistrates Assistant and Police Officers and Constables, Guide 4th ed., London: Shaw and Sons, 1859.

  47. 47.

    Ibid.

  48. 48.

    Cowley, History of the British Police, p. 59.

  49. 49.

    For example, Alfred Swaine Taylor (1806–1880), professor of medical jurisprudence at Guy’s Hospital Medical School in 1834, wrote Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence, first published in 1865.

  50. 50.

    W.J. Tilstone and K.A. Savage, Forensic Science: An Encyclopedia of History, Methods, and Techniques, Santa Barbara and Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 5.

  51. 51.

    For a discussion of this point, see C.J. Rzepka, Detective Fiction, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005, p. 29.

  52. 52.

    Gardner and Bevel, Practical Crime Scene Analysis, pp. 1–2.

  53. 53.

    Newcastle Courant, 9 January 1863.

  54. 54.

    Newcastle Courant, 9 January 1863.

  55. 55.

    A. Moss and K. Skinner, The Victorian Detective, Oxford: Shire Publications, 2013, p. 27.

  56. 56.

    Newcastle Courant, 6 March 1863.

  57. 57.

    Newcastle Courant, 6 March 1863.

  58. 58.

    Royal College of surgeon’s website https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E003052b.htm, Accessed 31 May 2018.

  59. 59.

    Newcastle Daily Journal, 25 January 1845.

  60. 60.

    A complete historical account of the police surgeon does not appear to have been produced, but on the role of the police surgeon, see R.D. Summers, ‘History of the police surgeon’, The Practitioner, 1978, 22(1): 383–387.

  61. 61.

    See Liston’s entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com.libproxy.ncl.ac.uk/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-16772?rskey=YOEIrH&result=6, Accessed 31 May 2018.

  62. 62.

    C. Sandford-Couch, and H.J. Rutherford, ‘From the ‘Death of a female unknown’ to the life of Margaret Dockerty: Rediscovering a nineteenth century victim of crime’, Law, Crime and History, 2018, 8(1): 21–37.

  63. 63.

    TNA, ASSI 45/74.

  64. 64.

    J. Bentham, A Treatise on Judicial Evidence, London: J. W. Paget, 1825.

  65. 65.

    D. Cox has considered their role as prosecution witnesses in trials at the Old Bailey. He examined the extent to which their professionalism in investigating often complex and complicated crimes was utilized by prosecutors as ‘expert’ testimony. He argued that far from being regarded as incompetent and untrustworthy, they were often respected for their competence and composure both whilst investigating and in the court: see, D. Cox, ‘The use of Bow Street Runners as prosecution witnesses, 1792–1839’, Union and Disunion in the Nineteenth Century Conference, University of Plymouth, July 2017.

  66. 66.

    The Expert Witness Institute website advises: ‘An expert offers special expertise in a particular field. As an expert witness, however, he or she needs to offer additional skills and abilities….When in court, the expert witness methodically presents opinion evidence based on evidence of fact’. www.ewi.org.uk/membership_directory_why_join_ewi/whatisanexpertwitness, Accessed 10 June 2018.

Archives

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Clare Sandford-Couch

  2. Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Helen Rutherford

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  1. Clare Sandford-Couch
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Correspondence to Clare Sandford-Couch .

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  1. Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK

    Alison Adam

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Sandford-Couch, C., Rutherford, H. (2020). ‘13 Yards Off the Big Gate and 37 Yards Up the West Walls’. Crime Scene Investigation in Mid-nineteenth Century Newcastle upon Tyne. In: Adam, A. (eds) Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity from 1850. Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28837-2_7

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