Margaret Waters:
Murder and Misogyny in Victorian London
Katherine Field
Woodstock Academy
Woodstock, CT
2012 NEH Seminar for School Teachers
Historical Interpretations of the Industrial Revolution in Britain
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Widowed in 1864 and left with £500, but had no other means of support.
Waters invested £300 in sewing machines to start a dressmaking business but lost
£250 by the end of the year.
Waters began to take in lodgers but still could not pay her rent. She took out a loan but
was unable to make payments and was forced to move.
An unmarried lodger offered to pay Waters £3 to "adopt" her unborn child. later Waters
"adopted" a second child from the same woman and was paid another £3. She then
began to place classifieds in newspapers seeking more children.
At least two children taken in by Waters died, apparently of natural causes. Waters
took in more children to pay for the burial costs. Three of these children later died from
unknown causes; their bodies disappeared. A witness who worked for Waters testified
children sometimes disappeared from the home.
Waters was accused of "willful murder." He arrest and trial were front page news for
several months. She was found guilty and executed on 11 October 1870.
Baby Farming
Refers to the practice of adopting unwanted children, or "taking them
in to nurse," in exchange for a lump sum or series of payments.
Baby farms became prevalent in the mid- 1800s due to the severity
of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment, cheap advertising, and an
increase in illegitimacy due to later marriage (De Vries, 262).
Baby farming was the subject of a major investigation by the British
Medical Journal in 1868.
1/4 of the women executed in Britain (8/32) were involved in baby
farming.
Cult of Domesticity
"Civilized" middle class lifestyle
(Berg, 2004).
Women considered too virtuous to
take part in worldly pursuits. Their
sphere was within the home.
Significance of breadwinner wage
(De Vries, 262 & Honeyman, 105).
Separate spheres created an
inevitable double standard.
The Double Standard
Bartholomew Drouet ran a
baby farm housing 1,400
children in miserable
conditions for which he
received £300/week.
150 of the children in his care
died of cholera within days of
each other in 1849.
Drouet faced a manslaughter
charge but was acquitted.
Why were Drouet and
Waters treated so
Differently?
Discuss...
Waters defied the prevailing stereotype of middle
class femininity and challenged the concept of
separate spheres. By introducing cash into what
was seen as a "natural" relationship between
woman and child she was seen to pervert and
degrade the concept of virtuous motherhood, the
foundation of the woman's sphere.
And Another Double
Standard
Women who purposefully
killed their own children
were often viewed with
sympathy and received
light punishment, while
women like Waters were
vilified for killing children
no one else wanted.
Why???
Women like Waters defied prevailing social
assumptions about femininity and motherhood.
Victorian females were believed to be inherently
emotional, rather than rational, creatures.
Women who took the life of their own child fit this
stereotype-it was believed they were acting out
of "post-natal mania." Women like Waters,
however, premeditated and took payment for
their crimes. They were despised more for
defying the stereotype of virtuous womanhood
than for the crime itself.
A Fatal Woman?
The children who died in the care of Waters may well have died anyway.
Receipts show Waters attempted to pay for doctors and medicines for the
children when they became ill.
Illegitimate children were two times more likely to die before their first
birthday than were legitimate children. Often deprived of breast milk they
were more susceptible to digestive problems. Evidence suggests Waters
may not have purposely killed the children in her care, as postmortem
examinations suggested severe dehydration.
One could argue Waters was attempting to provide a valuable social
service. Unmarried mothers could not care for their own children. The
1834 Poor Law Amendment prohibited alms to "fallen women." Middle
class widows like Waters with no means of support were in an equally
dire situation. Baby farming proved a mutually beneficial arrangement in
the absence of social welfare programs.
So What?
The execution of Margaret Waters reveals much
about Victorian attitudes toward women. As
more women began to agitate for greater rights
and an expanded sphere of influence, there was
a severe backlash against them. The Waters
case is a story of a Victorian age witch hunt
meant to demonize women who strayed outside
the bounds of "proper womanhood."