Identifier: chroniclesofcri02pelh (find matches)
Title: The chronicles of crime; or, The new Newgate calendar, being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Pelham, Camden, pseud
Subjects: Newgate (Prison : London, England) Crime and criminals
Publisher: London T. Miles
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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at the time of her death was three years and a half old. About the year
1826 she formed a third liaison with the man who became her deliberate
murderer.
William Corder was the son of an opulent farmer at Polstead, and
having become acquainted with the unfortunate girl Marten, the conse-
quence of an illicit intercourse which took place between them, was a
child. From that time he became much attached to her, and was a
frequent visitor at her father's house. The child died within a short period
of its birth, and from the circumstances of its having died suddenly, and
of Corder having taken it away at night, and disposed of its body in a
manner which he would never explain, an idea was entertained that it had
come unfairly by its death. However strongly this notion may have taken
possession of the public mind, after the apprehension of Corder, it does
not appear that any real evidence was ever produced publicly, to support
the impression which had got abroad; but certain it is, that the unhappy
girl made use of the circumstance as a means of endeavouring to procure
Text Appearing After Image:

Corder shooting Maria Marten.
P.147

THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR 147


the father of the child to fulfil a promise which he had made, that he would
make her his wife. On the 18th of May 1827, Corder called at the house
of old Marten, and then expressed his willingness that the ceremony should
be performed ; and he said that, in order that no time should be lost, and
that the marriage might be as private as possible, he had made up his
mind to have it celebrated by licence instead of by bans. The next day
was appointed for the wedding, and he persuaded the unhappy girl to
dress herself in a suit of his clothes, so as to secure the greatest secrecy,
and to accompany him to a part of his premises called the Red Barn,
where she could exchange them for her own, and from whence he would
convey her in a gig, which he had in readiness, to a church at Ipswich.
The girl having consented to this singular proposition, Corder immediately
quitted the house, and he was soon after followed by his unhappy victim,

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