DOCUMENTS relating to the execution of North-East serial killer Mary Ann Cotton are set to be auctioned.

Four documents will go on sale at Tennants Auctioneers, in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, as part of its specialist book sale on January 4.

A telegram from the Deputy Governor of Durham County Prison, James Young, to John Milnes Favell the Coroner for Chester Ward, County Durham, dated March 22, 1873, is included in the lot.

It reads: “Mary Ann Cotton is to be executed on Monday morning at the usual hour please make arrangements to hold inquest.”

Also included is the official Crown warrant: a single sheet filled and signed in ink by the Coroner dated March 22, 1873, authorizing the Constables of Elvet to assemble a jury. It also names the 13 male jurors including the Foreman.

Five signed witness statements recorded by the Coroner, from the Deputy Governor, Surgeon and Wardens of Durham Prison, identifying Cotton’s body and the ‘Inquisition’ death certificate in a neat clerical hand on a single large sheet of parchment, signed by the 13 jurors plus Favell, each having made their mark on the wax seals beside their signatures, will also go to the highest bidder.

Cotton was born Mary Ann Robson in 1832 in Low Moorsley near Hetton-le-Hole.

In 1873 she was convicted and hanged for the murder of her stepson Charles Edward Cotton, but it is believed she may have murdered up to 21 people, including 11 of her 13 children and three of her four husbands. Her chief weapon was arsenic.

The murderess moved to West Auckland with her fourth husband, Frederick Cotton, three years before her trial and subsequent death by hanging at Durham Prison, on March 24, 1873.

Tennant’s book specialist, Jasper Jennings, said the documents were put up for auction by a County Durham couple and have generated interest because of the notoriety of Cotton.

“A private couple have come forward with these four documents which are the formalities that needed signing like the death certificate and the telegram to the coroner which is rather cold saying she is to be executed,” he said. “It’s an interesting grouping and we are just hoping we will see a good price.”

They follow a successful previous lot of eight letters written by Cotton from her prison cell together with her King James Bible which were sold for £2,200 in 2013 and a collection of Letters to the killer, along with a contemporary portrait of her which made £1,500 in September.

This bundle has an estimate of between £400 and £500.

All the documents have some splitting to the folds and general soiling and staining but are all clearly legible.

Mr Jennings added: “Tennants is becoming a destination for items related notorious personalities of the North-East.”

Interested parties can view the lot on January 3, between 9am and 5pm as well as on the morning of the sale. For live bidding visit the-saleroom.com