EVER since her execution 150 years ago, Mary Ann Cotton, the mother who murdered her own children, has been demonised.
She was demonised in the newspapers and in the playgrounds. For instance, this magazine telling of her story seems to have deliberately coarsened her features, turning her eyes into slits, to make her look more evil although, in reality, she was attractive enough to win the hearts of four husbands and many lovers:
Still in the south Durham playrounds, people remember this childhood skipping rhyme:
Mary Ann Cotton
She’s dead and she’s rotten
She lies in her bed
With her eyes wide open.
Sing, sing, oh, what can I sing
Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string.
Where, where? Up in the air
Sellin’ black puddins a penny a pair.
She allegedly despatched her victims – anywhere up to 25 of them – with arsenic. Evidence was presented at her trial that she bought it from chemists as far apart as Newcastle and Darlington, although she insisted she used it to scrub down bedsteads and kill the bedbugs hiding in the joints and the mattress.
She is said to have poisoned her adult victims with a nice cup of tea – and there are at least two teapots in the region which claim to have once hung in her cupboard.
In Beamish museum is a black china teapot, which in the 1930s was given by an old lady in West Auckland to Dr Smith, her local GP, saying it had come out of Mrs Cotton’s last home of Front Street in the village. Dr Smith’s widow, Beatrice, presented it to the museum in the early 1970s, which is when it also took possession of a three-legged wooden stool from a woman in Chester-le-Street who claimed that Mrs Cotton’s derriere once graced it.
In the 1950s, renowned Bishop Auckland photographer Ernie Johnson acquired another two-tone china teapot which was also said to be Mary Ann’s murder weapon. Ernie stunted up this picture of him pouring a poisoned cup of tea for his friend, Angus Tallentire, who ran a motor repair business in South Church Road.
The picture appeared in many newspapers at the time, and we believe the murderous teapot is still in West Auckland – we’d love to see it, if it is.
And so with a duo of terrible teapots, our series, which began last summer on the 150th anniversary of Mary Ann Cotton’s sensational arrest in Front Street, West Auckland, comes to an end. Our prime sources of information have included the Echo archive and two books: Mary Ann Cotton written by Arthur Appleton in 1973 and Dark Angel by Martin Connolly which was published by Pen & Sword in 2016.
It comes to an end unless, that is, you have anything to add. Have you a poisoner’s teapot or a family memento or story, or do you know what a cheffionier bed is or have you ever heard of a cat with cockle shells on its feet. If you have, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
READ THE FULL STORY OF MARY ANN COTTON:
Pt 1: SENSATION AS MOTHER IS ARRESTED FOR MURDER
Pt 2: SHOCK AS STEPSON'S BODY IS EXHUMED
Pt 3: AMAZING DETAILS AS MARY ANN COTTON APPEARS IN COURT
Pt 4: EXHUMATIONS IN CHURCHYARD OF MRS COTTON'S VICTIMS
Pt 5: MARY ANN COTTON GIVES BIRTH IN DURHAM JAIL
Pt 6: MARY ANN COTTON PREPARES FOR HER TRIAL
Pt 7: MARY ANN COTTON FACES THE SENTENCE OF DOOM
Pt 8: KISS MY BABE FOR ME: MARY ANN COTTON GIVES UP HER BABY
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