Home » Society Crime » Society And Criminals » The Newgate Calendar The Newgate Calendar in Crimes Prevention & Resource Directory

The Newgate Calendar was one of those books, along with a Bible, Foxes Book of Martyrs and the Pilgrims Progress, most likely to be found in any English home between 1750 and 1850. Children were encouraged to read it because it was believed to inculcate principles of right living by fear of punishment if not by the dull and earnest morals appended to the stories of highwaymen and other felons. The editors of one version even included as a frontispiece a picture of a devoted mother giving a copy to her son who seems to be about eight years of age while pointing out the window at a body hanging on a gibbet.

 

Website: http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ngintro.htm