Kathleen LaChance

This chapter discusses the complex array of provincial and metropolitan dramas arising out of a contemporary sex murder. Mary Ashford’s death in Warwickshire in 1817 aroused both local and national controversy. The availability of a demonstrably popular print culture ensured that the circumstances of her murder — and the acquittal of Abraham Thornton — were nationally distributed. Two Warwickshire playwrights wrote dramas countering each others’ perspective. Ludlam’s Mysterious Murder made Ashford a sexually independent, yet naïve, victim. The anonymous Murdered Maid took a much more patrician line (befitting its probable vicar author). As the case became ever-more legally complex (trial by battle was invoked to re-indict the acquitted Thornton), both dramas were quickly followed by their London equivalents, including Barrymore’s Trial by Battle for the opening night of the Royal Coburg. The chapter demonstrates that provincial drama could initiate metropolitan drama....