In both 1715 and 1745 there was a major military challenge in Britain to the thrones of George I and George II, posed by Jacobite supporters of the exiled Stuart claimant. This book examines the responses of those loyal to the Hanoverian dynasty, whose efforts have been ignored or disparaged compared to the military perspective or that of the Jacobites. These efforts included those of the clergy who gave loyalist sermons, accompanied the volunteer forces against the Jacobites and even stood up to the Jacobite forces in person. The lords lieutenant organized militia and volunteer forces to support the status quo. Official bodies, such as the corporations, parishes, quarter sessions and sheriffs, organized events to celebrate loyalist occasions and dealt with local Jacobite sympathisers. The press, both national and regional, was uniformly loyal. Finally, both the middling and common people acted, often violently, against those thought to be hostile towards the status quo. The effectiveness of these bodies had limits, but was at times decisive, and showed that the dynasty was not without popular support in its hours of crisis. This volume is essential reading for all those interested in the Jacobite rebellions and the early English Georgian state, church and society.

Family history should reveal more than facts and dates, lists of names and places - it should bring ancestors alive in the context of their times and the surroundings they knew - and research into local history records is one of the most rewarding ways of gaining this kind of insight into their world. That is why Jonathan Oates's detailed introduction to these records is such a useful tool for anyone who is trying to piece together a portrait of family members from the past. In a series of concise and informative chapters he looks at the origins and importance of local history from the sixteenth century onwards and at the principal archives - national and local, those kept by government, councils, boroughs, museums, parishes, schools and clubs. He also explains how books, photographs and other illustrations, newspapers, maps, directories, and a range of other resources can be accessed and interpreted and how they can help to fill a gap in your knowledge.As well as describing how these records were compiled, he highlights their limitations and the possible pitfalls of using them, and he suggests how they can be combined to build up a picture of an individual, a family and the place and time in which they lived.

Whilst much has been written about the Jacobites, most works have tended to look at the Rebellion of 1745, rather than the earlier attempt to reinstate the Stuart dynasty. As such this book provides a welcome focus on events in 1715, when Jacobites in both England and Scotland tried to oust George I and to replace him with James Stuart. In particular it provides a detailed narrative and analysis of the campaign in the Lowlands of Scotland and in the north of England that led to the decisive battle at Preston and ended the immediate prospects of the Jacobite cause. Drawing upon a wealth of under-utilised sources, the work builds on existing research into the period to give weight to the community and individual dimensions of the crisis as well as to the military ones. Contrary to popular myth, the Jacobite army contained both English and Scots, and because it surrendered almost intact, an analysis of the surviving list of Jacobite prisoners captured in the North West England reveals much information about their origins, occupations, unit structure and, sometimes, religion, as well as the quality of the soldiers' arms and equipment, their experience and that of their leaders. Through this study of the last major battle to be fought on English soil, a clearer picture emerges of the individuals and groups who sought to mould the direction of the freshly created British state and the dynasty that should rule it.

Murders and murderers fascinate us - and perhaps serial killers fascinate us most of all. In the twentieth century the term came to be used to describe murders committed by the same person, often with similar methods. But, as Jonathan Oates demonstrates in this selection of cases from London, this category of crime has existed for centuries, though it may have become more common in modern times. Using police and pathologists' reports, Home Office and prison files, trial transcripts and lurid accounts in contemporary newspapers, he reconstructs these cases in order to explain how they took place, who the killers were, what motivated them, and how for a while they got away with their crimes. He does not neglect the victims and provides a revealing analysis of the killers, their circumstances and their actions. Among the nineteenth-century cases are the infamous killings of Jack the Ripper and the less-well-known but terrifying crimes of the only female killer, the Deptford Poisoner. Twentieth-century cases covered in forensic detail include the Black-out Ripper of 1942, the Thames Nude Murders of the 1960s and the multiple killings of Joseph Smith, John Christie and John George Haigh. There is also one especially troubling unsolved case - the notorious Soho prostitute killings of the 1930s and 1940s, which may be the work of one man. Jonathan Oates's gripping accounts of this wide range of serial killings gives us a powerful insight into the nature of these crimes, the characters of the killers and the police methods of the period.

Why does the notorious highwayman Dick Turpin have such an extraordinary reputation today? How come his criminal career has inspired a profusion of often misleading literature and film? This eighteenth-century villain is often portrayed as a hero - dashing, sinister, romantic, daring, a Robin Hood of his times. The reality, as Jonathan Oates reveals in this perceptive, carefully researched study, was radically different. He was a robber, torturer and killer, a gangster whose posthumous reputation has eclipsed the truth about his life. In the early 1700s Turpin progressed from butcher's apprentice and poacher to become a member of the Gregory gang which terrorized householders around London by robbery and violence. Then came his two-year career as a highwayman robbing travellers, his partnership with Matthew King whom he may have killed in Whitechapel, his murder Thomas Morris in Epping Forest, and his eventual capture and execution. Jonathan Oates recounts the episodes in Turpin's short, brutal life in dramatic detail, basing his narrative on contemporary sources - trial records and newspapers in particular - and he traces the development of the Turpin legend over 250 years through novels, ballads, plays, television and film. The Dick Turpin who emerges from this rigorous and scholarly biography is in many ways a more interesting man than the legend suggests.

Originally a county town in Middlesex, Ealing became known as the ‘Queen of the Suburbs’ at the beginning of the last century. Famous for the Ealing Studios, the oldest film studios in the world, in this book authors Paul Lang and Dr Jonathan Oates delve into the fascinating but often lesser-known history of this district. Characters associated with Ealing include Olga Grey, hockey player and MI5 agent, and Ealing’s pro-Hitler MP, and other links with espionage and political extremism include suspected Soviet spies and a Communist cell in nineteenth-century Hanwell. Crime has stalked the streets of Ealing with the tale of the disappearance of Peregrine Henniker-Heaton and dissent when the borough was home to anti-German riots in 1915 and the Sunday Opening controversy in the 1930s. Alongside these tales the authors uncover stories of sports stars, film studios, wartime and ancient Ealing. Secret Ealing explores the lesser-known episodes and characters in the history of the borough through the years. With tales of remarkable characters, unusual events and tucked-away or disappeared historical buildings and locations, it will appeal to all those with an interest in the history of this West London district.

Many books have been written about the Jacobite rebellions - the armed attempts made by the Stuarts to regain the British throne between 1689 and 1746 - and in particular about the risings of 1689, 1715, 1719 and 1745. The key battles have been described in graphic detail. Yet no previous book has given a comprehensive military account of the campaigns in their entirety - and that is the purpose of Jonathan Oates's new history. For over fifty years the Jacobites posed a serious threat to the governments of William and Mary, Queen Anne and George I and II. But they were unable to follow up their victories at Killiecrankie, Prestonpans and Falkirk, and the overwhelming defeat suffered by Bonnie Prince Charlie's army when it confronted the Duke of Cumberland's forces at Culloden in 1746 was decisive. The author uses vivid eyewitness testimony and contemporary sources, as well as the latest archaeological evidence, to trace the course of the conflict, and offers an absorbing insight into the makeup of the opposing sides, their leadership, their troops and the strategy and tactics they employed. His distinctive approach gives the reader a long perspective on a conflict which is often viewed more narrowly in terms of famous episodes and the careers of the leading men.

The trial of the year in 1950 was of Donald Hume, a North London petty thief accused of stabbing car dealer Stanley Setty to death, of cutting up his corpse and dropping his body parts from an aeroplane. The press and public were horrified and fascinated by the details. But Hume was convicted and gaoled as an accessory - he later claimed his wife was guilty of the crime. He then fled Switzerland, taking up with a Swiss woman in Zurich, but he needed money to finance his lavish lifestyle and he returned to robbery. He carried out two armed robberies, shooting a member of the bank staff, but getting clean away. Then in 1959 his attempt to rob a bank failed and he shot dead a bystander. Arrested, he stood trial and was sentenced to life, but was later deemed criminally insane and was returned to Britain and to Broadmoor. Jonathan Oates's compelling account of Hume's notorious life of crime is based on extensive primary research. It sheds new light on Hume and his crimes, especially the murder of Setty, and gives the reader a rare insight into the criminal underworld of the time.

Ealing was once known as the 'Queen of the Suburbs', though this phrase is more commonly used now by estate agents. Ealing Through Time enables the reader to judge for themselves whether the viewpoints of Ealing justify the title in question, both in the past and in contemporary times. Ealing was a 'country town near London' when these postcards were commissioned. It was blessed by many fine open spaces and was near to the countryside too. Yet it also had good transport links by train and tram to the capital and the West of England. It had a number of prestigious private schools and other establishments that made it attractive to middle-class residents. Much the same can be said now, despite the many changes that have taken place in the last century.

Unsolved crimes have a special fascination, none more so than unsolved murders. The shock of the crime itself and the mystery surrounding it, the fear generated by the awareness a killer on the loose, the insight the cases give into outdated police methods, and the chance to speculate about the identity of the killer after so many years have passed - all these aspects of unsolved murder cases make them compelling reading. In this companion volume to his bestselling Unsolved Murders of Victorian and Edwardian London, Jonathan Oates has selected over 20 haunting, sometimes shocking cases from the period between the two world wars. Included are the shooting of PC James Kelly in Gunnersbury, violent deaths associated with Fenian Conspiracies, the stabbing of the French acrobat Martial Lechevalier in Piccadilly, the strychnine poisoning of egg-seller Kusel Behr, the killing by arsenic of three members of a Croydon family, and, perhaps most gruesome of all, the case of the unidentified body parts found at Waterloo Station. Jonathan Oates describes each of these crimes in precise, forensic detail. His case studies shed light on the lives of the victims and summon up the ruthless, sometimes lethal character of London itself.

The East End is one of the most famous parts of London and it has had its own distinctive identity since the district was first settled in medieval times. It is best known for extremes of poverty and deprivation, for strong political and social movements, and for the extraordinary mix of immigrants who have shaped its history. Jonathan Oates's handbook is the ideal guide to its complex, rich and varied story and it is an essential source for anyone who wants to find out about an East End ancestor or carry out their own research into the area. He outlines in vivid detail the development of the neighbourhoods that constitute the East End. In a series of information-filled chapters, he explores East End industries and employment-the docks, warehouses, factories, markets and shops. He looks at its historic poverty and describes how it gained a reputation for criminality, partly because of notorious criminals like Jack the Ripper and the Krays. This dark side to the history contrasts with the liveliness of the East End entertainments and the strong social bonds of the immigrants who made their home there-Huguenots, Jews, Bangladeshis and many others. Throughout the book details are given of the records that researchers can consult in order to delve into the history for themselves-online sites, archives, libraries, books and museums.