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Jane Griffin is a woman of sharp wit, good reputation and a violent temper she cannot govern. As Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals tells it, she keeps a busy inn in Smithfield with her husband, drawing customers with her charm and driving them away with her rages; a figure who belongs as much to the annals of true crime as to any cautionary sermon.

She is well-bred, well-spoken and genuinely kind when calm; yet anger moves through her like weather, sudden and ungovernable. The domestic world she has built is real and prosperous, but it sits on a fault line that runs straight through her own character.

In the close quarters of a Georgian inn, temper and proximity are a volatile combination, and the question is never whether a spark will fall but when.

Dark Lexicon: Old words. Dark meaning.

The past speaks its own dialect; here is what to listen for in this episode.

Malice prepense: This is the old legal term for premeditated ill intent; deliberate, thought-out malice as opposed to a spur-of-the-moment act. In court it carried enormous weight: proving malice prepense could mean the difference between a lesser charge and a capital conviction. Today we would say 'premeditated' or 'aforethought,' but the older phrase has a colder ring to it, as if the law itself is whispering that it already knows what you were thinking.

Stays: Not pauses or delays; in this context, stays are the rigid, boned corset worn tight around a woman's torso. They were everyday armour in Georgian England, laced and stiffened to shape the body. When the text notes that the maid's stays happened to be 'unluckily open,' it means the one piece of clothing that might have stopped a blade was unfastened at exactly the wrong moment.

Ordinary of Newgate: The Ordinary was the prison chaplain assigned to Newgate, London's most notorious gaol. His duties went far beyond spiritual comfort: he attended the condemned in their final days, recorded their confessions, and often published pamphlets about their lives and crimes for a hungry public. The Ordinary was part priest, part journalist, and part spectacle-maker.

High words: Today we might say a 'heated argument' or 'shouting match.' In eighteenth century usage, 'high words' meant angry, raised voices exchanged between people in a dispute. It sounds almost polite now, but at the time it signalled a confrontation that had moved past reason.

Taxed her with: Nothing to do with money. To 'tax' someone in this period meant to accuse them, to lay blame at their feet. It carried a bluntness that the word 'accused' sometimes softens; to tax someone was to challenge them directly and expect an answer.

Aspersed: To asperse someone was to spread false or damaging stories about them; to smear their name. We still have the noun 'aspersion' in phrases like 'casting aspersions,' but the verb itself has all but vanished. Jane Griffin uses the word to describe those who slandered her during her imprisonment, adding cruelty to an already crushing situation.

Temporal concerns: This does not mean time. 'Temporal' here means worldly, earthly; the practical matters of money, property and livelihood as opposed to the spiritual welfare of the soul. When Jane begs her husband to attend to his temporal concerns, she is telling him to keep the business alive and the family fed after she is gone.

About This Series

Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals is one of the earliest works of true crime writing in the English language, nearly 300 years old, covering murderers, thieves, highwaymen, forgers, coiners and worse.

The book is entirely in the public domain and every word of it can be read today for free. But if you would rather listen, this podcast does exactly that: one criminal at a time, eve