Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Malcolm, Sarah
MALCOLM, SARAH (1710?–1733), criminal, was born at Durham, of north-country parents, about 1710. On the death of her mother she left her father, who had been living in Dublin, and became a charwoman at the Temple in London. Among her employers was as Mrs. Lydia Duncomb, an aged widow, who lived in Tanfield Court in the Inner Temple. On 4 Feb. 1733 this lady and her two servants were found murdered, and a trunk containing valuables broken open and rifled. One of the occupants of the same staircase, a Mr. Kerrel or Kerrol, who also employed Malcolm, instantly suspected her of the crime. She was arrested at the Temple gate, and forthwith committed to Newgate. She was condemned to death at the Old Bailey 24 Feb. While in the condemned cell she was painted ad vivum by William Hogarth, who is said to have remarked to Sir J. Thornhill during the sitting, 'I see by this woman's features that she is capable of any wickedness.' A replica passed into Horace Walpole's possession; the original belonged to Boydell, and was lent by Jane Dundas to the National Portrait Exhibition of 1868. Several engravings were made of the picture (a three-quarter length), with additions and variations (see Gent. Mag. March 1733). One (out of eleven different engravings), preserved in the print room at the British Museum, bears the inscription 'No recompense but love.' At the woman's back to the right is a figure in a wig and band holding a ring, and through a window to the left is seen the execution. The figure was that of Malcolm's 'reverend confessor,' named Piddington or Peddington (d. 1734), curate of St. Bartholomew the Great, 'who is supposed to have made some amourous overtures to Sarah.' A report was current at the time that Malcolm was incited to the murder by a gentleman whose name she suppressed, though she tried to implicate two brothers named Alexander. She was executed on 7 March 1732-3, opposite Mitre Court in Fleet Street, 'dressed in a crape mourning gown, holding up her head in the cart with an air, and looking as if she were painted, which some did not scruple to affirm.' Before burial in St. Sepulchre's graveyard her corpse was exhibited in Snow Hill, whither multitudes resorted, 'among the rest a gentleman in deep, new mourning, who kissed her, and gave the people half-a-crown.' Professor Martin dissected the murderess, and afterwards 'presented her skeleton in a glass case to the Botanic Gardens at Cambridge.' The very striking portrait by Hogarth constitutes her chief claim to remembrance.
[Ireland's Hogarth Illustrated, ii. 296; Dobson's Hogarth, p. 254; Gaulfield's Portraits of Remarkable Persons, iv. 55; A True Copy of the Paper delivered the Night before her Execution by S. Malcolm to the Rev. Mr. Piddington (curate of St. Bartholomew the Great, who attended her on the Scaffold); The Friendly Apparition: being an account of the most surprising appearance of Sarah Malcolm's Ghost to a great assembly of her acquaintance at a noted Gin Shop; Craftsman, 10 March 1733; Tyburn Chronicle, ii. 359-93, with illustration of Malcolm's apprehension; Stephens's Cat. of Satirical Prints, 11. 774-9; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. xii. 39; Gent. Mag. 1733, pp. 97, 100, 137, 153; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, p. 219; Knapp and Baldwin's Newgate Calendar, i. 336.]