49 Facts About Edward Oxford

Edward Oxford was an English man who attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria in 1840.

Edward Oxford was the first of seven unconnected people who tried to kill her between 1840 and 1882.

Edward Oxford had a series of jobs in pubs, all of which he lost because of his conduct.

In 1867 Oxford was given the offer of release if he relocated to a British colony; he accepted and settled in Melbourne, Australia, under the new name "John Freeman".

Edward Oxford worked as a decorator, married and became a respected figure at his local church.

Edward Oxford began writing stories on the seedier aspects of Melbourne life for The Argus, which were published under the pseudonym "Liber".

Edward Oxford later published a book, Lights and Shadows of Melbourne Life, which looks at both the wealthy and seamy parts of Melbourne.

Edward Oxford was born in Birmingham, England, on 19 April 1822.

Edward Oxford's parents were George Oxford and his wife Hannah.

Edward Oxford was the third of the couple's seven children, although only four survived until 1829.

George died in June 1829 when Edward Oxford was seven years old, by which time the family were living in London.

When he was fourteen Edward Oxford was sent to work at the King's Head, an aunt's pub in Hounslow, then part of Middlesex.

Edward Oxford practised in his back garden, firing the guns charged with powder, but probably not loaded with shot; he visited a shooting gallery in Leicester Square, where he practised with their guns.

The carriage passed a group of spectators by the gates to the palace and travelled along Constitution Hill; as it came within a couple of metres of Edward Oxford, he drew out his first pistol and fired.

Edward Oxford's shot missed: he said "I have got another", drew his second pistol and fired that after the carriage.

Police soon arrived and arrested Edward Oxford, who was taken into custody at the nearest police station, in Gardner's Lane.

Several people visited the police station to see Edward Oxford, including Charles Murray, the Master of the Household; Fox Maule, the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department; and Henry Cadogan, 4th Earl Cadogan, a member of Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service.

That afternoon Edward Oxford was questioned by the Privy Council, although all he would admit to was firing the pistols.

Edward Oxford was represented by Sidney Taylor and William Henry Bodkin.

On 18 July 1840 Edward Oxford was taken from Newgate to Bethlem Royal Hospital at St George's Fields, London.

Conditions in the hospital were harsh and Edward Oxford had to spend much of his time in one large room with violent prisoners; he was attacked with a chamber pot by one prisoner.

Edward Oxford taught himself to read French, but bemoaned the lack of opportunity to practise his pronunciation; when asked about his mental state, he acknowledged that he was there because others had thought him insane, but said he "was really very far from being mad".

The notes recorded that Edward Oxford spent much of the time learning: he had learned to speak, or had knowledge of, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin and Greek.

Edward Oxford learned to knit and play the violin; he became a chess player and a painter.

Edward Oxford was in good physical shape, although suffering from constipation and urethritis.

The journalist reported that Edward Oxford "has now perfectly recovered his sanity, and is the most orderly, most useful and most trusted of all the inmates".

In 1867 Gathorne Hardy, who had taken over as Home Secretary, wrote to the governor of Broadmoor, asking for a report on Edward Oxford; he received a certificate attesting to Edward Oxford's sanity.

Edward Oxford accepted, and on 22 October 1867, aged 45 and after 27 years of confinement, he was released.

Edward Oxford was photographed and his image was distributed to police stations to ensure he would be recognised if he returned.

On leaving Broadmoor, Edward Oxford wrote to one of the stewards at Bethlem, George Henry Haydon, thanking him for "all of the kindness I have received at your hands"; on the question of his emigration, he told Haydon:.

The berth was booked in the name John Freeman: Edward Oxford's chosen name for his new life.

Edward Oxford was escorted to Plymouth in late November and boarded the SV Suffolk; the ship set sail on 3 December 1867 and arrived in Melbourne on 7 February 1868.

In 1874 Edward Oxford joined the West Melbourne Mutual Improvement Society, an organisation Sinclair describes as being "aimed to improve their members' minds with debate, supplementing the push of the time to create public libraries and other institutions to illuminate the working man's world".

Edward Oxford was vice-president of the society the following year and gave talks to the members.

Edward Oxford continued writing for the newspaper, introducing its readership to the city's slums and its inhabitants, providing descriptions of the people and their lives.

In May 1880 The Argus carried a story of a man they named as "John Edward Oxford" who had previously attempted to shoot the queen.

The historian Mark Stevens considers "John Edward Oxford" was possibly John Francis, who had attempted to assassinate Victoria, but who had been transported to Australia, rather than placed in an asylum.

In 1881 Edward Oxford met and married Mrs Jane Bowen, an English woman who had emigrated to Australia, and had been married and widowed twice.

Edward Oxford signed the marriage register as John Freeman and did not tell his wife of his former name or crime.

In 1888 Edward Oxford published Lights and Shadows of Melbourne Life, a factual work that provides sketches of life in both the wealthy and seamy parts of nineteenth-century Melbourne.

Edward Oxford included chapters on the zoo and the racecourse and information on churches and markets.

Edward Oxford sent a copy to the former steward at Bethlem Hospital, Haydon, who had travelled through Melbourne in the 1840s and had written about the area.

On 23 April 1900, four days after his 78th birthday, Edward Oxford died of apoplexy; he was buried in Melbourne General Cemetery.

Sinclair considered that Freeman and Edward Oxford were the same person, partly based on her observation that a photograph of Edward Oxford taken at Bethlem Hospital shows a marked similarity to one taken of "Freeman" in 1888, when he was representing the church at the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition.

Edward Oxford's Majesty thinks it worth consideration whether the law should not be amended.

Shortly before his trial Edward Oxford was visited by an Italian artist from Madame Tussauds.

The writer Charles Dickens took a close interest in the assassination attempt and subsequent trial, and thought Edward Oxford "should have been smothered at birth", according to the Dickens scholar Clive Hurst.

One of the book's characters, Sim Tappertit, was modelled on Edward Oxford; Tappertit is described as a "vainglorious apprentice" by Murphy and a "sinister and darkly comical figure" by Hurst.

Edward Oxford is used as a character in David Morrell's 2015 novel, Inspector of the Dead; the book includes Young England as an assassins' conspiracy.