Here we use a strong personally story from the past as a vehicle for finding out about crime prevention by 1700. What does the story of Mary Jones reveal to us about crime prevention at the end of the Early Modern Period?
Start by asking your class whether they can guess what happened in a street just outside St Paul’s Cathedral in 1771? After speculating about what they think happened, they read the extended story of Mary Jones to see if they were correct. This is a true story of a poor 18 year mother. The story is fascinating and uses the power of the personal to make history meaningful.
They also read to find out about policing, trials and punishments in this period. Each student can underline these themes on their own copy of the Jones case.
This gives them the information they need to compare crime prevention by 1700 (well, 1771…) with crime prevention in 1500, then they write a summary for a website.
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- Lesson presentation: PowerPoint
- Lesson write-up: PDF
- Resource 1: PDF
- Worksheet 1: PDF
