Anna Maria O'Dell, Gives Birth to a Stillborn Child in the Marshalsea Debtors Prison

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Anna Maria O'Dell, gives birth to a stillborn child in the Marshalsea debtors prison

Anna Maria O'Dell, Gives Birth to a Stillborn Child in the Marshalsea Debtors Prison

May 19, 1821

Anna Maria O’Dell, the second wife of William O’Dell, gives birth to a stillborn child while confined in the Marshalsea Debtors’ Prison, where she had voluntarily accompanied her husband during his imprisonment for debt. The event highlights the harsh realities faced by debtor families in 18th- and 19th-century Britain and Ireland, where entire households could suffer the consequences of financial hardship, often in inhumane conditions.