Women at the Oxford County Gaol

For Women's History Month, the Archives delves into the history of women who were incarcerated at the Oxford County Gaol.

By Megan Lockhart, Archives Technician

I recently worked on creating a number of social media posts for Women’s History Month related to women’s experiences being incarcerated at the Oxford County Gaol (jail) and found the topic both simultaneously fascinating and sad. Through staff research related to the Return of Prisoners lists we have in our collection at the Archives, some of these women’s stories have been uncovered and provides us with some insight into what it was like for women who were criminally charged and incarcerated in the 1800s to early 1900s.

Life as a Female Inmate

All prisoners who were admitted to the Oxford County Gaol were processed, bathed, and given uniform prison garb. A woman’s uniform consisted of an over-dress and under-skirt, a pair of shoes and underclothing. Male prisoners had their haircut for hygienic purposes; however, a female prisoner’s hair could not be cut without her consent, unless ordered by the Gaol Surgeon on the grounds of health reasons, such as “vermin” (like lice) or extreme dirt. The women’s holding cells were in a different section of the jail than the men’s and they were separated by chicken wire. We can only speculate why the women’s cells were separated by chicken wire, but it could be due to the historical belief that women were less dangerous than men, and less likely to commit violent acts or act in an aggressive manner.

The Matron, often the wife of the Gaoler (jailer) or Turnkey, was responsible for the care and superintendence of the female department of the Gaol. The Matron was to search all female prisoners on admission to the jail and made sure that no male prisoner entered the female department or went anywhere that a female might be working. It was her responsibility to monitor the mental and physical condition of the female prisoners and to notify the Gaol Surgeon of any illness. At the same time, it was her job to ensure that punishment be granted to the female inmates in cases of disobedience, insubordination or any other infraction laid out in the rules and regulations.

Sketch of the Oxford County Gaol (jail) in 1872. 1429ph

What Crimes Were Women Charged With?

Historically, while women were often charged with similar crimes to men, there were some charges that appeared to be almost exclusively applied to women. According to the Return of Prisoners lists in our collection at the Archives, women were incarcerated in the jail for a wide variety of reasons including but not limited to keeping a house of “ill repute” (a brothel), witchcraft, murder, theft, vagrancy, procuring abortion, prostitution, drunkenness, swearing, and more.

The charges of “witchcraft” or sometimes “voodoo” were rarely applied to men historically – and within Oxford County, it appears to have been exclusive to women. One woman was charged with practicing witchcraft in 1898, and another with practicing voodoo in 1906. Stories of women “cursing” local farmers’ livestock or crops were spread locally and sometimes even shared in the local newspapers in the 1800s. One story of witchcraft was shared in the Woodstock Sentinel-Review newspaper in 1898. According to the report, an elderly woman claimed that a witch arrived at her house in the countryside looking for food. After having been refused the “witch” grew angry and began walking down the road, facing the cows grazing on the property and holding up three fingers. Later, when the farmer began to milk the cows, each cow produced blood out of one teat. This continued into the next day and the farmer was alarmed enough to consult an “Amish witch doctor” who cured the cow through “charming”. While stories such as these persisted, it is highly likely that many charges of practicing witchcraft were falsified, with some women being accused on the basis of using alternative herbal medical treatments or exhibiting the symptoms of mental health disorders.

During our research into some of the women incarcerated at the County jail it became clear that many women who spent time at the jail were suffering from mental health disorders or crises that were not being treated. There was a period in history where women committing criminal acts was considered out of the norm of “femininity” and these women were often dismissed as “insane” or “deviant”, with some doctors even diagnosing women as being “hysterical” – a term not typically applied to men by doctors. Little effort was applied to looking into the causes of these women’s mental health concerns.

One Woman Executed in Oxford County

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Tilford was the only woman to be hanged in Oxford County and one out of only eleven women executed in Canada. Tilford was convicted of poisoning her third husband, Tyrell Tilford, and executed on December 17, 1935. Tilford slowly began poisoning her husband for almost a year before he died, with a tasteless, odorless substance known as salts of lemon. When she found this method too slow she ordered arsenic from the apothecary. Although she maintained her innocence witnesses came forward who confirmed it was Lizzie who ordered the arsenic from Keith’s Drug Store in Woodstock. In addition, police learned that two days before Tyrell’s death, Lizzie had contacted her husband’s insurance company to check on the value of his life insurance policy.

After Tyrell’s death, his family wished to have an autopsy performed on his body. Professor Joslyn Rogers, the Head of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Toronto, confirmed that he was poisoned. Lizzie was arrested and four days later the body of her second husband (who passed away after a long illness), was also exhumed and checked for poison, but the results showed there were no traces of poison in his body. Her trial lasted ten days, and Lizzie was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Following her execution, remnants of the arsenic were found in its original drugstore package and wrapped in an oilcloth in a jar of mustard pickles in the Tilford’s cellar.

For more information on Lizzie Tilford and other notable female prisoners at the Oxford County Gaol, check out our jail exhibit on our website at /Explore-Oxford/Libraries-museums-and-archives/Archives/Exhibits/Oxford-County-Gaol.