Jane Cakebread

Jane Cakebread
in 1895
Born1827 or 1828
Hertfordshire, England
Died17 December 1898
Claybury Asylum, Woodford Bridge, London
OccupationParlour-maid
Known forThe Inebriates Act 1898 was due to her case.

Jane Cakebread (1827/1828 – 17 December 1898) was a 19th-century British homeless woman who gained notoriety for her frequent arrests for public "drunkenness". According to official records, Cakebread appeared in police court 277 times for her behaviour in public.[1] She was believed to have set a record for number of court appearances,[1] as well as number of newspaper paragraphs devoted to a woman during the reign of Queen Victoria, besides the queen herself.[2][3] By the time of her death, she had achieved international notoriety, as both The London Telegraph and The New York Times claimed in her obituary that she had been "convicted 281 times".[4] Cakebread had mental illness, alcohol intoxication, cirrhosis of the liver, and visual impairment.[5][6][2] She lived the final three years of her life at Claybury Asylum in London, where she was placed under medical observation.[2] Her tragic case focused public attention on the ineffectiveness of the policy of dealing with drunkenness through short-term imprisonment.[7] She is often credited for inspiring the Inebriates Act 1898, and other legislation.[7][2]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference Jones-1904 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Holmes, Thomas (1900). "Chapter IV. Record-breakers, Jane Cakebread". Pictures and Problems from London Police Courts. London: E. Arnold. pp. 123–43. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  4. ^ "'JANE CAKEBREAD AGAIN.' A HEADING WHICH DISAPPEARS FROM LONDON PAPERS - DEATH OF THE WORLD'S 'AWFUL EXAMPLE'" (PDF). The London Telegraph. 19 December 1898. Retrieved 28 February 2022 – via The New York Times.
  5. ^ "Alcohol and Insanity". British Medical Journal. 1 (2632): 1382. 10 June 1911. JSTOR 25286711.
  6. ^ "The Moral of Jane Cakebread's Story". British Medical Journal. 2 (1814): 856. 5 October 1895. JSTOR 20233312.
  7. ^ a b Cherrington, Ernest Hurst (1924). Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem. Westerville, Ohio: American Issue Publishing Company. p. 474. Retrieved 28 February 2022. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.