page_title: Kate Dover
section_title: Family background
hierarchical_section_title: Kate Dover / Family background
caption_attribution_description: Carved sycamore bread and butter platter (bread board), late 19th century or early 20th century. This type of carved bread board was introduced from Germany into the United Kingdom in 1851 by Prince Albert. At least one established centre for the carving of these platters was Sheffield, England, where two of the 19th-century carvers were Charles Dover and Frederick William Dover (their relationship is unknown). Charles Dover was the father of the Sheffield poisoner, Kate Dover.
context_page_description: Felicia Dorothea Kate Dover was an English woman who was tried for murder and convicted of manslaughter in 1882 following the death of Thomas Skinner from arsenic poisoning. She was trained as an artist at Sheffield School of Art and was skilled in drawing flowers. She was popularly known as the Queen of Heeley due to her artistic interests and her standard of dress.
  In 1880, at age 25, she become the housekeeper of etcher Thomas Skinner, aged 61. Despite the difference in age, he was considered her "sweetheart" and said to be courting her "with a view to marrying her".
  In 1882, Kate Dover was tried for murder and convicted of manslaughter following the death of Skinner from arsenic poisoning.
  Her trial was a major event at the criminal court in Leeds Town Hall; it was attended by many people and attracted significant newspaper coverage.
  Dover's counsel for the defence, Frank Lockwood, employed the "clever defence" of stating that she had given Skinner arsenic, but had not done so with a clear intent to kill him. Instead of being hanged for murder, she was sentenced to penal servitude for life.
context_section_description: Kate's paternal grandparents were gardener George Dover (born Norwich ca.1798), and his wife Sarah (born Norwich ca.1802). Kate's father was Charles Dover (St Paul's, Norwich, 1826 – Eccleshall, 1891), the third of 10 siblings.
  Charles was a wood carver and joiner who specialised in wooden platters. He was possibly associated with the wood carver, and bread and butter platter maker, Frederick William Dover (St Paul's, Norwich, ca. 1834 – Ecclesall, 1917) of Burgess Street, Ecclesall Bierlow, who shared the same trade and origins. The making of carved sycamore bread and butter platters and wooden knives had been introduced to Sheffield around 1851 by Prince Albert. 
  The Dover family, then, fit a pattern common to the Sheffield area. In 19th-century Sheffield, manufacturing in skilled trades such as wood carving was family-based: most family businesses were 'born small and remained small' and often employed both sons and daughters. The main industries of Sheffield focused around the production of iron and steel. Sheffield was a primary centre for cutlery, plate, and specialised tools, including woodworking tools. Sheffield also supported a well-established woodworking and furniture industry. By the end of the 19th century, however, carvers and gilders were losing work to mechanisation.
  Charles Dover's place of business was Oak Street in Heeley in 1865. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph said of him that "there was not a more respectable man in the neighbourhood." Around 1880 Charles Dover published a "small volume of prose and poetry – not a little of it very meritorious indeed."
  Kate's mother was Catharine Nunn (Snape, Suffolk, 1827 – Rotherham, 1894), daughter of Jonathan Nunn (Snape, ca. 1791 – Norwich, 1866), a candle rush manufacturer and later a grocer. Charles and Catharine married in Haslingden on 5 May 1846. Kate had two elder sisters: Mary Ann Sarah (Knightsbridge, 1848 – Rotherham, 1923) and Amelia Henrietta Charlotte (Sheffield 1851 – Rotherham 1918).
caption: A bread platter of the type made in Sheffield in the 19th century
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