The Prison Letters of James Atkinson
York Castle, 1858
Introduction
In August 1858, James Atkinson murdered 21-year-old Mary-Jane Skaife on Stumps Lane, Darley, in rural Nidderdale. At his trial that winter, he was acquitted on the grounds of insanity under the newly established M’Naghten Rules, and later transferred from York Castle to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
While awaiting trial in York, Atkinson wrote several letters to Mary-Jane’s family. Preserved in full, these letters provide a rare and unsettling insight into his state of mind: defensive, obsessive, and at times remorseful. Far from demonstrating “imbecility,” they reveal a man capable of reasoning, recalling detail, and shaping a narrative of blame, faith, and repentance.
Originally published in The British Journal of Psychiatry (1859), the letters were described as speaking for themselves. Far from the words of a man with the mind of a child of five or six, they reveal consistency, calculation, and self-justification. They offer a rare and unsettling insight into both the motives behind the murder and the wider failures of justice and mental health law in Victorian England.
This first surviving letter was written only days after the murder, from James Atkinson’s cell in York Castle. Addressed to Mary-Jane Skaife’s brother, it is Atkinson’s earliest attempt to explain himself in writing. The tone is defensive, argumentative, and steeped in blame-shifting — he points repeatedly to family tensions and supposed slights rather than confronting his own act.
Thoughts:
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The letter reads more like an argument in his defence than an expression of remorse.
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He portrays himself as wronged, a victim of “queerness” and interference by Mary-Jane’s mother and others.
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His appeals to scripture seem less about repentance than about self-justification.
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Far from being “imbecile” (as the court would later accept), he shows memory, reasoning, and an ability to rationalise events.
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This letter sets the tone for how he wanted to shape his legacy: misunderstood rather than guilty.
📜 Letter I – September 3, 1858 (to Mary-Jane’s brother)
Dear Friends,
I take the opportunity once more to write to you hoping you well.
You will be very much troubled abought the awful crime I have committed, as I ham as much as you. I wrote to Mr Gill abought it. I thought he would be in trouble abought it, as I think him clear of it be what she said abought her mother, as I thought she wanted some one else. As I should not think of her having any one else — we had been so much connected together. I thought it was a very quear idea of you wanting to part us.
She was very quear with me at Bewley Galay after Mr Gill shook hands with her. I tould her she must want to be with him. She said she would if I did not mind more so. After he came again, as we was standing together, he said, “Azent you going in to the kissing ring?” and she said, “You are liken to go on something of that sort,” and he went away then. She was very quear after that, but we got all right in the night.
I think Mr Gill is clear after all that. If your mother had not been so quear with her that Sunday night it happened, this would not have been the case, as I think we was all right at tea time before your sister and mother came in. After that she silted me all the night till it happened, as I think you have no one to blame but yourselves.
I have been the worst of all to do as I have don. I can forgive you all, and I hope you will forgive me, as the Lord says we must forgive one another. He says tho’ their sins be as scarlet he will make then as snow, though crimson he can make as wool — [some portion illegible here] — if they would only repent to him, as that dear one had little time. If he thought she was worthy of it he would do it.
It is all I wish for in this world, as we all are borne to die and don’t know how soon that will be. As I little thought that we was born for this, we little know what we are born for this, as had to be our case.
I never thought but we should have been married before now — it had not to be. I hope the Lord Jesus Christ will make us happer than should have been here, as we shall all rise together.
As I hope this will be a warning for you all at Darley, and her parents and mine too. I hope you will bear one another no malice through this, as they could not help it.
I received a letter from Sir Grilland. He was glad to hear from me such one as I sent him. And the Lord Jesus Christ says we are all to forgive one another, as I shall do all of you.
I remain,
Your sincere friend,
JAMES ATKINSON.
Should have been your brother if things had not passed out as they have for time and eternity. I hope it will be for the better, as I thousands, I would have given thousands of worlds to have it back.
Head Matthew, chapers 5, 6, 7. See 55th chapter Isaiah.
These letters are reproduced with permission for online use. Original source: The British Journal of Psychiatry (1859), Cambridge University Press. Available at: Atkinson, J.A. (1859) ‘James Atkinson’s Prison Letters’, Journal of Mental Science, 5(29), pp. 430–434. doi:10.1192/bjp.5.29.430.