Meet Anna Maria Bennett Little, the 19th century butcher’s daughter/milliner turned courtesan whose Irish protectors kept dying – only to have her produce a will (in one case, two!) made by them in her favour!

Litigation associated, directly or indirectly, with Mrs Little, took up the business of the Irish and English courts for 30 years or so between the 1830s and the 1860s, the best known being Buck v Murphy, in which she gave evidence, nearly throwing a glass of water over opposing counsel in the course of his cross-examination. Included in the litigation was a case regarding her entitlement to Summerhill House, Co Meath (above) left to her by Hercules Rowley, Lord Lankford.

Find out all about Mrs Little’s litigation in the video below – no 5 in Cases of the Four Courts series about famous trials from the 19th century Four Courts, Dublin, Ireland.