Execution Tales Chapter 23 Part 3 Revision 2
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Once they had composed themselves April & Beth continued reading
Phoebe Harris
Murder was far from being the only capital crime in 18th Century England. “Coining” which was the term used at the time to describe currency counterfeiting was also punishable by death.
In the late 1700’s the main site for executions in London moved from Tyburn to just outside the newly built Newgate prison & in 1786 Phoebe Harris, who had been been convicted of “Coining” & sentenced to death was led out of Newgate by two warders with her hands tied in front of her.
She was a shapely little woman of around 30 years of age. She appeared to be terrified & trembled greatly as she advanced towards the apparatus for her punishment which seemed to strike her mind with terror. Originally “Coining” had been punished by being burnt alive at the stake however this had been mitigated by hanging the culprit until dead & then cremating the body.
In front of Phoebe was a wooden stake which was about eleven feet in height & at the top of it was inserted a curved piece of iron from which dangled a noosed rope. The prisoner stood on a low stool in front of the stake & the executioner placed the noose around her neck.
The prison chaplain prayed with the condemned woman for a few minutes & then the executioner kicked away the stool from under her leaving Phoebe suspended by the neck swinging & kicking the empty air for several minutes.
Once all signs of life had disappeared timber was placed around the dangling body & set alight.
The next execution of a woman for “Coining” described was that of 28 year old Christian Murphy on the 18th of March 1789.
Christian Murphy
She had been convicted along with her husband. He was one of eight men brought from Newgate soon after 8 am & put on the scaffold. After praying & singing a psalm, which was popularly known as the “The Prisoner’s Lamentation, possibly the 51st, the trap dropped. Once the hangman was satisfied that the men were dead there was a pause of several minutes before Christian was brought out & taken to the stake which was a few yards nearer the prison than the gallows.
She was described in contemporary accounts as being “Extremely comely in her white dress” & in a “State of extreme fright, having had to endure the wait while her husband & the other male malefactors had paid for their misdeeds on the scaffold”. Like Phoebe Harris three years previously she kicked the air for several minutes hanging from the stake before her body was reduced to ashes by burning wood.
Jane Scott
In 1828 21 year old Jane Scott was hanged in Lancaster Castle in the north west of England. The method of execution was certainly unusual as it involved “A hanging chair” which looked like a large child’s high chair fitted with restraining straps & castor wheels. Jane had been condemned for having murdered her mother by administering rat poison.
The girl was in such a state of terror that she was unable to walk to the gallows & had to be wheeled to the noose in the “Hanging chair”. There was a so called “Drop room” on the lower floor of the castle with a recess in the wall where specially invited spectators could look up & watch the prisoner as they were suspended by their necks & slowly strangled to death.
On the drop the noose was placed around Jane’s neck, the chair was withdrawn & she “Struggled against death for several minutes”.
The chronicler of Jane Scott’s hanging also reported that several of the gentle women present amongst the spectators, it had to be said, behaved in an unseemly manner as they watched the condemned girl struggling on the rope. The angle of their view below gave them a clear sight up the doomed girl’s clothing & several of the watching ladies appeared to be “Uncommonly excercised ” by the experience.
Beth looked at April & said, “Wouldn’t it have been great to be in that spectator gallery in Lancaster Castle” April nodded & slipped her hand up Beth’s skirt who squirmed in response. They read on.
Mary Gallop
Again in the north west of England, 24 year old Mary Gallop had been condemned to death for the murder of her husband by poison in 1844 in Chester. It was reported in the Chester Chronicle that when the gallows platform fell it became quickly clear that the execution was a botched job.
Instead of the rope breaking Mary’s neck the noose slowly & painfully strangled her to death. Her desperate struggles were all the more apparent because of the slackness with which her arms had been bound. Her agonised face shocked the onlookers.
The Chronicle finished the report on the execution by stating in no uncertain terms, “The heartless & bungling manner in which the executioner did his office on Mary Gallop in Chester on December 28th has excited universal disgust & it sincerely hoped that this spectacle will not be repeated in future executions & this particular hangman not used. He proved to be a complete amateur”
Sarah Thomas
In the south west of England 1849 Bristol saw its last public hanging. Servant girl Sarah Thomas, 18, had been found guilty of killing her elderly employer Miss Elizabeth Jeffries by bludgeoning her to death in her own bed on the grounds that Miss Jeffries was a hard task master & she was fed up with her carping.
As the judge read the death sentence Sarah burst into tears & repeatedly interrupted him with cries for mercy. Even after she had been removed to the cells her screams could be clearly heard for quite a time by those inside the court.
The people of Bristol raised an impressive petition to save Sarah suggesting that she was “Too simple to hang”.
A local landowner wrote to the Times of London “Under the Authority of the Secretary of State for the Home Department this Friday, April 20th 1849, a young girl 18 years of age is to be hanged in front of Bristol’s new jail. She will appear attended by a minister & the hangman, the Great Moral Teacher, who after fastening her arms, & putting a rope around her neck…. & if the neck of the wretched girl is not broken by the shock of the drop the miserable victim will slowly strangle to death”
These protestations proved futile & on the Friday morning Sarah was dragged sobbing & screaming to the gallows pleading for her life right up to the final moment.
As described by the landowner the drop didn’t break Sarah’s neck & she did slowly strangle to death. So that the spectators could get a better view, her writhing struggling kicking body was hoisted up by the rope using a pulley which was fixed to the crossbeam. It took six minutes for her to die.
Perhaps because Sarah was almost the same age as April & Beth found the description of her execution especially stimulating & it wasn’t long before they brought each other to the second of their climaxes of the evening
Phoebe Harris
Murder was far from being the only capital crime in 18th Century England. “Coining” which was the term used at the time to describe currency counterfeiting was also punishable by death.
In the late 1700’s the main site for executions in London moved from Tyburn to just outside the newly built Newgate prison & in 1786 Phoebe Harris, who had been been convicted of “Coining” & sentenced to death was led out of Newgate by two warders with her hands tied in front of her.
She was a shapely little woman of around 30 years of age. She appeared to be terrified & trembled greatly as she advanced towards the apparatus for her punishment which seemed to strike her mind with terror. Originally “Coining” had been punished by being burnt alive at the stake however this had been mitigated by hanging the culprit until dead & then cremating the body.
In front of Phoebe was a wooden stake which was about eleven feet in height & at the top of it was inserted a curved piece of iron from which dangled a noosed rope. The prisoner stood on a low stool in front of the stake & the executioner placed the noose around her neck.
The prison chaplain prayed with the condemned woman for a few minutes & then the executioner kicked away the stool from under her leaving Phoebe suspended by the neck swinging & kicking the empty air for several minutes.
Once all signs of life had disappeared timber was placed around the dangling body & set alight.
The next execution of a woman for “Coining” described was that of 28 year old Christian Murphy on the 18th of March 1789.
Christian Murphy
She had been convicted along with her husband. He was one of eight men brought from Newgate soon after 8 am & put on the scaffold. After praying & singing a psalm, which was popularly known as the “The Prisoner’s Lamentation, possibly the 51st, the trap dropped. Once the hangman was satisfied that the men were dead there was a pause of several minutes before Christian was brought out & taken to the stake which was a few yards nearer the prison than the gallows.
She was described in contemporary accounts as being “Extremely comely in her white dress” & in a “State of extreme fright, having had to endure the wait while her husband & the other male malefactors had paid for their misdeeds on the scaffold”. Like Phoebe Harris three years previously she kicked the air for several minutes hanging from the stake before her body was reduced to ashes by burning wood.
Jane Scott
In 1828 21 year old Jane Scott was hanged in Lancaster Castle in the north west of England. The method of execution was certainly unusual as it involved “A hanging chair” which looked like a large child’s high chair fitted with restraining straps & castor wheels. Jane had been condemned for having murdered her mother by administering rat poison.
The girl was in such a state of terror that she was unable to walk to the gallows & had to be wheeled to the noose in the “Hanging chair”. There was a so called “Drop room” on the lower floor of the castle with a recess in the wall where specially invited spectators could look up & watch the prisoner as they were suspended by their necks & slowly strangled to death.
On the drop the noose was placed around Jane’s neck, the chair was withdrawn & she “Struggled against death for several minutes”.
The chronicler of Jane Scott’s hanging also reported that several of the gentle women present amongst the spectators, it had to be said, behaved in an unseemly manner as they watched the condemned girl struggling on the rope. The angle of their view below gave them a clear sight up the doomed girl’s clothing & several of the watching ladies appeared to be “Uncommonly excercised ” by the experience.
Beth looked at April & said, “Wouldn’t it have been great to be in that spectator gallery in Lancaster Castle” April nodded & slipped her hand up Beth’s skirt who squirmed in response. They read on.
Mary Gallop
Again in the north west of England, 24 year old Mary Gallop had been condemned to death for the murder of her husband by poison in 1844 in Chester. It was reported in the Chester Chronicle that when the gallows platform fell it became quickly clear that the execution was a botched job.
Instead of the rope breaking Mary’s neck the noose slowly & painfully strangled her to death. Her desperate struggles were all the more apparent because of the slackness with which her arms had been bound. Her agonised face shocked the onlookers.
The Chronicle finished the report on the execution by stating in no uncertain terms, “The heartless & bungling manner in which the executioner did his office on Mary Gallop in Chester on December 28th has excited universal disgust & it sincerely hoped that this spectacle will not be repeated in future executions & this particular hangman not used. He proved to be a complete amateur”
Sarah Thomas
In the south west of England 1849 Bristol saw its last public hanging. Servant girl Sarah Thomas, 18, had been found guilty of killing her elderly employer Miss Elizabeth Jeffries by bludgeoning her to death in her own bed on the grounds that Miss Jeffries was a hard task master & she was fed up with her carping.
As the judge read the death sentence Sarah burst into tears & repeatedly interrupted him with cries for mercy. Even after she had been removed to the cells her screams could be clearly heard for quite a time by those inside the court.
The people of Bristol raised an impressive petition to save Sarah suggesting that she was “Too simple to hang”.
A local landowner wrote to the Times of London “Under the Authority of the Secretary of State for the Home Department this Friday, April 20th 1849, a young girl 18 years of age is to be hanged in front of Bristol’s new jail. She will appear attended by a minister & the hangman, the Great Moral Teacher, who after fastening her arms, & putting a rope around her neck…. & if the neck of the wretched girl is not broken by the shock of the drop the miserable victim will slowly strangle to death”
These protestations proved futile & on the Friday morning Sarah was dragged sobbing & screaming to the gallows pleading for her life right up to the final moment.
As described by the landowner the drop didn’t break Sarah’s neck & she did slowly strangle to death. So that the spectators could get a better view, her writhing struggling kicking body was hoisted up by the rope using a pulley which was fixed to the crossbeam. It took six minutes for her to die.
Perhaps because Sarah was almost the same age as April & Beth found the description of her execution especially stimulating & it wasn’t long before they brought each other to the second of their climaxes of the evening
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Forum > Public / Stories > Execution Tales Chapter 23 Part 3 Revision 2