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Yesterday morning the following convicts were executed on the
newly-invented temporary scaffold, placed before the debtors’ door of
Newgate:--John Burn, Daniel Gunter, James Francis, and John Green,
convicted in January sessions; and William Ludlam, William Oakes, John
Bishop, alias John Buller, and James Haylock, alias Hullock, formerly
a runner at a public office, convicted in February sessions.--After
divine service in the chapel of Newgate, the prisoners were brought
out of the gaol, and six of them having joined the ordinary in devout
prayer, and chaunted the usual psalm (the others, being two Roman
Catholicks, were attended by a priest of that persuasion). At nine
o’clock the platform dropped, and in a few moments they showed no signs
of life. They were fervent in their devotions, and all of them appeared
to die sincerely penitent.
The scaffold on which these miserable people suffered is a temporary
machine, which was drawn out of the yard of the sessions-house by
horses; it had this day only one beam fixed; and upon a bolt being
drawn, the platform dropped, leaving the malefactors suspended in a
manner similar to that of the scaffold lately in use.
After the convicts were cut down, the gallows was drawn back to the
sessions-house yard; and the whole cleared away in half-an-hour’s time.
_An Account of the new-invented Scaffold for Executing Criminals in the
Old Bailey._
We imagine that an accurate representation of the new mode of executing
criminals in the Old Bailey, which does so much honour to the present
worthy Sheriffs, will hardly fail of giving satisfaction to such, at
least, as do not reside near the metropolis.
The whole of this temporary erection is hung in black. The criminals
are attended by the proper officers and the Ordinary of Newgate, from
their cells to the centre part of the scaffold, which is a platform
raised about two or three inches above the general floor, and directly
under the gallows: here, after the usual prayers and solemnities, the
rope is tied up, and, at the Sheriff’s signal, the executioner pulls
away a staple, which loosens a bar that supports the platform, and the
platform then falls in: and this, being much more sudden and regular
than that of a cart being drawn away, has the effect of immediate
death. During the whole time of this awful spectacle, a full-toned
bell, which is suspended above the roof of this part of the prison, is
solemnly tolled; but as it is fixed so far on the roof as not to be in
sight, it does not appear. The scaffold is supported by strong posts,
fixed into grooves made in the street, and the whole is temporary,
being all calculated to take to pieces, which are preserved within the
prison.
FULL ACCOUNT OF THE EXECUTION OF FIVE UNFORTUNATE SAILORS, VIZ.,--
MICHAEL COX, MARTIN EALEY, JOHN SULLIVAN, ROBERT M’LAURIN, and WILLIAM
MORRIS.
AND HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY’S ROYAL PARDON OF
JOHN FLINT, GEORGE WYTHICK, JOHN LAWSON, and WILLIAM HANDY.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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