The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.
Pelham, Camden
Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England)
At the trial Wood and Billings confessed themselves guilty of the crime
alleged against them; but Mrs. Hayes, flattering herself that as she had
said nothing, she had a chance of escape, put herself upon her trial;
but the jury found her guilty. The prisoners being afterwards brought to
the bar to receive sentence, Mrs. Hayes entreated that she might not be
burned, according to the then law of petty treason, alleging that she
was not guilty, as she did not strike the fatal blow; but she was
informed by the court that the sentence awarded by the law could not be
dispensed with.
After conviction the behaviour of Wood was uncommonly penitent and
devout; but while in the condemned hold he was seized with a violent
fever, and, being attended by a clergyman to assist him in his
devotions, he said he was ready to suffer death, under every mark of
ignominy, as some atonement for the atrocious crime he had committed;
but he died in prison, and thus defeated the final execution of the law.
Billings behaved with apparent sincerity, acknowledging the justice of
his sentence, and saying that no punishment could be commensurate with
the crime of which he had been guilty. The behaviour of Mrs. Hayes was
somewhat similar to her former conduct. Having an intention to destroy
herself, she procured a phial of strong poison, which was casually
tasted by a woman who was confined with her, and her design thereby
discovered and frustrated. On the day of her death she received the
sacrament, and was drawn on a sledge to the place of execution. Billings
was executed in the usual manner, and hung in chains, not far from the
pond in which Mr. Hayes's body was found, in Marylebone Fields; but when
the wretched woman had finished her devotions, in pursuance of her
sentence an iron chain put round her body, with which she was fixed to
a stake near the gallows. On those occasions, when women were burned for
petty treason, it was customary to strangle them, by means of a rope
passed round the neck, and pulled by the executioner, so that they were
dead before the flames reached the body. But this woman was literally
burned alive; for the executioner letting go the rope sooner than usual,
in consequence of the flames reaching his hands, the fire burned
fiercely round her, and the spectators beheld her pushing away the
faggots, while she rent the air with her cries and lamentations. Other
faggots were instantly thrown on her; but she survived amidst the flames
for a considerable time, and her body was not perfectly reduced to ashes
in less than three hours[5]. These malefactors suffered at Tyburn, May
9, 1726.
MARGARET DIXON.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
The case of this criminal is more remarkable for her resuscitation after
her execution, than for the circumstances attending the offence of which
she was convicted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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