The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2: 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)
The extreme sentence of the law was immediately passed upon the
convicts, and their execution was appointed to take place on the
following Monday, the 4th of the same month.
On the next day, a reprieve was granted in the case of Robert Cox, one
of the sons, upon grounds which do not appear to have been well
understood at the time, and he was transported for life. A respite for a
week was also granted in the case of the elder Cox, and Ann Harris, who
had been convicted only as accessories before the fact; but the awful
punishment of death was left to be carried out in its due course upon
Pugh, and John Cox the younger. The former, after his trial, declared
his sense of the justice of his sentence, and that he regarded the
termination of his career as a happy one, for that he constantly saw
Harrison by his side; while the latter, with cold-blooded firmness,
urged him to keep up his spirits, for that "he could die but once."
The execution had been appointed to take place at mid-day; and at a few
minutes before twelve o'clock all the convicts, together with Ellson,
were drawn up in the inner yard of the jail. Pugh and Cox were then
pinioned; and while Ann Harris, old Cox, and his son Robert, were
reconducted to the jail, Ellson was carried to a spot from which he must
witness the conclusion of this dreadful scene. The authority by which
this course was adopted, may well be doubted, for the miserable wretch
was undoubtedly entitled to his discharge, as the indictment against him
had been withdrawn; but it is probable that it was thought that the
example afforded by such a proceeding might tend in some degree to check
the thirst for crime, which appeared to exist in that district of the
county.
The miserable convicts were directly afterwards led to the scaffold,
dreadfully agitated, and uttering ejaculations imploring mercy for their
sins; and all being in readiness, the drop fell, and they were launched
into eternity.
The sentence of the wretched mother of Ellson, and of old Cox, was
subsequently changed for that of transportation; and with this bare
recitation of its facts, we shall close the scene upon this frightful
case.
JOSEPH HUNTON.
EXECUTED FOR FORGERY.
The case of this criminal excited considerable attention from the
circumstance of the offender having been long known in the city of
London, as being a person of good repute, and also from the fact of his
being a quaker.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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