The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 2/2Griffiths, Arthur
History
The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 2/2
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
The sentences inflicted in front of Newgate were not limited to hanging.
In the few years which elapsed between the establishment of the gallows
at Newgate and the abolition of the practice of burning females for
petty treason, more than one woman suffered this penalty at the Old
Bailey. One case is preserved by Catnach, that of Phoebe Harris, who
in 1788 was "barbariously" (_sic_ in the broadsheet) executed and burnt
before Newgate for coining. She is described as a well-made little
woman, something more than thirty years of age, of a pale complexion and
not disagreeable features. "When she came out of prison she appeared
languid and terrified, and trembled greatly as she advanced to the
stake, where the apparatus for the punishment she was about to
experience seemed to strike her mind with horror and consternation, to
the exclusion of all power of recollectedness in preparation for the
approaching awful moment." She walked from the debtors' door to a stake
fixed in the ground about half-way between the scaffold and Newgate
Street. She was immediately tied by the neck to an iron bolt fixed near
the top of the stake, and after praying fervently for a few minutes, the
steps on which she stood were drawn away, and she was left suspended. A
chain fastened by nails to the stake was then put round her body by the
executioner with his assistants. Two cart-loads of faggots were piled
about her, and after she had hung for half-an-hour the fire was kindled.
The flames presently burned the halter, the body fell a few inches, and
hung then by the iron chain. The fire had not quite burnt out at twelve,
in nearly four hours, that is to say. "A great concourse of people
attended on this melancholy occasion."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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