Part 32
The block was now removed to the third coffin, and the body of Ings, being cut down, was placed in it with the face upwards. The person in the mask again came forward, severed the head from the body, and retired amidst the hootings of the crowd. The assistant-executioner proceeded to exhibit the head, holding it up by the hair in the same way as he had Thistlewood’s, from the three sides of the scaffold, exclaiming, “This is the head of James Ings, the traitor.” The head was then placed in the coffin.
The block being removed to the fourth coffin, the body of Davidson was taken down from the gallows, the noose taken from about the neck, and the cap removed from the face, which remained in death exactly what it had been while living. The mouth was a little open, but no expression of agony, or change of colour, could be remarked. The body was placed in the fourth coffin, and the man in the mask having performed his part, the head was exhibited in the same way as the last, with the exclamation, “This is the head of William Davidson, the traitor.”
Little or no blood had fallen from the other heads, but from this it fell profusely. The hisses and groans of the crowd were repeated on this occasion, while the head was deposited in the coffin which contained the sufferer’s body.
The executioner and his assistant now proceeded to cut down the last of the sufferers, Brunt. The block was placed at the head of the fifth coffin. The blood which had stained the block was wiped off with the saw-dust, and, the rope being cut, they attempted to lift the body to the place where the last part of the sentence was to be executed, when it was found that in putting up the platform part of his clothing had been shut in with it, and held him so tight, that a considerable effort was necessary to disengage the remains of the wretched culprit. He was placed in the fifth coffin.
His miserable and cadaverous countenance presented but a ghastly spectacle while he was alive; but dead, its aspect was little less than terrific; and the dark hair which overhung his forehead came in frightful contrast with the purple hue produced by the agonies of death.
The masked executioner, while performing his duty, happened to let the head fall from his hands on the saw-dust. The howlings and groans of the spectators were again heard at that moment, and amidst these the operator retired, having first handed the discoloured “trunkless ball” to the assistant executioner, who advancing, as in each of the other cases, first to the side of the scaffold nearest Giltspur-street, then to the front, and lastly to the side looking towards the Felons’-door, proclaimed aloud, “This is the head of John Thomas Brunt, the traitor.” His head was then placed in the coffin, and thus terminated this part of the awful business of that memorable day.
The execution occupied an hour and eight minutes. It was a quarter before eight when Thistlewood walked up the steps leading to the fatal platform; and it wanted seven minutes to nine when the head of Brunt was placed in the coffin.
From the manner in which the last part of the execution was performed very little blood was seen on the scaffold. The bodies being placed almost in a sitting attitude in their coffins, the blood could not flow copiously from them at the moment the heads were taken off. It was not till they were laid in a horizontal position that the vital stream could escape freely from the heart.
The person who wore the mask, and who performed the ceremony of decapitation, is said to be the same person who beheaded Despard and his associates. This, however, may be doubted, as, from the quickness and spring of his motions, he seemed to be a young man. His mode of operation showed evidently that he was a surgeon. In performing his dreadful duty, the edge of the first knife was turned by the vertebræ of Thistlewood, and two others became necessary to enable him to finish his heart-appalling task.
The coffins containing the remains of the sufferers were left on the scaffold but for a few minutes after the sentence of the law had been carried into effect. While there they continued open. At nine o’clock they were conveyed into the prison by the Debtors’-door, and this dreadful scene being thus ended, the crowd began peaceably to separate.
In such an immense assemblage, as might be expected, some accidents occurred through the dreadful pressure of the crowd. Some women (and it is painful to record that many women were among the crowd) were brought out fainting, and a boy was severely hurt by the falling of a part of the railing in front of St. Sepulchre’s church. The persons whose weight brought down the railing from the stone base in which it was planted, were thrown on the shoulders of those beneath them, and caused great confusion at the moment, but no more serious accidents occurred than the injury received by the boy above-mentioned.
In addition to the military arrangements on this awful occasion, which we have incidentally mentioned, it was thought necessary to adopt the following precautionary measures, that should any thing like a breach of the peace be attempted, it might be crushed in its infancy; and it is a pleasing part of our duty here to record the prudence which gave rise to these measures, the very excellent and effectual manner in which they were carried into execution, and, above all, the exemplary conduct of the soldiers who were on duty throughout the morning, although they were at times severely, and indeed unavoidably pressed upon by the crowd. The Life Guards were incessantly attentive to prevent their horses from doing any injury, while occasionally driven out of their position by the momentary agitation of the persons immediately near them.
At a very early hour, the neighbourhood of Blackfriars-bridge, being the place appointed for the rendezvous of a considerable number of troops, presented a very novel spectacle. At five o’clock in the morning, six light field-pieces of flying artillery arrived in front of the livery stables, near Christ Church, escorted by the usual complement of men. They drew up in the centre of the street, and remained there until after the execution took place.
At a still earlier hour, three troops of the Life Guards arrived in the neighbourhood of Newgate; one troop and a picquet remained near the scaffold; another picquet was stationed in Ludgate-hill, facing the Old Bailey; and the remaining troop drew up in Bridge-street.
The moment the prisoners were about to be brought out to the scaffold, an officer rode from his station in front of Newgate, communicated with the picquet on Ludgate-hill, and then rode on to the troop in Bridge-street, to whom he immediately gave the word of command to advance. The troop instantly followed the officer, and proceeded onwards until they joined the picquet on Ludgate-hill, with which they halted, and formed in a line, still facing the Old Bailey.
The flying artillery, near Christ Church, also made a movement in advance just at the same time, and formed a crescent across the road; the guns pointing towards the bridge.
The City Light Horse were under arms, in their barracks in Gray’s-Inn-lane, and a number of troops were stationed at various depôts, assigned them at convenient intervals throughout the metropolis.
A little before ten, the multitude having completely dispersed, the detachments marched off to their respective barracks.
DISPOSAL OF THE BODIES.
On the day of execution the friends of the families of the unfortunate men who were executed met at a public-house, and after some discussion upon the subject of raising a subscription for the wives and children of those who were transported, as well as of those who were hanged, adopted a resolution to apply through Lord Sidmouth for leave to take away the bodies of the deceased from Newgate.
The following petition was accordingly drawn up, in the names of the widows of the wretched criminals, and forwarded to Lord Sidmouth, to be by him delivered to his majesty:
_To His Most Gracious Majesty the King._
“SIRE,
“The Petition of Susan Thistlewood, Mary Tidd, Mary Brunt, Celia Ings, and Sarah Davidson, humbly sheweth, That your Petitioners are the widows of the unfortunate men who this morning suffered the dreadful sentence of the law at the Old Bailey.
“Your petitioners most earnestly entreat your Majesty to grant them one consolation, by restoring to them the mangled remains of their late unfortunate husbands, that they, your petitioners, may shed a silent tear over their mutilated remains, ere they are consigned to the tomb.
“We are confident that all desire of further vengeance has ceased, and that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to order the restoration of the bodies to your humble Petitioners, that they may have them decently interred; and your Petitioners will, as in duty bound, for ever pray, _&c._
(Signed) “SUSAN THISTLEWOOD, “MARY TIDD, “MARY BRUNT, “CELIA INGS, “SARAH DAVIDSON.”
The petition was accompanied by a request to his Lordship that the bodies might be given up to the friends of the deceased, and stating, that the object was the humane one of raising the means of support for the wives and children by a public exhibition.
It is almost unnecessary to state that Lord Sidmouth did not hesitate to refuse the request, a compliance with which would be attended with great inconvenience at least. His lordship stated, in the mildest terms, the impossibility of granting it, contrary as such compliance would be to established usage.
At a late hour in the evening, the wives of the executed men were informed by the keeper of Newgate, that the bodies of their husbands were buried.
In the course of the afternoon a channel had been dug alongside of the subterraneous passage that leads to the cells, and, about seven in the evening, after the coffins had been filled with quick lime, they were strongly screwed up, placed in a line with each other, strewed over with earth, and finally covered with stones, and of course no trace of their end remains for any future public observation. On this circumstance being communicated to their unhappy wives, they were entirely overcome by the poignancy of their feelings.
On the following morning an individual petition was forwarded to the Privy-Council on the part of Mrs. Thistlewood, and was presented to his Majesty, for the body of her husband. A laconic answer was almost immediately returned, “That Thistlewood was buried.”
_Transportation of the respited Traitors, Discharge of the suspected Persons, &c._
VERY early in the morning of Tuesday, the 2d of May, the day following the execution of their partners in crime, five of the respited traitors, namely, Wilson, Harrison, Cooper, Strange, and Bradburn, were removed from Newgate in three post-chaises, and conveyed under a proper escort to Portsmouth, where they were put on board a convict-ship, which soon after sailed for New South Wales.
Gilchrist was still detained in Newgate, but it was expected his confinement would not be of long duration; the peculiar circumstances of his case having excited a feeling of mercy towards him.
On Saturday the 6th of May, the following persons, whose arrests on suspicion we have previously mentioned, were placed at the bar of the Old Bailey, previous to the adjournment of the court, _viz._ Thomas Preston, William Simmons, Abel Hall, Robert George, William Firth, and William Hazard. The prisoners being addressed by order of the court, and informed that, as no prosecutors appeared against them, they were discharged, bowed respectfully, and departed, with the exception of Preston, who made an attempt to address the Court, but was immediately silenced.
We have now completed, as far as the individuals arrested were concerned, our narration of the whole of the proceedings relative to the horrid conspiracy, which at one time threatened such awful consequences; but as many circumstances connected with the personal history of the conspirators have been brought to light in the course of the proceedings, which could not well be interwoven in the history of their crimes, we have added in an APPENDIX such particulars respecting the principal actors in this dreadful tragedy, as we have been able to collect, from a conviction that every circumstance connected with the lives of the ferocious criminals will be considered as interesting.
The infamous Spy and instigator, GEORGE EDWARDS, has also been frequently named as playing a very prominent part in this horrid drama, and, independent of the disclosures of his criminal conduct, incidentally made in the course of the judicial proceedings against the conspirators, the answers given by Thistlewood to the questions put to him by Mr. Alderman Wood, on the morning of the fatal first of May, imparted a certain degree of interest to every circumstance connected with that vile character, and a feeling of indignation, horror, and disgust, was excited in the public mind relative to this consummate villain, which had never been equalled but in the sensation caused by the first discovery of the plot itself.
Consonant with these feelings were the proceedings instituted by Mr. Alderman Wood, both in and out of Parliament, for the apprehension and bringing to trial of this worthless wretch on charges of diverse acts of high treason alleged to have been committed by him; and although we stop not to inquire whether the protection from the consequences of his crimes, experienced by this fellow, be justifiable, or otherwise, we shall certainly be rendering an acceptable service to society and to future generations, in tracing this serpent through all his intricate paths of villany, and cautioning the thoughtless and unsuspecting from becoming the dupes of similar villains, (if any such exist) in their intemperate moments of political animosity.
With this view we have collected all the particulars attainable of the conduct of this arch-fiend both in public or private, as an appropriate addition to the lives of his partners in crime, and, perhaps, in some respects, the victims of his villany.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] See Newgate Calendar, Vol. 3.
[3] See Newgate Calendar, Vol. 2.
APPENDIX:
CONTAINING
_Brief Sketches of the Lives of the Executed Conspirators, with copies of their Letters; an account of the infamous George Edwards, the Spy; the efforts made to bring him to justice, and the Parliamentary Proceedings thereon; with other particulars relating to the Conspiracy._
ARTHUR THISTLEWOOD.
In page 70, of the preceding narrative, we have briefly touched on the history of this ill-fated man, and we now add some further particulars relating to him.
Very early in life he manifested idle and unsettled habits, and remained a burden on his family until the period of his obtaining a commission in the Militia, soon after which he married a young lady of property; but even that step, so promising in the outset, was pregnant with future troubles. Thistlewood had supposed her fortune to be at her own disposal, but it was in fact so settled, that she received the interest only during her life, and the principal, at her death, reverted to her relations. Sixteen months after their marriage, she died in child-bed, and Thistlewood was left almost without a shilling of her property.
* * * * * * * * * *
In London he formed an acquaintance with a number of young military officers; was introduced into all the vices and dissipation of the metropolis, and gave loose to his passion for intrigue and gaming. On one night he was filched by a notorious black leg, and some of his companions, at one of the _Hells_, in the neighbourhood of St. James’s, of upwards of 2,000_l._ His money being nearly all gone, he fled in despair. Legal proceedings were commenced to recover the amount; but, owing to some informality in the pleadings, it was not recovered; and, soon after, those who had pigeoned him left the kingdom.
* * * * * * * * * *
In France his evil genius still followed him; on one occasion, having an improper passport, he was detained by the police, and during his detention, a circumstance occurred which produced him a long period of confinement. He had always expressed himself a hater of oppression and injustice. An Englishman, named Heely, was arrested for being without a passport, and conveyed to the same prison where Thistlewood was confined. Upon Thistlewood and Heely receiving orders from Paris for their liberation, Heely used some insulting language to the officer who brought him to prison; the officer struck him with a cane, and Thistlewood knocked the officer down with his clenched fist.
In consequence of this outrage, they were thrown into close confinement, and lay there for several weeks before they were able to obtain their final liberation.
Thistlewood having obtained a passport, then went to Paris, having sufficient knowledge of the French language to be able to converse. He entered the French service, and was present during the perpetration of numberless atrocities by the French troops.
Although a man of but middling talent, he had a considerable knowledge of military tactics; was an excellent swordsman, and always fearless of death.
He entered a regiment of French grenadiers, and was at the battle of Zurich, commanded by General ----.
After a variety of adventures in France and on different parts of the Continent, he returned to England, and became possessed of a considerable estate, by the death of a relation; which he subsequently sold to a gentleman at Durham for 10,000_l._
He felt inclined to settle himself, and courted Miss Wilkinson of Horncastle. The gentleman to whom he sold his estate, instead of paying him the money, gave him an annuity bond, agreeing to pay him 850_l._ per annum for a number of years. In eighteen months this purchaser became a bankrupt, and Thistlewood was again reduced, not to want or poverty, but his finances were at a low ebb.
Thistlewood’s father and brother, both of whom now reside and are most respectable farmers in the neighbourhood of Horncastle, assisted him to take a farm; he continued to occupy it till he found he was losing annually a considerable sum, in consequence of the high rent and taxes, and farming produce being very low; he then parted with it. He came with his present wife and son to London, and formed an acquaintance with the Spenceans.
The Evanses were his constant companions; he took young Evans to France, paying all expenses for near twelve months; and since his return his history is but too well recorded in the annals of crime.
The son who took an affecting leave of him in prison, is not the offspring of the first marriage, but a natural child of Thistlewood’s, whom his second wife (the present widow) took under her care shortly after her marriage, and to whom she has shown great kindness. By the widow he had no issue.
The following lines are said to have been written by him while under sentence of death in Newgate:--
Oh what a twine of mischief is a Statesman! Ye furies! whirlwinds! and ye treach’rous rocks! Ye ministers of death! devouring fires! Convulsive earthquakes! and plague-tainted air! Ye are all mild and merciful to him!!
RICHARD TIDD
Was born at Grantham, in Lincolnshire. His age at the time of his execution was forty-five. He was apprenticed to Mr. Cante, of Grantham, but quitted his situation at sixteen years of age. He then went to Nottingham, where he lived two years and a half; from thence he came to London, where he resided several years. He thought it prudent to retreat into Scotland in 1803, and he stopped there for five years.
This flight was made in consequence of his having voted for Sir Francis Burdett, at the Middlesex election, when the Honourable Baronet was opposed by Mr. Mainwaring. Tidd swore that he was a freeholder--the fact being otherwise, and fled to avoid prosecution for perjury. A reward of 100_l._ was offered for his apprehension.
On his return from the north, he went to live at Rochester, and for nine years worked at his trade of shoemaker in that town. He was engaged in the conspiracy for which Colonel Despard suffered; but a temporary absence from town preserved him from sharing the same fate.
His last stay in town commenced on the 10th of March, 1818. From that time he attended all Mr. Hunt’s meetings, public and private, and was present at all the subsequent Radical meetings. He was introduced to Edwards by Brunt, at his own residence, Hole-in-the-Wall Passage, Baldwin’s-gardens. Edwards’s assumed violence suited his disposition, and he eagerly closed with every proposition, however desperate.
It was a most extraordinary circumstance that he had constantly an impression on his mind, for the last twenty years, that he was to be hanged. He frequently expressed to his wife that he should die on the gallows, who felt distressed at his entertaining such an idea, but he would still persist that such would be his fate. He was unhappily too good a prophet, and thus a life of irregularity terminated in the most ignominious manner.
Mrs. Tidd is a very decent woman; Tidd has left a brother and one daughter to deplore his fate.
Tidd, during the war, enlisted into more than half of the regiments under the crown, and received the different bounties. It is astonishing how he escaped detection; he was always in disguise when he enlisted, and, as soon as he had obtained the bounty, he deserted. When he had spent the money, he enlisted into another regiment.
It will be evident from this account, that the statements of his uniform good character and conduct published at the period of his first arrest, for the crime of which he was ultimately found guilty on an impartial trial by a Jury of his countrymen, were put forth by some zealous friend to produce a favourable impression on the public mind in his behalf.
JAMES INGS
Was a native of Hampshire. His relations were respectable tradesmen. He has left a wife and four children. Ings was a butcher at Portsmouth, and at the time of his marriage had a handsome property, consisting of several houses, and some money in the funds.
Trade growing bad at the termination of the war, and his property having decreased, some of his tenements were sold, and he came up to London about eighteen months ago, with a little ready money, produced by the sale of a house, and opened a butcher’s-shop at the west-end of the town. He could, however, get no business, and in a few months gave up the shop, and, with a few pounds he had left, he opened a coffee-shop in Whitechapel.
Business becoming dull there, he was involved in great distress, and at last was compelled to pawn his watch to enable him to send his wife and children down to Portsmouth to her friends, to prevent their starving in London.
At the coffee-house in Whitechapel he sold, besides coffee, political pamphlets, with which he was supplied by Carlile, of Fleet-street. Having given up the shop, and finding that there was no prospect of supporting himself and his family with credit, he gave himself up to despair. He had read the different Deistical publications during the time he sold political pamphlets, and, from being a churchman, he became a confirmed Deist.
He was a most affectionate husband and father; and his desperate situation, no doubt, was a principal cause of his joining the Cato-street plot.