At the end
of the 17th century, it was decided to build a new prison inside the bailey of York Castle and work
commenced on a new County Gaol which opened in
1705, having taken 4 years to build. This building became known as the Debtor's
prison and was described by Daniel Defoe as, "the most stately and
complete prison of any in the Kingdom, if not in Europe, kept as neat within
side as it is noble without." It is
doubtful whether the inmates shared Defoe's enthusiasm, however!
A courthouse was added next door to it on one side in 1737 and the Female
Prison on the other side in 1783. All these fine buildings remain, indeed the
court still functions as York Crown Court. The two prisons closed at the end of
the 19th century. They were restored and converted into the Castle Museum which opened in
1938 and which is still a really excellent visitor attraction.
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The
Debtor's prison (male)
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The
female prison
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Executions
at York.
From 1379
to 1800, executions were carried out on Knavesmire
(outside the city walls on the road to Leeds) which now forms
part of York racecourse. A civic meeting
was held to decide this and the cost of the new gallows was a surpising £10.15s (£10.75).
The new structure was completed on the 8th of March and was first used
for the execution of Edward Hewison on the 31st of
March of that year. The site of York
Tyburn, as the gallows was known, is marked by a plaque. As
at London's
Tyburn, the gallows was a triangular structure and had 3 beams supported by 3
uprights. Prisoners were transported to it in horse drawn carts sitting on their
own coffins and with the noose around their necks. The gallows was also
nicknamed the "three-legged mare" and its first victim was a rapist,
Edward Hewison. The most infamous criminal to be
executed here was highwayman, Richard “Dick” Turpin. Turpin was in fact a
murderer and horse thief who became a legend in popular folklore. He was hanged
by Thomas Hadfield on Saturday, April the 7th, 1739, together with another horse
thief, John Stead. Hadfield
was a condemned prisoner too and had, ironically, also been sentenced for
highway robbery. As was the custom at that time in York, executions were
carried out by a condemned prisoner who had been pardoned on condition that he
would act as hangman. York also boasted
another gallows up to 1676 which was situated at St. Leonard’s Green Dyke,
outside the Walls, at Walmgate Bar. It was removed in June 1700, having been used
for less than 100 executions.
Just as
happened in London, the gallows
caused congestion at a major road junction and it was decided to move it to the
prison. Its relocation was explained by York's Herald
newspaper on July 25th, 1801 as follows:
"Thus will be removed from one of the principal roads leading to the city
that disagreeable nuisance, the gallows; and thus will the inhabitants and
passengers be no longer interrupted, and their humanity hurt, by the leading of
unfortunate people to the place of execution."
Between January and August 1800, 3 men and 3 women were to suffer at York
Tyburn. There were no executions carried out at York from then until
the following April when Samuel Lundy was hanged for cattle stealing. On
Saturday, the 2nd of May 5, men were hanged on the "New Drop" for
sheep stealing and forgery. The gallows was set up at the back of the Castle in
an area bounded by the Castle Mills Bridge and the river
Ouse. This continued to be the principal place of execution until the mid
1820's. There was also another gallows in York, at the City Gaol (opened in
1807 at Bishophill), and it was here on the 12th of
August 1809 that David Anderson was hanged for "uttering" forged
banknotes. It was only used once more in 1821 - see later.
Although York was an important
city at the time, the population was only 16,000 according to the 1801 census.
However, York Castle was the place of
execution for persons convicted in all 3 Ridings of Yorkshire up to 1856.
Hangings were not an overly frequent event in York even in the early
1800's. There were 3 in 1802, 5 in 1803, 2 in 1804 and 2 in 1805. In all, 151
men and 7 women were hanged within the Castle precincts between April 1801 and
December 1896. Up to 1844, it was normal to hang all those condemned at the end
of each Assizes in groups, men and women together. Murderers were typically
hanged on Monday’s (up to 1830) and other criminals on Saturday’s. Saturday
became the execution day for all criminals from 1830 to 1862 as it allowed the for the biggest audience.
Probably
the most famous female execution at York was that of
"The Yorkshire Witch" on March
the 20th, 1809. Forty one
year old Mary Bateman had been convicted of the murder by poisoning in May 1808
of Rebecca Perigo. Mary had been a criminal since
childhood and in later years began duping people with her self proclaimed
supernatural powers. In 1806, William and Rebecca Perigo
approached Mary asking for her help, as they suspected that they had been put
under a spell. Mary saw a great opportunity here to bleed the Perigo's of their money before killing them when they
became suspicious of her activities. She didn’t manage to kill William,
however, as he wouldn’t eat the poison she had prepared for them. Mary Bateman
was hanged alongside two men and after execution, her body was displayed in
public and thousands paid to view it with the proceeds going to charity. Strips
of her skin were sold as charms to ward off evil.
1813 was
to be the peak year for executions at York with a total of
20 men hanged there. The Luddites were trying to halt
mechanisation in the textile industries of Yorkshire and Lancashire by violent means
as this was causing widespread unemployment and destitution. Following an attempt
to destroy Cartwright's textile mill at Rawfold near
Brighouse in April 1812, over 100 men had been rounded up. Sixty four were charged with a variety of
offences and came before a special judicial commission at York Castle at the beginning
of January 1813. Twenty four of them were convicted and 17 sentenced to hang.
The remainder were sentenced to transportation. The first of the Luddite executions was carried out on Friday, the 8th of
January when 3 men suffered for the murder of mill owner, William Horsfall, including the Luddite's
leader in Yorkshire, George Mellor. Just over a
week later, on the 16th of January, the other 14 condemned Luddite's
were executed for their parts in the raid on Cartwright's mill in what was to
be York's biggest ever hanging. Five of them were condemned for riot, 6 for
burglary and 3 for robbery, having been convicted under the Frame Breaking Act
that came into force the previous year. They were put to death in two groups by
John Curry – 7 at 11.00 a.m. and 7 at 1.30 p.m. A "vast concourse" of people assembled on
St George’s Field to see this mass "launch into eternity" as hangings
were then known. Other Luddite executions took place
in Lancashire. A further 3 men were hanged at York on the 3rd of
April for fraud, forgery and highway robbery.
A new
gallows was used from the mid 1820's - similar in pattern to the one used to
hang John Thurtell at Hertford in 1824. (see
picture) This was brought out on the occasion of an execution into the open area
in front of the Debtor's prison and between the Female prison and the court.
After 1837, all executions at York were for murder.
The last to suffer in public were murderers, Frederick Parker and James Waller,
who were hanged together on Saturday, the 4th
of January 1862. On the 29th of May
1868, Parliament passed the Capital Punishment within Prisons Bill ending
public hangings. It was to be 1874
before the next execution - that of William Jackson on the 18th of August for
the murder of his sister.
For private
executions a new balcony style gallows was set up at the end of one wing of the
Debtor's prison. As can be seen from the picture, this enabled a proper drop to
be given and the execution could be viewed by representatives of the press
which was still allowed at this time. This gallows was used for the last 9
hangings at York between 1874 and
1896. The final execution was that of August Carlson, for the murder of his
wife, on Tuesday, the 22nd of
December 1896. The complete Victorian condemned cell
(above) where Carlson spent his last days can still be viewed. Note the iron
bed on which a thin straw mattress would have been placed. There was a fireplace provided in later years and a rudimentary
toilet.
York's hangmen.
York always had its own hangman in the 18th century,
appointed from the inmate population. Between 1802 and 1835, John (or William)
Curry officiated there. He was known as "Mutton Curry" and had twice
been convicted of sheep stealing, having had his death sentence commuted on
each occasion. On the second occasion, he was awaiting transportation when the
post of hangman became vacant and he accepted it, carrying out the hanging of 3
men on the 28th of August 1802 for stealing
sheep, cattle and from a dwelling house, respectively. In all, Curry was
responsible for around 117 executions during his 33
year reign, which ended after the execution of Ursula Lofthouse
for murder on Monday, the 6th of April
1835. As a convicted felon, Curry remained a prisoner himself until 1814. He
found his job stressful and took to drinking a lot of gin to steel himself for
the task. On April 14, 1821, he was called
upon to perform two executions. First he hanged highwayman Michael Shaw at York Castle and then had to
walk across town to execute William Brown for burglary at the City Gaol. He was
somewhat drunk by the time he got there and while waiting on the platform for
the prisoner to appear, he began shaking the noose at spectators calling out to
them: "Some of you come up and I'll try it!" When Brown appeared,
Curry had to be assisted by a warder and one of the sheriff's officers.
"The executioner, in a bungling manner and with great difficulty (being in
a state of intoxication), placed the cap over the culprit's face and attempted
several times to place the rope round his neck, but was unable." "He
missed the unfortunate man's head with the noose every time that he tried. The
cap was each time removed from the malefactor's face, who stared wildly around
upon the spectators" the Times newspaper reported on April 24th. The crowd
were not amused by this and called out, "Hang him, hang Jack Ketch"
(the generic name for the hangman).
On September 1st, 1821, Curry had to
hang 5 men at one time. The execution was reported by The Yorkshire Gazette as
follows. "On Saturday last, a few minutes before 12 o'clock, the unfortunate men were conducted from their cells
to the fatal drop. "After a short time spent in
prayer they were launched into eternity. None of them seemed to suffer much.
"However, by an unaccountable neglect of the executioner (Curry) in not
keeping sufficiently clear of the drop when the bolt was pulled out, he fell
(into the trap) along with the malefactors."
Curry was succeeded by James Coates, who was also a prisoner at York, having been
sentenced to 7 years transportation for larceny at the summer assizes of 1835.
He executed Charles Batty in 1836 and Thomas Williams the following year, both
for attempted murder. He managed to escape from the castle around 1839 and was
never heard of again. Due to the unavailability of Calcraft, who was booked for
an execution at Stafford on the same day, prisoner
Nathan Howard took over the post in 1840 and hanged James Bradsley
for the murder of his father on the 11th of April of that year. He went on to
hang a further 14 men between then and 1853 when he bungled the hanging of
murderer Henry Dobson so badly that, "when the drop fell and the rope
tightened around his neck, the condemned man struggled violently" for
which apparently Howard was dismissed. He was by this time old and in poor
health and died 6 days later. There were no executions at York between April
1853 and 1856 and a new executioner had to be found to hang 28 year old William
Dove for the murder of his wife on the
9th of August 1856, as Calcraft was again busy elsewhere. Thomas Askern,
who was in prison for debt at the time, was appointed to the role and continued
in office until 1874 performing 9 executions at York and with the availability
of a good rail network, elsewhere. Executions had decreased markedly with the
opening of Armley Gaol in Leeds, which became the place of
many Yorkshire hangings from 1864 to 1961. Askern carried out
executions there and also the last public hanging in Scotland, that of 19 year
old Robert Smith at Dumfies on the 12th of May 1868. He performed the
first private hanging of a woman, Priscilla Biggadyke, at Lincoln on the 28th of December 1868. Like Calcraft,
he used the short drop method. He died in Maltby at
the age of 62 on December 6th,
1878, ending the practice of York using their own
hangman. William Marwood officiated at the next 7 executions up to 1890, with
James Berry and then James Billington carrying out one each of the final two.
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