The county has of late years been almost wholly spared the painful spectacle of justice proceeding to its direst extremity of taking away human life, though formerly capital punishments were but too common, and inflicted for what we should now esteem very inadequate causes of offence. Their policy and propriety in any case are now allowed to be fit matters for discussion; and it is probable that public opinion may, in a few years hence, demand their entire abolition.1800—At the Lent Assizes this year, ten persons were sentenced to death, but seven of them were reprieved before the judges left the town. Richard and John Lane, brothel’s, were convicted of the murder of Thomas Goode, of Redmarley, in October, 1799. They were impatient to possess some property which would be theirs at his death, and having waylaid him, both shot him—one with a gun, the other with a pistol. They were executed on the 10th of March, and each died uttering execrations on the other.

1800—At the Summer Assizes, thirteen persons were sentenced to death, and three of them executed—one for burglary, and two for sheep stealing. They are said to have died “with the utmost resignation, and acknowledging the justice of their sentences.”

1801—At the Lent Assizes, five persons were sentenced to death for burglary, a woman for stealing two £10 notes, five men for highway robbery, three for horse stealing, one for stealing a cow, another for stealing two calves, four for sheep stealing, and two for escaping from prison after sentence of transportation—twenty-two in all! Six of these were left for execution; but great interest being made for some of them, only one was actually hung.

1803—March—Richard Colledge executed for horse stealing.

1803—June—Thomas Beach executed for uttering a forged £5 note.

1805—March 22—John Sanky, alias Young, convicted at the Assizes just concluded of uttering a forged bill of exchange, with intent to defraud Messrs. Knapp and Lee, glovers, of Worcester, was executed on a temporary gallows erected in Salt Lane. He addressed the spectators for a full half hour, acknowledging the justice of his sentence, and expressing his confident hope of pardon through the righteousness and atonement of our Saviour. He had attempted, in the interval between his sentence and condemnation, to escape from the gaol, but he now declared that he never entertained any idea of doing the gaoler or turnkey any personal injury. He then gave out three verses of a hymn, and was joined in singing them by many of the persons who surrounded the fatal tree; after this he prayed aloud in a very solemn manner for himself and the spectators. Several distressing mistakes were made by the executioner, but the unhappy sufferer retained his composure amidst all these blunders, and appeared to die with absolute cheerfulness. This young man was evidently possessed of considerable talents, but they had been miserably misapplied.

1805—August 16—W. Dalton, convicted before Lord Ellenborough at the Summer Assizes of two burglaries, one at Astley and the other at Kidderminster—executed at Red Hill. His demeanour was becoming.

1806—March 19—John Davenport and William Lashford hung at Red Hill for a burglary at Bellbroughton. They confessed their crime, and behaved in a becoming manner.

1812—March 20—William Scale was executed in the field of the New Gaol for committing a rape at Norton, near Worcester. He is described as “penitent, resigned, and met his fate with the fortitude becoming his deplorable situation.”

1815—July 21—William White was executed on a gallows erected “in the outer circle of the County Gaol,” for a rape on Ann Davis of Beoley. He is declared to have died, “as since his condemnation he had lived, full of contrition and piety.”

1816—March 22—William Clements and John Batty executed at the County Prison for breaking into the dwelling house of Mr. Martin of Paxford, and stealing a large sum of money; and John Rowen for forging and uttering a bill of exchange for £315 on Messrs. Cox, Merle, and Co., bankers, London, with intent to defraud Messrs. Attwood and Co., bankers, Worcester.

1818—July 31—William Corfield sentenced to death for a burglary at the house of George Jukes of Tenbury, was executed at the new drop erected over the entrance to the County Gaol. He had conducted himself after his trial in a very refractory manner, and could not be brought to acknowledge the justice of his sentence. Shortly before his execution he wrote an exceedingly sensible and properly worded letter to his wife.

1819—March 19—John Harris convicted of uttering forged Bank of England notes at Bromsgrove, hung in front of the County Gaol. He died “sincerely penitent.”

1820—March 17—Robert Hollick, convicted of robbing Thomas Gittins and Thomas Hawker on the highway at Claines, and cruelly ill-treating the latter, was this day executed. As he was being led out of his cell, his mother, sister, wife, and child, came to see him, not having visited him previously. The execution was delayed awhile to grant them an interview—which, as may be supposed, was a most distressing one. It did not, however, unnerve the culprit, who died with great firmness, though fully admitting the justice of his sentence.

1821—March 23—Thomas Dyer, capitally convicted of horse stealing, was executed at the County Gaol, but died protesting his entire innocence of the crime laid to his charge. He left a paper behind him, stating the names of the parties from whom he bought the horses, and the sums of money he had given for them; but it does not appear that anybody thought it worth while to make further inquiries about the matter.

1821—August 24—William Mantle and William Bird were executed at the County Gaol; the former convicted of stealing sheep, the property of Mr. Henry Hyde of Little Kyre; and the latter of breaking into the house of Mr. John Bird of Bromsgrove, and stealing wearing apparel, &c. The ropes were nearly extended to their full length when tied round the unhappy culprits’ necks, so that scarcely any fall took place, and they died in great agony, especially Bird. Their remains were interred in St. Andrew’s churchyard.

1823—March 24—James Davis and Joseph Rutter, two young men convicted at the Lent Assizes—the former of horse stealing and the latter of sheep stealing—were executed at the County Gaol. Davis was a deserter from the army, and appeared to have stolen from sheer want. Rutter’s had been a long course of crime. Davis began to address the crowd when brought upon the scaffolding, warning them to avoid Sabbath breaking and vicious practices; when Rutter said, impatiently, “Come, let’s have no more of that;” and they were immediately hurried into eternity. He literally preferred hanging to a homily.

1826—July 21—John Hobday, a young man only twenty-one years of age, having been convicted at the Midsummer Assizes of a burglary at the Bell Inn, Kidderminster, and a savage assault upon the officers who apprehended him at Birmingham, was executed at the County Gaol this day. He was reported to be very penitent, and prepared for death.

1830—March 11—Michael Toll, convicted of the wilful murder of Ann Cook, a woman with whom he lived, by knocking her into a pit at Oldswinford, was executed this day in front of the County Gaol. His body was given to the surgeons to anatomise, and afterwards exposed to public gaze at the Infirmary. In his stomach were found a number of pieces of blanket, which he had swallowed in order to produce suffocation.

1830—July 30—Charles Wall, convicted at the Summer Assizes of the murder of Sally Chance, at Oldswinford, was executed in front of the County Prison at six o’clock p.m., the execution having been deferred to that unusual hour in consequence of the election taking place that day. His body was delivered to a surgeon at Stourbridge, and afterwards exposed to view to great crowds who came from all the surrounding parts to see it. The party murdered was a little girl, whose mother the prisoner was about to marry, and he killed her by throwing her into a lime pit.

1830—August 13—Thomas Turner, a lad only seventeen years of age, convicted at the same Assizes of a rape upon Louisa Blissett, a child under ten years of age, at New Wood, about three miles from Kidderminster, was executed this day.

1831—March 25—Thomas Slaughter, a lad not eighteen years of age, was executed for setting fire to a large wheat rick, the property of Mrs. Rebecca Tomlinson, of Elmley Lovett. The poor fellow was wholly uneducated, and evidently of weak intellect.

1832—March 22—James and Joseph Carter, two brothers, aged twenty and twenty-two respectively, and condemned at the Lent Assizes for two cases of highway robbery at night, with violence, in the neighbourhood of Bewdley, this morning underwent the extreme penalty of the law in front of the County Gaol. Both men met death with firmness, but without bravado; and Joseph Carter addressed the populace from the scaffolding, warning them to avoid Sabbath breaking, drunkenness, and bad women. The crowd on this occasion behaved with unusual decorum, and seem really to have been impressed with a feeling of sadness at seeing two persons hurried out of life so early.

1834—March 12—Robert Lilly, convicted at the Lent Assizes of the murder of Jonathan Wall, at Bromsgrove, was executed in front of the County Gaol. Wall had interfered to prevent his ill-using his wife, and Lilly stabbed him in the abdomen with a clasp-knife. There was a large concourse of spectators at the execution—principally females, but the culprit did not address them, and he died without a struggle.

1837—March 23—William Lightband, executed in front of the County Gaol for the murder of Joseph Hawkins, shopkeeper, of Areley Kings, on the 8th September, 1836. He was a carpenter, entirely without education, and had pursued a sottish and irregular mode of life. However, the instruction he received when in prison seemed to have had effect upon his mind, and he met death in becoming manner. Though it snowed during the whole morning there was a great concourse of spectators, and the Rev. Mr. Dodd, assistant minister at the Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel, afterwards addressed them. Their behaviour was more decent than usual on such occasions.

1849—March 26—The last execution which took place in Worcester was that of Robert Pulley, who was condemned to death for the barbarous murder of a poor girl, named Mary Ann Staight, at Broughton, on the 5th of December, 1843. The manners of the prisoner were so brutish and careless as to induce a doubt in his sanity; and at the expense of the High Sheriff, Mr. John Dent, counsel was provided at his trial to defend him on this ground. It was also made the plea for a memorial to the Home Secretary on his behalf, which was signed by many benevolent persons, and by those opposed to all capital punishments. His conduct after trial, however, was such as to convince all who conversed with him of his perfect rationality. He was lamentably ignorant; but listened with much attention to the exhortations of the ministers who visited him. He displayed great firmness in his last moments. The execution took place at noon on the roof of the County Gaol, in the presence of a large crowd of spectators, who behaved with much propriety.

The excitement occasioned by this execution produced much discussion as to the expediency of capital punishments. A public meeting was held in the Guildhall, Worcester, by those who wished their abolition, at which Mr. Charles Gilpin attended and spoke. Mr. George Grove attempted to show that Scripture contained a command which was conclusive on the subject, and required us to shed the blood of the man who took away the life of another; but a resolution, declaring capital punishments to be opposed to the spirit of Christianity and inexpedient, was carried almost unanimously. The Rev. W. H. Havergal and Dr. Redford also preached upon the subject—the former in favour of, and the latter against, death punishments.