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JOHN HINTON, aged 25; JOSEPH VARNAM, aged
24; and CHAS. FORRESTER, aged 21, underwent the extreme penalty of the law in
front of the new county gaol, on Monday last. Being the ringleaders in an
attempt to break prison, several months ago, they were heavily ironed till
within an hour or two of their execution, when their chains were taken off.
Eleven o'clock having arrived, Hinton made his appearance on the scaffold, and
presented a careworn, wretched appearance. He was followed by Varnam, who was
placed beside him, but who did not seem to feel so acutely the awfulness of his
situation as Hinton. Forrester then came forth, and was placed beside Varnam.
He appeared resigned, and, with his unfortunate fellow-sufferers, seemed to be
supplicating divine mercy, but what they said was not heard immediately below
the scaffold.
The executioner having suspended the unhappy men to the fatal beam, Hinton
turned towards his companions, and they took leave of eachother. Hinton then
closing his eyes, awaited his fate with great firmness and composure, not once
opening them, nor appearing to betray the least agitation of mind or body.
The conduct of Varnam and Forrester, although not indecorous, was more
indifferent, partcularly that of Varnam, who looked about him, instead of
directing his attention to a higher object.
The executioner having pulled the caps over the culprits' faces, retired to
complete his duty, when a short but painful suspense took place, owing to some
difficulty in removing the bolt which causes the platform on which they stood,
to fall.
At length, it gave way, and they were launched into eternity. Hinton, with the
exception of the motion given to his body on first falling, did not move for
several minutes, when he slightly lifted up his legs.
Varnam, who was a short but strong muscular man, appeared very much convulsed
for about five minutes, as did Forrester, whose feet shook for a considerable
time after the motion in other parts of his frame had ceased .
The bodies having hung the usual time, were cut down and placed in shells
brought on the scaffold for that purpose. Varnam's was removed by his friends
to Coleorton, and that of Forrester should have been conveyed to
Northamptonshire, but owing to some mistake, Hinton's was taken in its stead,
and would probably have been interred by Forrester's friends, had some
communication not been received respecting Hinton's clothes, when, the error
was discovered, and a constable was dispatched with Forrester's body to his
father's house, the day following.
Great exertions were made by the father of this young man, who is a farmer, to
save him. Mr. Bond, the attorney who conducted his defence, was sent by him to
London last week, to obtain a commutation of his sentence, but in vain, the
present system of horse-stealing having been carried to such a very great
extent, as to require the utmost power of the law, to repress it.
Forrester's father was in Leicester during the time, and the effect which the
communication received from Mr. Bond, by the mail, on Monday morning,
announcing his unsuccesful exertions in his favour, may be more easily
conceived than described. We understand that the afflicted parent had not seen
his son, for two or three years before his apprehension on a charge of
horse-stealing.- John Varnam, (Joseph's brother), who received the
sentence of death at the same time, and who, it is supposed, will be
transported for life, has made most important disclosures respecting the gangs
of horse-stealers now prowling about the country.
We are informed that he has given information respecting more than fifty horses
which have been stolen in different parts of the kingdom, and, it is said, has
implicated some horse-dealers, who will stand as fair a chance of being sent
out of the country, as John Pilkington, at present awaiting an order to
transport him to Botany Bay, for buying the horse and cart, for stealing which
Hinton suffered on Monday.
On no former occasion, except when the Luddites were executed, were so many
persons assembled to witness an execution, as we saw this day. This
circumstance may be attributed to the day being a holyday (Easter Monday) and
partly to this being the first instance where such an exhibition has taken
place at the new gaol. About one half of the assemblage were females, with whom
a great number of children, but, though the crowd was a dense one, not the
slightest accident occurred."
The body of Joseph Varnam was interred in the churchyard of
Saint George's, Swannington on April 21st 1829. Sadly, we note that his father,
William Varnam, was buried in the same graveyard only the week previously.
Some notes on public hangings.
Public executions took place in England until 1868, when
they were finally abolished, and hangings then took place within County gaols.
The above account illustrates just how popular these occasions were, and also
shows that the method of hanging used at this time was by no means a quick
death; rather it was a form of slow strangulation which could take up to
fifteen minutes, and there are even accounts of people having been revived
after being cut down. I personally found the reading of the above extract to be
thoroughly sickening.
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