Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/299

 10 s. VIIL SEPT. 28, loo:.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

whose name I have discovered. He has a special claim to notoriety, owing to the fact that he died on the scaffold, and his bio- graphy will be found in 'The Newgate Calendar ' (Knapp & Baldwin, ed. 1824, i. 114-16 ; William Jackson, ed. 1818, i. 239- 242). On 24 April, 1718, he was indicted at the Old Bailey for the murder of Eliza- beth, wife of William White, in Moorfields, and was hanged at Tyburn on 31 May fol- lowing. His father is said to have perished, while the boy "was very young," at the demolishing of Tangiers in 1684.

William Marvell, according to ' The New- gate Calendar,' (Wm. Jackson, i. 241), succeeded Price. Readers of Harrison Ains- worth's lurid history of Jack Sheppard will recollect that this person officiated at the execution of the great prison-breaker on 16 Nov., 1724.

John Thrift, who occupied the post in 1747, was sentenced to transportation for fourteen years on 16 May, 1750, for the murder of David Farris in a quarrel (Gent. Mag., xx. 233). Nevertheless, he received a full par- don, and " resumed the exercise of his office " on 19 September of the same year (Gent. Mag., xx. 425). His death occurred on 5 May, 1752 ; and we are told that he was " formerly hangman for London, Middle- sex, and Surrey " (Gent. Mag., xxii. 240). MB. F. G. STEPHENS at 5 S. vi. 26 quoted a paragraph from The Covent Garden Journal of 16 May, 1752, that gives a description of Thrift's funeral. The mob appears to have been displeased that he should be buried in consecrated ground, and the interment was delayed by its threatening attitude.

Tallis. The above-mentioned extract from The Covent Garden Journal states that " Tallis, the present hangman, was afraid that the body [i.e., Thrift's] would be torn out of the coffin, which was therefore first carried into the church," thus supplying, as MR. STEPHENS remarks, the name of Mr. Thrift's successor in office. The Public Advertiser, 12 April, 1771, contains the following notice : " Turlis, the executioner, it is said, died a few days since on the road on his return from Kingston." If, as seems probable, the names Tallis and Turlis indi- cate the same individual, he must have been hangman for nearly twenty years, and have officiated at the execution of such notorious criminals as Lord Ferrers (1760), Theodore Gardelle (1761), and Elizabeth Brownrigg (1767).

Edward Dennis was concerned in the Gordon Riots of June, 1780 (Dickens's ' Barnaby Rudge ').

"Among the rioters was Jack Ketch himself.

This miscreant, whose real name was Edward Dennis, was convicted of pulling down the house of Mr. Boggis of New Turnstile. The Keeper of Tot- hillfields Bridewell would not suffer Jack Ketch to go among; the other prisoners lest they should tear him to pieces. In order that he might hang up his brother rioters he was granted a pardon ! " Knapi*. & Baldwin's ' Newgate Calendar, iii. 105.

The Gentleman's Magazine, 1. 343, states that Dennis

" was found guilty, but recommended to mercy,, and has a bailable warrant, which will be sued out when the executions are ended. The humanity of Mr. Smith, the Keeper of Tothillfields Bridewell

deserves all praise. He declined confining him.

among the other prisoners, lest his obnoxious character should expose him to their rage." The Town and Country Magazine, xii. 343 r confirms the statement that Dennis was- pardoned. A writer at 2 S. xi. 315 informs us that the Sheriffs of London were so pleased with Dennis's excellent mode of per- forming business that they presented him with a very elegant official robe in 1785.

William Brunskill was executioner at Newgate on 30 Jan., 1794, as on that date he presented a petition to the Court of Aldermen, praying for an increase of salary. See a paragraph from The Times, quoted by Charles Gordon in ' The Old Bailey and Newgate,' p. 239.

James Botting probably was the successor of Brunskill not of Dennis, as implied by Major Arthur Griffiths in ' Chronicles of Newgate,' ii. 411. In an essay on 'Public Executioners ' in a book entitled ' Many- Coloured Life,' 1842, pp. 15-16, Botting is described as " a coarse, unfeeling man," and a description is given of his last moments :

"Horrid visions disturbed the wretched man, and he was wont to dream that one hundred and seventy-five 'parties,' as he was accustomed to. term them, meaning thereby persons who had suffered the last penalty of the law, presented themselves to his startled eye, a terrifying spectacle, wearing the fatal cap with their heads inclined to one side. He, when describing what appalled him, declared with a reprobate expression, ' that if they would only hold up their heads and take off their caps he would not care a straw for any of them ! ' "

Botting died in October, 1837, and his obituary notice will be found in Bell's Life and The Morning Chronicle, 1 October of that year. In the latter newspaper it is stated that,

"unlike Jack Cheshire, who assisted him occa- sionally, and who always gave courage with a whisper while making a neck ready for the start, he left all the comforting part of the ceremony to- the Ordinary and Mr. Baker. Botting retired from

public life 17 years ago [i.e., 1820] It was with

him that the Newgate regulation commenced of paying the executioner a guinea a week."