THE FORTRESS

CHAPTER 14

CHESTER’S HISTORY ON CRIME & PUNISHMENT

Thought to have derived many of its origins from the Roman period of British history, the English legal system is known to have been constantly adapted and developed throughout the subsequent centuries to include the laws and traditions of the later Saxon and Norman peoples, as well as the dictates of the emerging Christian Church. Possibly because of that and perhaps even in spite of it, nearly 2000 years after it was first introduced, our legal system is still generally regarded by many as one of the most equitable and transparent judicial organizations in the world today.

It is perhaps surprising to note that even from the earliest times the application of Capital Punishment by the state was thought to have been a fairly rare event and was only ever employed in the most serious of cases. Early courts were thought to have made use of financial penalties as punishment against a wrongdoer, ordering those found guilty of a crime to make reparation in an economic way, rather than the forfeiture of their own lives. It was said to be fairly for a murderer to be ordered to financially compensate the family of a victim, rather than lose his own life as a consequence of his illegal actions.

The first and possibly oldest Jail in Chester is thought to have been the one which formed part of the early Castle complex which had been constructed by the first Norman Earls of the city. Given that the entire County was reported to have been ruled in an almost sovereign-like way by these early Lords and that their judicial courts were based at the Castle, it seems entirely likely that most offenders would have been held there to face Norman justice. It was only in later times, when a clear division was made between the Crown and local authorities, that the Castle’s Jail was used almost exclusively to hold those who had transgressed either against the monarch or the elected Parliament. Even these prisoners though, were generally handed over to the civil authorities of Chester for their sentence to be carried out and it was only in exceptional cases where they would face justice away from the city.

Chester’s infamous Northgate Jail is thought to have been originally constructed during the city’s early medieval period and may well have been built specifically to hold those accused or convicted of local or civil wrongdoing and which would be commonly dealt with by the city’s Pentice Court or Chester’s regularly held Criminal Assizes. The fortresses early Roman gates were said to have included a pair of stone-built guard rooms which flanked the entrance and it might well be the case, that the later medieval portal was constructed in a similar fashion. In addition to the main structure though, there were known to be at least two rock-cut cells lying below ground level, where condemned prisoners were thought to have been held prior to their execution.

Following the abandonment of the Public Gallows at Boughton and prior to the construction of the later County Jail in City Walls Road, the Northgate Jail was thought to have been used for the execution of prisoners in Chester. Despite the change in venue however, such events continued to remain a public spectacle and large crowds would gather to see the guilty parties get their just rewards.

The later construction of the new County Jail which was built towards the end of the 18th Century saw the end of the medieval Northgate and around the beginning of the 19th Century the historic prison was finally demolished and its underground dungeons done away with forever. For the next 60 years or so public executions were said to have continued at the new County Jail in the city, often in a completely different fashion to that which had taken place at the Spital in Boughton.

The new Jail building on City Walls Road was said to have included a platform above its main entrance where condemned prisoners were effectively “launched” into eternity at the end of a strong rope. On at least one notable occasion however this new method of dispatching the guilty was reported to have failed miserably, as the rope snapped and the condemned man plummeted to the ground. Sadly, for the prisoner in question, this failure in the equipment was soon resolved and having replaced the rope he was subsequently executed once again, only this time successfully. In around 1866, the last public execution was reported to have taken place at Chester’s County Jail and perhaps reflected a much wider change in public attitudes to such punishments. Sometime later, it was said that all condemned prisoners from Cheshire were sent to regional prisons in Liverpool and Manchester for such sentences to be carried out and away from the public gaze.

Justice often had to be seen to be done, in order that people could understand its purpose and witness the basic right of society to publicly punish wrongdoers in a fair and adequate fashion. In order to fully demonstrate society’s unwillingness to accept any sort of criminal or anti-social behavior a number of punishments and associated devices were introduced into common use.

The Ducking Stool was a device which was thought to have been in regular use between the 11th and 15th Centuries and designed to punish local gossips or women that constantly nagged their husbands. The offender was said to have been publicly displayed on the stool, before being immersed in a pond or pool.

The Chester “Branks” was said to have been a metal frame which was fitted over the offenders head and not dissimilar to a modern day medical frame, which is designed to protect or support the skull. The most important part of the Brank was said to have been a rough rasp that fitted into the offender’s mouth and kept their tongue from moving. It was typically used as a deterrent for gossips and scolds and was an alternative to the Ducking Stool. These instruments were reported to have been used in Chester right through to the 19th Century.

The Gibbet was a construction designed to display the dead bodies of executed villains or wrongdoers, so that those who passed by could witness justice and be warned as their own conduct. A gibbet was thought to have stood at each of Chester’s ancient gates, as well as the High Cross and on several of the main routes leading in and out of the city.

The Pillory was said to have existed in the city from the time of the Roman’s and was reported to have been a version of the stocks, where wrongdoers could be publicly flogged, humiliated and displayed to the local people. Miscreants often had notices and signs which advertised their crime hung around their necks, in order that other local townspeople could know their shame.

A variation on the theme was the practice of “flogging” a wrongdoer, through the streets of the city. The unfortunate individual was said to have been tied to the back of a cart and their back laid bare to the waist. As the cart made its way through the streets of the city, the victim was constantly flogged by one of the city’s law officers, probably one of the Sheriffs. The beating would only stop, once the cart had reached one of the city’s gates where the guilty party would be expelled.

The Cucking Stool was reported to have been a version of the “Ducking Stool”, but was generally used for women, who were guilty of some local transgression or crime. It was thought that those sentenced to be placed on the Cucking Stool were displayed in such a way, as to be completely humiliated before their friends and neighbors

Branding was, as the name suggests, where wrongdoers were branded with letters relating to their particular crime. SL for instance was thought to reflect a person who had been found guilty of Seditious Libeling, as in the case of William Prynne, who was branded during the 17th Century.

As time passed and our laws “progressed” the legal penalties for even minor infringements became far more severe, no doubt supported and justified by the increasing influence of the Christian Church within Britain, whose teachings were constantly interpreted and adopted into the system. This is best reflected with the cases of George Marsh and John Plessington, both of whom were executed for “religious” crimes, rather than any sort of civil or criminal wrongdoing that we would recognize today.

John Plessington was a practicing Catholic priest who was accused of involvement in a Jesuit plot to assassinate the monarch James II. Despite his vehement denials regarding his involvement, he was found guilty by the court and was subsequently sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered on Gallows Hill in Boughton on 19th July 1679. In 1980, nearly three hundred years after his death, Plessington’s name was finally added to the memorial dedicated to another of the city’s religious martyr’s, George Marsh, who had been burnt at the stake for heresy in 1556.

Richard Sale was reported to have been a Quaker preacher in the city around 1656 that fell foul of this same religious prejudice that was prevalent in Chester at the time. He was arrested twice by the local authorities, firstly for speaking to a priest in the street and in the second instance for preaching in the street.

A man of large stature, Sale was incarcerated at the city’s ancient jail and forced into a cell called the “Little Ease” which was totally unsuitable for a man of his size. Said to have been only 4 feet 6 inches high and some 17 inches wide, it was reported to have taken 4 men to squeeze him into the cell. The cramped dungeon ultimately proved to be extremely hazardous to Sale’s health and he was said to have died within two months of his imprisonment.

Richard Hickock was another of the leading Quakers within the city that conducted a campaign of civil disobedience and disturbance, which included haranguing citizens, disrupting church services and deliberately ignoring the city authorities. A number of these Quaker leaders were subsequently arrested and then fined or jailed.

Hickock himself was accused of preaching in a “Steeple House” and was imprisoned in the Northgate’s notorious “Dead Mans Room”, a rock cut cell which lay below the prison. He was held there for a period and was only finally released when an officer in Cromwell’s army heard of his plight and had him brought before a judge with a writ of “Habeas Corpus”. The judge found his imprisonment to be illegal and Hickock was subsequently released.

Although it isn’t entirely clear that the Malpas born John Bradshaw was the actual judge, it seems likely that as Chief Justice of Cheshire, he may well have presided at a number of “witchcraft” trials which took place in the county during the middle of the 17^th Century.

Anne Osboston was a native of Rainow, near Macclesfield in Cheshire, who was accused of employing witchcraft between 1651 and 1655. She was charged with bringing about the deaths of John Steenson, Barbara Potts, her husband John and a 4^th person called Anthony Booth. Found guilty by the court, Osboston was hung at Boughton in Chester along with Ellen Beech and Anne Thornton, two other local women that had been found guilty of similar charges. The remains of all three women were said to have been buried at St Mary’s on the hill, close to the old castle’s ditch.

Thornton was a widow from Eyton who was tried for witchcraft and for bringing about the death of 3 year old Daniel Finchet in Chester. Ellen Beech was a local woman, the wife of one John Beech, who was found guilty of witchcraft and bringing about the death of Elizabeth Cowper in 1656.

Elizabeth Powell was a local widow, who was charged by Thomas Annion, a local Blacksmith, with using witchcraft against him. It was thought that the charges brought by Annion were entirely spurious and were as a result of a property dispute between the two parties. Powell was held at Chester’s infamous Northgate Jail, in terrible conditions and was reported to have succumbed to the dire conditions in 1669, before ever being brought before the courts.

Proving whether or not an accused person was a witch or not was a gruesome affair and it often entailed the employment of professional “prickers” who earned relatively high fees and would go to extreme lengths to find a prisoners “mark of guilt” or “Devils mark”.

The process of “pricking” involved sticking a needle into the accused person’s body, often right down to the bone itself. The investigators were trying to find a particular spot that was insensitive to pain, or would not bleed and was said to be the “Devils mark”. The process of pricking the victim until they managed to find such a spot could be repeated indefinitely or until they managed to find what they were looking for.

As society developed beyond the ill-informed medieval, Tudor and Jacobean periods, so did the national instruments of civic, legal and religious control. Instead of the courts being controlled by local authorities who had some form of control or discretion, crime and punishment within England tended to come under the absolute control of centralized government, who sought to impose recognized standards and sentences throughout Britain. As the population grew and certain areas grew richer, the law itself became far more severe to those that transgressed society’s rules, regardless of whether their actions were driven entirely by choice or possibly by basic needs. The thief that stole to feed his family was treated in equal fashion to the thief that stole purely for gain and English courts were often loathe to make any distinction between the two entirely different situations.

As the county town of Cheshire, the city of Chester continued to retain its position as the administrative and judicial centre of the region, entitling it to host the main courts and prisons that were fundamental to and symptomatic of the age. Consequently, criminals from all over the county found themselves being brought to the city and held in its often dismal jails before finally being brought before its courts and assizes.

Chester’s medieval castle was the site of a mint established in 1696 to help in the re-coining of England’s currency that was undertaken at the time. Coins were regularly defaced by people “clipping” them, paying for their goods and services with a piece of the coin rather than the entire thing. As a result of this practice, much of the precious metal was lost or wasted and was a major concern to the government. The man who was put in charge at the Chester mint was Edmund Halley, who was appointed to oversee the production of the new coinage and who would later identify the comet that would forever bear his name.

Sometimes the practice of “clipping” coins was regarded so seriously that the Courts would hand down the ultimate penalty to those found guilty of the crime. It has been suggested that at least one man who was tried and convicted was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered for the offence. His quarters were then displayed on the city gates as a warning to any other felon that might be tempted to repeat the offence.

The sentence of being hung, drawn and quartered was a particularly brutal one, even for the period. The guilty party was effectively strangled to the point of unconsciousness, then taken down and revived. Their stomach and chest were then cut open while they were awake and their intestines and vital organs were removed in front of them. Fortunately for the prisoner, the shock and loss of blood would have killed them long before their body was then cut into quarters and publicly displayed on the gates or towers of the city.

Joshua Horton was a resident of Watergate Street in Chester, who was said to have been arrested in 1695 having been accused of forging coins. Found guilty of the offence, he was being held at the infamous Northgate Jail prior to sentencing but somehow managed to escape the prison precincts. Having secured himself a fast horse, Horton then rode back to his home city of London and disappeared from justice. The city’s two Sheriffs, who were responsible for the Jail’s security, were later fined for allowing the prisoner’s escape. 

In common with today, the theft of personal property was often viewed far more seriously than personal physical attacks and consequently attracted much more severe penalties from the courts. The severity of the law was perhaps best reflected in the case of Sarah Jones, who was tried and found guilty of stealing 28 yards of Chintz in the city and was executed for her crime in 1778. Also, that of two local men, Joseph Booth and William Elliot who were tried and convicted of shoplifting in the city in 1791 and were executed shortly afterwards.

John Oakes was tried and convicted of “coining” in 1784 and later executed in the city. Thomas Hyde was tried and convicted of horse stealing and subsequently hung in 1786. Henry Parsland was recorded at Chester’s Spring Assizes in 1833 as having been tried and convicted of stealing a sheep at Bugsworth in Cheshire. He was sentenced to death for his crime and was later executed in the city at the County Jail on City Walls Road. James Mason was tried and found guilty of attempting to procure a miscarriage and paid for it with his life in 1834.

Home invasions or Burglary, which we now tend to regard as commonplace or even as a relatively minor offence was considered to be such a serious crime during the 18^th Century that many of those that committed such an act often paid for it with their lives. One of the most notable cases in Chester was that of John Clare who was tried and convicted of Burglary in 1801.

Clare didn’t believe that he would be found guilty of the offence, but on hearing that he was to hang for his crime, immediately hatched a plot to escape the executioner. As the cart carried him and his two equally guilty companions to their inevitable fate, Clare leapt from the cart and attempted to swim the width of the River Dee and gain his freedom. Unfortunately for him, the weight of the shackles he carried on his arms and legs dragged him down and he was drowned beneath the water.

As his condemned companions waited, the 2 city Sheriffs were forced to summon a boat and drag the river bed to recover the dead felon’s body. Having done so, they were then obliged to resume their duties in respect of all three guilty men and Clare’s lifeless corpse was “executed” along with the other two condemned men.

Samuel Thompson had been tried and convicted of counterfeiting, along with John Morgan and were sentenced to be hung on the Public Gallows at Boughton on the same day as Clare. Their execution was somewhat delayed while the dead body of the burglar was retrieved from the River Dee, in order that he could be hung at the same time as themselves.

William Ellis was found guilty of burglary in 1778 and was executed at Chester. In 1783 Resolution Heap was tried and convicted for burglary and suffered a similar fate. Edward Holt was executed in 1786 and James Buckley along with his brother Thomas, was executed in the same year for the same offence. Alexander Morton was tried and convicted of burglary and executed in 1800. James Renshaw was tried and convicted, along with two brothers, Simeon and William Betson, of burglary in 1813. All three men were thought to have been executed at Chester’s new County Jail, which stood on the site of the later Queens School.

Abraham Rostern was tried and convicted for burglary and was executed in 1818 along with John and Isaac Moor who had both been tried and convicted of a similar offence in the same year. 12 months later John Johnson, along with Samuel Hooley was convicted of the same crime and suffered a similar fate. Ralph Ellis was tried and convicted for burglary in 1820 and was subsequently hung on the gallows, as was Thomas Miller the same year. John Lair was tried and convicted for burglary in 1829 and paid with his life.

George Hunt was recorded at Chester’s Spring Assizes in 1833 as having been tried and convicted of a burglary at Brinnington in Cheshire. Hunt was sentenced to death for his crime and was executed in the city at the County Jail. Tried along with Hunt was another man, Thomas Palfreyman, but he was acquitted of the crime and walked free from court. The same year George Webb was tried and convicted of a burglary at Rudheath in Cheshire. He too was sentenced to death.

Although burglary was and remains a predominantly masculine crime, then as now women can often imitate their male counterparts. A Cheshire woman, Kitty Murphy was recorded at Chester’s Spring Assizes in 1833 as having been tried and convicted of a Burglary at Stockport and was later sentenced to death.

The protection of the law and its enforcement officers became a priority for the Crown and the courts and remained so through to the 20^th Century, with the murder or attempted murder of a law officer regarded with the utmost seriousness and this was often reflected in the sentences handed down by judges.

Thomas Mate was tried and convicted for killing a constable in Chester in 1789; Mate used his last speech on the Gallows to accuse his long suffering wife of being unfaithful to him. He was 64 years old and after denouncing his poor spouse in public was executed shortly afterwards.

One Peter Martin, who was also known as Joseph Lowton, was tried and convicted of firing at an excise vessel in 1798 and was executed at Chester shortly afterwards. William Proudlove along with his co-defendant George Glover, were tried and convicted of shooting at an Excise man in 1809. Both men were subsequently executed on Chester’s Gallows. Even those that were appointed to positions of authority were protected by the law and any attack upon them was viewed in the most serious light. Joseph Henshall was tried and found guilty of firing at gamekeepers in 1829 and was later executed for daring to do so.  

Not surprisingly, with wrongdoers being hung for common theft, shoplifting and burglary, those tried and convicted of wounding could expect little sympathy from the courts. Where a felony or fairly serious crime had been committed it was little wonder that extreme sentencing was employed. John Carr was tried and found guilty of felonious shooting in 1834 and was hung for it. In the same year Thomas Riley was tried and convicted of felonious cutting and lost his life on the gallows, as did William Naylor who was tried and found guilty of felonious shooting.

In common with the States defense of property, the protection of the nations money supply was of the highest importance and those found guilty of counterfeiting or forgery were deemed to have committed a crime that was equal to murder. Mary Lloyd was tried and convicted of forgery in 1800 and was executed for her crimes in the same year. Thomas Bosworth, along with William Hollingworth were both tried and convicted of forgery and were subsequently executed in the city. Aaron Gee too was tried and convicted along with Thomas Gibson with passing forged banknotes, with both men executed at Chester in 1801.

One of the most surprising and unusual criminals involved with this particular crime was Joseph Allen, who was reported to have been a farmer from Crowton in Cheshire who was tried and convicted of passing forged banknotes in 1817 and was subsequently executed at Chester jail by the County Executioner Samuel Burrows.

Prior to his being accused of the crime, Allen was said to have been a man of exemplary character and had been able to gain credit from suppliers, on the strength of his name alone. He was the father of 7 young children and also supported his mother and father on the family’s farm in the county.

Joseph seems to have been tempted to enter into the illegal enterprise with his brother Samuel and a man called Jelley, which presumably overcame his usual good sense and inevitably put him on the road to ruin. The court records suggest that the three men were not very good at forging bank notes and that they not only used the wrong color inks, but the wrong sort of paper as well. Nonetheless, the men managed to pass a couple of hundred pounds worth of forgeries before they were caught by the authorities and that was enough to see them hang.

Jelley though was thought to have managed to evade the authorities and Samuel was sentenced to 14 years transportation. Joseph argued that he didn’t know the notes were forged, but his excuses were dismissed by the court and they passed the death sentence on him. He was said to have been transported through the city’s streets on an open cart, prior to his execution, as a deterrent to anyone else that might be tempted to repeat the offence. Having been “displayed” before the citizenry, Joseph was then taken to the city jail in City Walls Road and executed.

Another crime which attracted the most severe retribution from the authorities was the deliberate or willful destruction of property, especially that perpetrated by arsonists. William Rickington was tried and convicted of committing arson at the Rectory at Coddington in 1820 and was hung for his actions. Another man, William Wilson was tried and convicted of Arson and was executed at the city jail in 1814. Samuel Cumberledge too was tried and found guilty of committing arson in Cheshire and was executed in 1832.

As today, sex crimes were regarded with the greatest horror and outrage, given that women were still viewed in a generally protective way by society and that sex in its broadest form was seen simply as Gods method of reproduction rather than anything else. James Yarwood was tried and convicted, along with two other men, William Wilkinson and William Burgess, of rape in 1813. Today all three men would have been jailed for their attack, but instead they were executed for their crime. William Tongue was tried and convicted for rape and executed in 1822. In 1823, John Kragon was tried and convicted of rape and was subsequently executed in the city. Joseph Woodhouse was another local man found guilty of the same crime and was executed at Chester in 1829.

Before the arrival of the Railways and their ability to transport large quantities of passengers and freight throughout England at speed, virtually all traffic used the well established and extensive road network that ran the length and breadth of the country. Included within this were the Mail Coaches which carried important correspondence from town to town and city to city, as well as the valuables and assets of the burgeoning well-to-do classes. For those with an eye for easy pickings, these treasure transports were an inviting target for criminals who dared to take the risk, given that these coaches often traveled lonely roads in the middle of the night when few people were around to either witness the offence or to defend the transport.

These attacks on the nations communications were thought to be so significantly serious that those found guilty of the crime could expect to receive the most severe and inevitable sentence, that of death. In 1791 William Lowndes was tried and convicted of mail robbery at Chester and was executed in the city. His lifeless body was later displayed on the Gibbet at Helsby Hill, as a stark warning to those that might be tempted to repeat his actions.

James Price was tried and convicted, along with Thomas Brown, of robbing the Warrington Mail Coach in 1796. Both men were executed at Boughton in Chester and their lifeless corpses later hung on the Gibbet at Trafford Green immediately afterwards. Both men’s bodies were said to have remained there for over 25 years, until they were finally removed in 1820. As they were taken down, Price’s skull was found to contain a Robin’s nest.

Another man, Joseph Walker was tried and convicted for highway robbery on the Manchester to Northwich road in 1819 and was subsequently executed. One Samuel Healey was tried and convicted for highway robbery in 1821 and received the same punishment. Two men, George Groom and Thomas Brierly were tried for and convicted of highway robbery in the county and were executed in 1822. Edward Clarke was tried and convicted for highway robbery in 1823 and John Proudlove was convicted for the same offence in 1829. Both of these individuals were executed on the gallows shortly after their conviction by the court.

Inevitably the most notorious criminals were those that had committed the ultimate crime, that of taking another persons life, whether for profit, deliberately or simply in a fit of madness. One of the earliest murders recorded in the county was that which involved a group of Irish workmen that were passing through the city in the mid 18^th Century. John Connolly, along with an accomplice, John Morgan, was recorded to have been tried and hanged for murder in 1750. Said to have been one of four workmen who were traveling to Parkgate to take a ship back to Ireland, along the way three of the group attacked and killed the fourth man, presumably to relieve him of his money.

Having murdered their unfortunate companion, they robbed him of his earnings, stripped the body and then disposed of it, by throwing it in a nearby ditch. However, instead of continuing with their journey with any great haste, the three remaining men then appear to have spent a great deal of time in a local inn, during which time the body was discovered and reported to the authorities. Almost inevitably, the three surviving workmen were soon identified and apprehended, before they had a chance to make good their escape.

While they were being held at Chester Jail, one of the men was said to have decided to save himself and agreed to give evidence against his two companions, no doubt in return for a much reduced sentence for himself. Having been convicted of the crime, Connolly and his co-defendant, Morgan, were sentenced to be hung at the Chester Gallows on 22^nd September 1750. Immediately after their deaths, Connolly and Morgan’s lifeless bodies were then said to have been taken back to the scene of their crime at Saughall and hung up in chains on a Gibbet, a publicly stark reminder to any other potential wrongdoers. Close to Saughall Heath and along the city’s Parkgate Road, the modern day “Gibbet Mill” is thought to mark the spot where the two men’s bodies were exhibited.

A notable and perhaps surprising killer in the county was Mary Heald, a Quaker from Knutsford who was tried and convicted of the murder of her husband Samuel, by poisoning him with Arsenic. She was sentenced to be burnt at the stake in 1762, but having taken pity on her, the public executioner was said to have strangled her first before finally committing her body to the flames.

Samuel Thorley was tried and hanged for the murder of Anne Smith around 1777, with witnesses claiming that Thorley had first dismembered his unfortunate victim and then eaten part of the body. A Cheshire woman, Elizabeth Wood was tried and convicted of poisoning James Simister at Bredbury in 1784 and was executed some time later. Another poisoner was Peter Steers who was tried and convicted of poisoning his wife and was executed at Chester in 1786

In 1790 John Dean was reported to have been tried and convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and was executed in the same year. Another man, John Thornhill was tried and convicted of murdering Sarah Malone in the county and was executed in 1798. John Done was tried and convicted for the murder of Betty Eckersley in 1810 and subsequently paid for his actions with his life. John Lomas was tried and convicted, along with his lover Edith Morrey, of murdering her husband in 1812. Lomas was executed at Chester in the same year, with his accomplice facing a similar fate the following year having been delivered of a child.

Jacob McGhinne was recorded as having been tried and convicted of murder in the county in 1820 and was executed at the County Jail in the city. Yet another man, Samuel Fallows was tried and convicted of murdering his sweetheart in 1823 and was hung on the gallows later that same year. Joseph Dale was tried and convicted for the murder of a Mr. Wood in 1824 and he too paid for it with his life.

Samuel Thorley was a successful Cheshire trader who killed his fiancée, Mary Pemberton, by cutting her throat with a razor in 1834 and was later executed at Chester. Bartholomew Murray was tried and convicted for the murders of Joseph and Mary Cook of Over Peover and was executed in 1841. James Ratcliffe was tried and found guilty of murdering his wife and died on the gallows in 1842. Mary Gallup was tried and convicted of poisoning her father and was executed in 1844. William Bates was tried and convicted for the murder of William Wyatt in 1848 and was executed in the city in the same year.

Perhaps one of the most disturbing and sensational crimes of the middle 19^th Century was that which involved William Jackson, a local upholsterer who lived in the Handbridge area of Chester, just outside of the city. Sometime around 1855, his young son and daughter were both reported to have gone missing, having recently visited their father at his lodgings. A local search was undertaken and the children’s bodies were soon discovered in a local orchard, both had been murdered. Jackson was arrested shortly afterwards and charged with the killing of his children. In the following year he was tried and convicted of the murders and was executed at Chester in 1856.

Samuel Griffiths was said to have been tried and convicted of murder at Chester in 1866 and is recorded as being the last ever person to be publicly executed at the city's County Jail.

(Next Chapter)

 

DOES YOUR LAND OR PROPERTY CONTAIN HIDDEN, LOST OR UNDISCOVERED TREASURES? CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

Produced and maintained by Phillip E Jones @ Mobile 07756 693258 Text: 07914 189032

Mail Contact: 3 Riverside Park, Sealand, Deeside, Flintshire, CH5 2JR