On 15th April 1800, Nottingham's famous gallows which had, for hundreds of years, stood grimly on the hill above town on Mansfield Road, suddenly disappeared overnight. Suspiciously, an execution was due to take place the very next morning so what had happened? Executions always attracted large crowds so the sudden disappearance of the gallows would cause the authorities great embarrassment. So was it a last desperate attempt to save the condemned man or something more subversive? The "Nottingham Date Book" of 1800 takes up the story...
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| 1817 - It says "On the New Drop, Nottingham" - a reference to the new gallows? |
"16th April 1800 - Up to this period, the gallows, which was simply two uprights and a transverse beam, about four yards in height, was suffered to remain permanently on the hill near the summit of the Mansfield-road, as one of the standing “institutions” of the country. Thus, the first object that met the eye of the traveller from the north, on his approach to the town, was the repulsive apparatus of death, and it was regarded by many with deep curiosity. Early in the morning of Atkinson’s execution¹, it was found, to the great astonishment of the authorities, that some one, in the night-time, had cut down the gallows, and taken it completely away. Another had therefore to be immediately erected, and to prevent the recurrence of so daring a violation of the law, at this and all subsequent occasions when required, the apparatus was taken down as soon as the execution was completed.
It was subsequently ascertained that the gallows had been removed by two or three young men, who viewed their performance as a capital joke. Though its beams were of massive oak, its great age and exposure to rough usage and the weather, had caused an extensive decay on one side at its junction with the ground, so that the undertaking was readily accomplished. The remains of it were dragged into the town, and placed on a haystack in Dickinson's stack-yard, which occupied part of the site at present bounded by Cross-lane and Cur-lane, and near to Portland-place."
The Date Book does not record what happened to the young pranksters or if they were ever caught so it looks like they had the last laugh at the authorities' expense!
Detective Rolleston
"At the height of the Luddite rebellion in 1812 Parliament introduced the death penalty for anyone found guilty of breaking a frame. Nottingham man Daniel Diggle was said to have been involved in a Luddite attack on the house of his former employer George Kerry. When he was tried, the jury convicted Daniel of the offence. Although the poet Lord Byron had opposed the introduction of the death penalty in his maiden speech to the House of Lords, the new act meant that Daniel Diggle was to be executed for his crime. He was hanged in front of Nottingham's Shire Hall on 2 April 1817."
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| Execution of the Pentrich Rebellion leaders |
3 - The Murder of Bessie Sheppard
Also strange was the speed of Rotherham's conviction and execution. He was found guilty and hung on Gallows Hill, Nottingham on 28th July, just 21 days after the crime.
A Typical Execution Day
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| Rider and horse recoil at the sight of a gibbeted man |
The death sentence was regularly used and attracted big crowds on execution day. The condemned prisoner was taken by cart to the gallows, noosed and the cart driven away. The prisoner was left hanging to a slow death. In those days, there was no long drop to quickly break the neck. After they'd been hanging for the required time, the body was taken elsewhere, often closer to the scene of the crime and displayed at the roadside as a deterrent.
"After hanging the usual time, the body was removed to Scrooby, and there hung in chains, with the hedgestake in its right hand, near the place where the bloody deed was perpetrated. Years rolled on, and the body gradually became less and less, first one bone dropping and then another, until nothing was left but the chains which originally encircled it, and these in course of time fell and were secretly conveyed away. The gibbet-post was then, with its withered and weather-beaten arm, the only remaining evidence of the law's vengeance, and this, sixty-seven years after, still stood erect. Time, however, which had been gradually gnawling the loathed stump to its core, at length accomplished its task, and in April, 1846, the Scrooby gibbet-post fell to the ground."
The same report also adds...
"Few spectacles more dismal can be conceived, than that which the corpse of the murderer would present to the benighted traveller who might happen to cross the lonely common, as it swung to and fro in the wind. After the body had hung a few weeks, a curious circumstance arose. A party of soldiers in charge of a deserter passing by the place, the sergeant fired his carbine at the corpse, and hit it, which caused a stench, almost unbearable, for several days afterwards. The circumstance becoming known, the party was followed, and the sergeant taken into custody. He was subsequently tried by a court martial, and degraded into the ranks for the offence."
Rolleston's full biography can be read in another "Tale From Watnall Hall" by clicking here.
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Sources :
The Nottingham Date Book -https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Date_Book_of_Remarkable_and_Memorabl/SoQHAAAAQAAJ?q=watnall&gbpv=1#f=false
The Trials of Jeramiah Brandreth, etc. - https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JXUbhlQXyQ8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=rolleston&f=false
The Murder of Bessie Sheppard - David Marshall
Notes :
1 - John Atkinson's trial for forgery was reported on more fully in the Nottingham Date Book of 1800...
March 17 1800 - Abraham Whitacre, aged 45, and John Atkinson, aged 35, were tried at the County Hall, before Sir Alan Chambre, Knt., on a charge of forgery, and being found guilty, received sentence of death. These men had been accustomed to traverse the country as hawkers of muslins, principally it was said for the purpose of passing spurious Bank of England notes. They had uttered several to Mr. John Greasley, of Stapleford, for which they were pursued and apprehended at Eastwood, and a roll of similarly forged notes was found upon them.
In the night of the Tuesday subsequent to their conviction, the miserable men were very near effecting their escape. Having been supplied with a knife by one of their friends, they managed to remove the lead which secured the iron stancheons in the window of their cell, and to deceive the turnkey, substituted for it bits of painted wood. With half a pound of butter they had asked for, they contrived to find material for a lamp, to enable them to explore their way to the roofs of the adjoining houses, from whence they contemplated descending to the street, but making too much noise in forcing a passage through s wall, they were overheard by the gaoler, and were heavily chained down in their old quarters.
Through the powerful intercession of his friends, Whitaker, though known to be the principal in the uttering, had his sentence commuted into transportation for life. Atkinson, after a month's respite, was executed on the 16th April.
Up to this period, the gallows, which was simply two uprights and a transverse beam, about four yards in height, was suffered to remain permanently on the hill near the summit of the Mansfield-road, as one of the standing “institutions” of the country. Thus, the first object that met the eye of the traveller from the north, on his approach to the town, was the repulsive apparatus of death, and it was regarded by many with deep curiosity. Early in the morning of Atkinson’s execution, it was found, to the great astonishment of the authorities, that some one, in the night-time, had cut down the gallows, and taken it completely away. Another had therefore to be immediately erected, and to prevent the recurrence of so daring a violation of the law, at this and all subsequent occasions when required, the apparatus was taken down as soon as the execution was completed.
It was subsequently ascertained that the gallows had been removed by two or three young men, who viewed their performance as a capital joke. Though its beams were of massive oak, its great age and exposure to rough usage and the weather, had caused an extensive decay on one side at its junction with the ground, so that the undertaking was readily accomplished. The remains of it were dragged into the town, and placed on a haystack in Dickinson's stack-yard, which occupied part of the site at present bounded by Cross-lane and Cur-lane, and near to Portland-place.
Unlike the generality of processions to the place of execution, this was comparatively unattended by those noisy demonstrations of popular hatred to the prisoner, which served to embitter the last moments of many. It was customary on all such occasions for the unsympathising members of the crowd to scat themselves on any lamppost, or wall, or eligible position which might present itself, from whence they would salute the criminal as he passed them in the cart, with cries and exclamations, the nature of which was regulated by the idea they might form of the magnitude of his offence. One position in particular was always eagerly contended for. This was a ponderous beam of wood, that extended across Clumber-street, from the
Long-row to the corner of Pelham-street, from the centre of which was suspended the sign-board of the White Lion Inn. On this elevated station, a compact row of adventurous fellows were usually perched, to see the unhappy object of their curiosity “ ride backwards up Cow-lane.” On this occasion, the man was permitted to pass in silence.
A very general feeling of commiseration was entertained in favour of Atkinson, arising from an impression almost amounting to a certainty, that the two or three £1 notes he had uttered were not known by him to be forged. At the place of death he was perfectly collected, and neither heaved a sigh nor shed a tear. To the last, he persisted in an assertion of his entire innocence.
2 - Rolleston's pursuit of Brandreth made use of the detective magistrate's paid informant network. The Nottingham Date Book and accounts from the Notts Archives fill in the picture...
The miserable men were actively pursued, and between Kimberley and Langley Mill, Colonel Rolleston and the soldiers with him succeeded in apprehending about thirty. Securing them in a waggon and cart, along with a quantity of pikes and guns found on the road, at six o'clock, p.m, they were lodged in our County Gaol. In the course of the next two or three days, others of the deluded insurgents were arrested, and taken to Derby. Brandreth managed to elude his pursuers longer than most of them. On the desertion of his men, he left the highway, and proceeding over hedge and ditch, secreted his gun in the fence of a field occupied by a Mr. Green, of Kimberley. After a variety of narrow escapes, he was concealed at Bulwell, by an acquaintance named Sansom, until a reward of 501 was offered for his discovery, when it is understood he was betrayed by his treacherous friend, who informed Colonel Rolleston of his place of concealment. The result was, two gamekeepers were sent to Sansom’s house, under the pretence of searching for snares, and poor Brandreth was seized. Having escaped the Light Dragoons at Gilt Brook, on the morning of Tuesday 10 June, Brandreth made for Bristol, where he twice boarded, and was turned off, ships destined for the United States. Returning to Nottinghamshire, he was re-united with his wife at her father’s house in Sutton. But with a 50 guinea reward on his head, he needed a safe house in which to hide. Where better than the home of his old friend and fellow committee-member Henry Sampson? When two gamekeepers subsequently called at the house, in Bulwell, [on July 20th] under the pretence of searching for snares, they proceeded to take the biggest catch of their lives. Stevens, pp. 76-7. A £100 reward was given to Constable Benjamin Barnes and his four assistants.
3. Daniel Diggle's case
4 - Ne C 4966 - Letter from Lancelot Rolleston, Watnall, Nottinghamshire, to Henry, 4th Duke of Newcastle under Lyne; 16 Feb. 1817
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