Throughout history there were many different executions that were performed poorly or did
not go well as planned.
The most botched execution in English History was probably the Duke of Monmouth, James Scott’s
execution which was performed by a disheartened brute Jack Ketch.
Ketch was known for being a blundering axeman, and he took so many swings of the axe to kill
James Scott that he almost incited a riot.
Also in Edinburgh was the execution of Half Hangit Maggie, a woman who was sentenced to
death for allegedly killing her child.
She was taken into the Grassmarket in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle where she was hanged
in front of a huge crowd.
But later on after she was placed in a coffin, Maggie Dickson woke up and she never faced
the same fate as it was deemed that she had been saved by God.
But there was an execution in Ireland that took place that did not go well.
Join us today as we look at the Botched execution of Half Hung Macnaughten, and remember to
support our channel please make sure to subscribe.
John Macnaughten was born in 1722 into an Anglo Irish family that came to Ireland and
he attended school in County Donegal.
In 1730, he inherited a sizeable estate from his parents which was worth around £500 a
year and then he went to Trinity College in Dublin.
He was well thought of, and he then married the sister in law of the First Earl of Massereene,
and he became a rather flamboyant and popular figure in the local Dublin scene.
He regularly partied and went to many different establishments where he would drink and gamble
heavily.
Because of this he gambled a huge amount of money away, and squandered most of the wealth
that he had previous inherited and he even racked up large gambling debts and was threatened
with arrest in 1750.
But following his wife’s death in childbirth, he then was given a job as a tax collector
for Coleraine, however this was not smart as he was handling huge amounts of money.
He even gambled away £800 of the King’s money and he then lost his estate and by 1760
he was a poor and homeless man.
He tried to overcome his addiction and he asked a friend Andrew Knox to help him.
Knox was wealthy himself and was the MP for Donegal and he lived on a large estate.
Knox had a daughter named Mary Anne who was 15 at the time, and she was considered a very
wealthy young lady and had already inherited around £6000 and she was seen as a very prosperous
lady.
If her brother died then she would have inherited further goal following the death of her father,
and John Macnaughten became close with her, and he and Mary Ann developed a relationship,
but it quickly turned rather strange.
Mary Ann Knox took a shining to Macnaughen’s looks and charm, and its probable that the
pair were thinking of marrying, and John’s financial problems would be sorted as he would
have inherited a very good dowry.
John asked Mary’s father for his daughter’s hand in marriage, but Mr Knox rejected the
proposal on the basis that he viewed John as a gambling drunk.
But John asked that they would never mention the proposal again, and he felt rejected.
Later on John tricked Mary Anne into a false marriage by having them act out the event
outside of her state, and Mary Anne said that ‘only if my father gives his consent,’
about the fake marriage, and John later claimed the ceremony was true.
But her father was not aware of the sham marriage, and he allowed them to travel to visit a friend
together.
On the way they stopped at the town of Strabane, and word was then sent to Mary’s father
about the marriage.
Mary was taken back to her family’s estate and MacNaughter was told never to come back.
Claims of the marriage appeared in local newspapers, and was eventually challenged to a duel by
a friend of the Knox family and was so drunk during this that he was shot in the leg.
Mary’s father was furious and he was worried and courts sided with the Knox family voiding
any possible marriage.
But to escape paying damages, Macnaughten fled to England and accumulated further gambling
debts.
But he ;learned that Mary Anne was in Country Cavan, and he returned to Ireland in disguise
and was arrested for possession of gun powder and was suspected of being a robber.
But then he learned that Andrew Knox was due to attend the opening of Parliament in Dublin,
and he and Mary departed Derry.
John Macnaughten heard of their departure and was planning to stop the coach, and he
gathered four men to help him before he attempted to abduct Mary Anne Knox.
Andrew Knox saw Macnaughten and suspected an ambush, and he decided to take extra security
because of this.
The horse drawn carriage pulled into the Cloughcor Inn for refreshments and pulled out again
to continue.
But a short distance from the Inn, Macnaughten and his men stood armed with pistols in the
road.
They tried to subdue the Knox’s, and a servant was shot 3 times.
Andrew Knox fired and his weapon failed, and then as Macnaughen saw the carriage try Anne
threw herself in front of her father to protect him.
A bullet from Macnaughtens pistol struck Mary Anne and Macnaughten was also shot.
But Mary was seriously injured, and four hours later she died from her wounds.
But quickly a cavalry regiment rounded up John Macnaughten and his men, and he was imprisoned
at Lifford Jail.
He was awaiting trial for the Murder of Mary Anne whilst in the jail, but it was believed
that other jails were not secure enough to hold Macnaughten.
During the trial John was able to get a lot of local support, and it was claimed he was
a romantic criminal who wished to take his beloved from the arms of her overbearing father.
This story captured the heart and the imagination of the people everywhere, but there was too
much evidence elsewhere about John planning to kill and abduct.
On the 7th December 1761, John Macnaughten was found guilty of murdering Mary Anne Knox
and for this was sentenced to death by hanging.
It was reported that no local man would build the scaffold to hang him on as they supported
him so the Knox family themselves had to create the scaffold to kill the man who murdered
the heiress.
No blacksmith could also be found to create the joints to hold the gallows in place, and
the executioenr had to travel from Cavan as the local one would not perform the job.
On the 15th December at 1pm he was taken from his jail to his site of execution.
The word of his execution had spread and thousands of people had come to see the killing of the
man they deemed to have been a romantic victim.
As he was led to the scaffold the crowd waved white handkerchiefs showing their regret.
As John Macnaughten stood on the gallows, he faced the crowd and the noose was then
placed around his neck.
Shortly after this the trapdoor opened, but it went horrifically wrong.
As Macnaughten plummeted through to the drop, the rope snapped under him and he fell to
his knees and the crowd cried out.
The screamed for him to be let go, and then tried to get Macnaughten to escape, and they
wanted him to escape.
This was a botched execution, and many believed that in fact he was being spared by God, and
that the rope snapping was a signal of God’s displeasure at his death sentence, and many
claimed it was divine intervention that saved him.
But he stood defiantly at the crowd, and instead of running he then faced up to the gallows
and cried out, ‘I will not live to be known as Half Hanged Macnaughten.’
With this he then went back onto the gallows, and the second attempt to kill him was successful,
and he was left hanging.
He is still know 250 years later as Half Hanged Macnaghten.
Following his death his body was buried behind Strabane Church where he still rests to this
day.
Many people who witnessed his execution that day believed he was a working class champion
who wished to confront the father of the woman he loved.
But others saw him as a cold blooded killer.
His execution was botched and did not go as planned as it could have done, and when the
rope snapped many believed it was God’s will to save his life.
However Macnaughten was a proud man, who saw it as necessary to face the sentence that
was placed upon him.
It would have been likely that he would have been spared as his death sentence was technically
carried out, even though it failed.
The story of Half Hanged Macnaughten is a brilliant Irish tale of a criminal who defiantly
met his end.
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