There have been many dark chapters in British History, including many involving colonising
lands and how the British treated local people.
But inside of their own lands there were a number of horrific executions in which a number
of children went to their deaths at the gallows and the scaffold.
There was one execution we have covered recently in which Alice Glaston during the reign of
Henry VIII was executed for an unknown crime along with a couple of other men in an English
town.
But this was not just the an isolated incident, throughout the centuries in Britain there
were scores of children who were sentenced to death for a number of different crimes.
But many of these have been forgotten in History.
Join us today as we look at the BRUTAL forgotten executions of children in Britain.
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Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries the execution of children was not a rare occasion.
At the time, the laws did not take into consideration that children were minors and that teenagers
also may not know the difference between right and wrong.
In fact the age of criminal responsibility was just 7, meaning a child of just 7 could
be imprisoned and sentenced to death or transportation for crimes such as theft.
There were examples of children who were aged between 7 and 13 being commuted, and the same
happened for girls.
Girls were typically hanged for very serious crimes such as murder, but teenage boys were
executed for more offences.
The youngest child to have been executed in England was a boy named as John Dean who had
been found guilty at the Abingdon Assizes of Arson, and he was killed on the 24rd February
1629.
His age was stated in the records as between 8 and 9, and he had set two houses on fire
in Windsor, and it was judged that he had done this with malice, revenge and spite.
This meant the judge did not reprieve him.
There have been other ideas about who the youngest executed person was in Britain, and
it’s considered that Michael Hamond and his sister Anne were 7 and 11 when they were
executed.
The children were referred to as small, however there is debate around the actual age of these
two when they were hanged.
When the hangman placed the noose around their necks, it was said that there was a huge clap
of thunder and lightening when this occurred.
But the problem is that many court records were not kept, and also that they did not
often give the ages of the defendants who were sentenced to death.
Many of the child executions were not well reported in local press also, but in the 18th
century there were many more examples of children being executed.
William Jennings was a 12 year old boy who was hanged at Tyburn for breaking into houses,
and also at Tyburn a 16 year old named Thomas Smith was hanged for the same offence, as
well as William King who was a year or two older.
Tyburn was an infamous site of execution where many were hanged, drawn and quartered.
But there a girl named Martha Pillar was hanged for stealing in a shop, and further boys aged
17 were also executed there for burglary.
There were a number serious offenders also killed there including James Booty who was
executed in May 1722 for the fact he assaulted a young girl.
One of the most shocking executions took place in March 1738 as near to Gallows Hill in Winchester,
a bloody execution of children occurred.
16 year old Mary Grote had been tied on a hurdle and drawn along in a procession along
with two men.
They were taken to the execution site, and the young Mary was then tied to a stake, and
then she was set on fire being burned at the stake.
She had been convicted of murdering her mistress by poisoning, and suffered a horrific death.
Further executions took place all across England of Children, for example on Gallows Hill in
Nottingham a 15 year old girl Elizabeth Morton was hanged for murdering a two year old child.
Susannah Underwood was hanged at Gloucester for burning a barn and she was even documented
as having bad manners at her execution as she refused to shake hands with her executioner
on the scaffold.
But there were many more crimes in the 18th century that children were being executed
for, one girl who went to her death was hanged for publishing false, forged wills and documentation.
She claimed she did not know what she was doing as she could not read or write, but
was killed regardless.
One of the most shocking cases of the 18th century took place in Dorchester in March
1794, as 15 year old Elizabeth Marsh was convicted of murdering her own grandfather.
She was due to be hanged two days after her death sentence was passed, but this was not
possible as executions could not take place on a Sunday.
Her sentence was delayed by a day, and Elizabeth was kept in chains for an extra day, and was
given bread and water before she was killed.
Her remains were then given to local medical surgeons who dissected it.
But the child executions in Britain continued into the 19th century.
Children continued to be sentenced to death for a number of crimes, but many more had
their sentences commuted as the public began to be outraged about the scenes in British
towns of children being executed.
Ann Mead was 16 when she was found guilty of murdering Charles Proctor a boy of 16 months,
by feeding him a spoonful of arsenic.
She was then executed on the gallows in front of a large crowd for this.
17 year olds were executed also, with one young man David Duffield being executed for
murdering an 11 year old girl.
After his hanging, his body was displayed in chains and he was gibbeted because of his
evil crime.
Also Mary Morgan was hanged for murdering her illegitimate child.
She became pregnant but following the birth of her child she abandoned him, and for this
was executed.
The youngest girl executed in the 19th century was Hannah Bocking, who had been found guilty
of murdering another woman by poisoning named Jane Grant.
Outside Newgate Prison in London around the same time, a 15 year old boy Henry Lovell
was hanged for highway Robbery.
Outside Newgate Prison and within the walls, there were a number of executions of young
people that occurred for conducting crimes within London and the area.
On the 1st August 1831, John Bell was executed for murdering a 13 year old boy, Bell himself
was just 14 years old.
He and his brother who was 11 killed the boy to steal 9 shillings from him as he was collecting
this on behalf of his disabled father.
The pair were tried and despite being young the shocking nature of their crime saw them
executed using the new drop scaffold outside of Maidstone Prison.
Bell was probably the youngest person hanged in the 1800s, there was a young boy of 9 sentenced
to death but he was reprieved after his housebreaking conviction and sentence of death shocked many
people.
Towards the end of the 1800s, executions of teenagers were still taking place.
Many were being killed for murdering different people of society, and the final teenager
to hang in the 19th century was 18 year old George Nunn who was killed on the 21st November
1899 for murdering a married woman.
Things were believed to have changed in the 20th century, as the Children’s Act of 1908
stated that the minimum age of execution should be 16.
The last juvenile to be given a death sentence was Harold Wilkins who was condemned in 1932
for murder, but he was reprieved because of his age.
There were 14 18 year olds executed in the 20th century, but the executions of children
were not tens of centuries ago.
They were a lot closer in Britain to the modern day than many would think.
This occurred within a couple of centuries, and not during the times of Henry VIII.
With this it shows you how brutal crime and punishment was in the recent history of Britain,
and how disturbing executions were in Britain.
Many of the children sentenced to death were killed for crimes which today would grant
minimal time in prison, but it shows you how different the justice system was.
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