Executions in Lancaster 1801-1910

Executions In Lancaster 1801-1910 by Christine Goodier MA

For most of its long history Lancaster Castle has been closely associated with the administration of justice. The town was the only place in Lancashire with Right of Assize, an honour it held onto jealously until 1835, when a second Assize was opened in Liverpool. The heyday of the court (and indeed of the town itself) came in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. At this time the Assize in the castle was known as The Hanging Court, as more death sentences were passed there than at any other court in the country outside of London. The number of offences at this time that carried the Death Penalty was in excess of 200. Prior to 1800 hangings had taken place on the moors above the town, but after 1800, when the new courts were opened, executions moved to Hanging Corner, within the castle precincts. Executions were in public until 1865.

What follows is a list of the people who were hanged in Lancaster between the years 1800-1910, and the crimes for which they died.

• 1801 – September 12th

  William Gallant for Seducing a Soldier (from his Duty)
  Arthur Geraghty for Uttering Forged Notes
  John, Joseph and Simon Madden for Burglary
  John Rhodes for Highway Robbery
  Isaac Slater for Stealing Printed Calico
  Thomas Walmesley for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1801 – September 18th

  Elias Gibson for Forging a Will

• 1802 – April 13th

  Patrick McConville for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1802 – September 2nd

  Henry Hurst for Wilful Murder

• 1802 – September 18th

  Nicholas Sherlock for Highway Robbery

• 1803 – April 9th

  Patrick Quigley for Burglary
  Henry Rice for Burglary
  George Short for Sheep Stealing

• 1804 – April 28th

  Barker and Chadwick for Burglary

• 1804 – May 5th

  Joseph Brown for Highway Robbery

• 1804 – September 8th

  James Ogilvie, Thomas Smith and Thomas Boadle for Forgery
  James Bridge and John Bradshaw Magee for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1805 – April 1st

  John Lever for Wilful Murder

• 1806 – April 19th

  Mary Jackson for Forgery
  James Foxcroft for Burglary
  Christopher Simpson for Highway Robbery

• 1806 – September 13th

  Joseph Holland, S. Stockton and John Dowell for Sodomy
  Luke Lockhard and Peter Higgins for Forgery
  James Yates for Rape

• 1806 – September 27th

  T. Rix and Isaac Hitchen for Sodomy

• 1807 – March 18th

  Richard Reeves for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1807 – September 5th

  James Callaghan, James Freeman and Thomas Byrne for Highway Robbery

• 1808 – April 9th

  Mary Charnley for Robbery

• 1809 – April 22nd

  Eli Lowe, John Richardson, James Madden, John Potts, Martin Goodall, Charles Turner and Thomas Barker for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1810 – April 21st

  Henry Cooper for Highway Robbery
  Thomas Hallpike and William Sandbach for Uttering Forged Notes
  Adam Brooks for Sodomy
  Henry Young for Wilful Shooting

• 1810 – October 13th

  Robert Welch for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1811 – April 27th

  William Cunliffe and Nathaniel Dearden for Burglary
  Patrick McCourt for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1812 – June 13th

  James Smith, Thomas Kerfoot, Job Fletcher, Abraham Charlson, John Howarth, John Lee, Thomas Hoyle and Hannah Smith – all for riot.

  This was the result of the Special Assize held to deal with the ‘Plug Loom’ riots at Houghton. Fifty seven people stood trial for machine-breaking. The youngest to be executed was Abraham Charlson who was sixteen.

• 1812 – September 10th

  John Wright for Forgery and Uttering Forged Notes
  James Cogan for Highway Robbery
  Henry and Joseph McGlead (brothers) for Burglary
  Thomas Robinson for Cutting and Stabbing

• 1813 – April 24th

  Thomas Dwyer, John Davis, Timothy O’Brien, Tobias Tool and James Rogers for Highway Robbery
  Robert Barber for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1813 – September 4th

  Robert Dewhurst for Uttering Forged Notes
  John Thorpe for Highway Robbery

• 1814 – March 19th

  John Buckley for Murder

• 1814 – April 2nd

  George Ellwood for Feloniously Shooting
  Charles Taylor, Benjamin Butterworth and James Ashworth for Burglary

• 1814 – September 24th

  William Murphy for Uttering Forged Notes
  John Brown for Horse Theft

• 1815 – April 22nd

  George Lyon (‘The Wigan Highwayman’), David Bennett and William Houghton for Burglary
  Moses Owen for Horse Theft
  John Warburton for Highway Robbery

• 1816 – September 16th

  Susannah Holroyd for the murder of her husband

• 1816 – September 28th

  John James, John Jones and Michael McGuire for Burglary
  Peter Hughes and James MacLean Boyd for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1817 – April 19th

  William Matthews for Burglary
  Edmund Lord for Uttering Forged Notes
  John Hughes, William Crabtree, William Moore, Hall Wylde, Thomas.McCullock, Joseph Bratt and Peter Jones for Highway Robbery

• 1817 – September 6th

  John Nuttal and Henry Schofield for Murder

• 1817 – September 8th

  James Ashcroft Snr, James Ashcroft Jnr, David Ashcroft and William Holden for ‘The Pendleton Murders’

• 1817 – September 20th

  Jenny Cheetham, John Weld, John Ashworth and Patrick MacManus for Uttering Forged Notes
  Thomas Armstrong for Arson

• 1818 – April 18th

  Margaret Dowd, William Stewart, Robert Wardlow and Thomas Curry for Uttering Forged Notes
  George Hesketh for Burglary

• 1819 – April 17th

  John Horsman Drake, John Clark, John Kay and Henry Entwistle for Uttering Forged Notes
  Henry Moncrieffe for Rape
  William Smith for Highway Robbery

• 1819 – September 25th

  Thomas Price for Highway Robbery
  James Hagin for Burglary

• 1820 – March 27th

  John Dunn for Murder

• 1820 – April 22nd

  John Todd, Philip Rogers and Peter McCormick for Uttering Forged Notes
  William Parker and Charles Miller for Highway Robbery

• 1820 – September 16th

  William Hall for Highway Robbery
  Henry Houghton for Forgery

• 1821 – March 24th

  Abraham Wade and John Quin for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1821 – October 20th

  William Davis for Malicious Shooting
  Joseph Jones for Burglary

• 1822 – April 20th

  George Farrow, James Gallagher and John Lawless for Burglary
  John Duckworth for Uttering Forged Notes

• 1824 – March 22nd

  Henry Griffiths for Wilful Murder

• 1824 – April 3rd

  Kay Aspinall and John Jolly for Burglary

• 1826 – March 20th

  John Diggles for Wilful Murder

• 1826 – August 21st

  Alexander and Michael McKean (brothers) for Murder

• 1827 – March 26th

  Rachel Bradley for the murder of her infant bastard child

• 1827 – April 7th

  Samual Ashcroft, Daniel Graham and Michael Fitzpatrick for Highway Robbery

• 1827 – September 10th

  William Robinson for the murder of his wife

• 1827 – September 29th

  William, Roger and George Heyworth (father and two sons) for Highway Robbery

• 1828 – March 8th

  Jane Scott for the murder of her mother

• 1829 – March 23rd

  James Cliffe for the murder of his wife

• 1830 – March 15th

  Alexander Gibbon for Murder

• 1830 – April 3rd

  Thomas Miller for Burglary

• 1830 – September 18th

  Joseph Rowbottom for Bestiality

• 1831 – March 14th

  Moses Fearneley for Murder. Ashton and William Worrall for ‘The Hollinwood Murder’

• 1831 – April 2nd

  John and Thomas Mulvay (brothers) for Highway Robbery

• 1832 – March 12th

  William Heaton for MurderJohn Thomas for Murder

• 1833 – August 19th

  John Roach for MurderPatrick McPartland and John Howarth for Murder

• 1834 – March 19th

  Mary Holden for the murder of her husband

• 1834 – August 9th

  John Heyes for Rape

N.B from now on all convictions were for Murder

• 1834 – March 26th

  John Orrell

• 1835 – March 14th

  Norman Welch

• 1853 – September 3rd

  Richard Pedder the last man to die on the Short Drop in Lancaster

• 1857 – August 29th

  Edward Hardman

• 1862 – August 16th

  Walker Moore who died by drowning himself in the prison cistern on the morning of his execution

• 1865 – March 25th

  Stephen Burke the last public hanging in Lancaster

• 1875 – August 16th

  Mark Fiddler and William McCullough

• 1879 – February 11th

  William McGuinness

• 1886 – February 9th

  Joseph Baines

• 1887 – August 1st

  Alfred Sowery

• 1910 – November 15th

  Thomas Rawcliffe