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Excecutions 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 Murder
John Thomas for Murder
1833 - August 19th
John Roach for Murder
Patrick 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
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