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From 1837 to 1901 Queen Victoria presided over the world’s biggest empire – and during her 64-year reign approximately 1,100 judicial hangings were carried out in Great Britain and Ireland. Here we present a month-by-month calendar of the fascinating stories behind some of them, set frequently against a background of dire poverty, short trials and public executions... Victorian Hangings: May May 2nd 2/5/1864 John Devine – Marylebone, London When Joe Duck, a retired builder, went to his local, the King’s Head, in Great Chesterfield Street, Marylebone, in the evening of March 10th, 1864, he made the mistake of producing two gold sovereigns... more » May 3rd 3/5/1899 Frederick Andrews – Kensington, London Few Victorians could have been more ungracious than Frederick Andrews, 45. He didn’t work, but sent his live-in lover, Mrs. Frances Short, a widow 10 years his senior, out selling fruit and vegetables... more » May 5th 5/5/1838 Ann Wycherley – Stafford “I can’t be hanged, my lord,” 28-year-old Ann Wycherley told Baron Gurney at Stafford Assizes in March 1838, when she was about to be sentenced to death. “I am with child.” The judge slowly removed h... more » May 6th 6/5/1843 Elizabeth “Betty” Eccles – Bolton They looked like a nice happy family with their neat little home in Bolton. The truth was somewhat different. The husband was Henry Eccles, a widower, who had married Mrs. Betty Haslam, 38, a widow, ... more » May 6th 6/5/1843 Wilmot Buckley – Liverpool Betty Eccles did not die easily on the scaffold. The crowd who came to watch her public hanging saw her twist and turn in agony at the end of the rope for a full two minutes. But the death of her comp... more » May 8th 8/5/1883 Patrick Carey – Smallwood, Cheshire Being a lodging-house keeper in Victorian England wasn’t the safest of jobs – witness Thomas Earlham, 64, and his lady friend Mary Mohan, 62, who kept a lodging-house and pub at Smallwood, just outsid... more » May 9th 9/5/1887 Charles Smith – Cowley, Oxford Gypsy Lucy Smith had nothing of value in this world and in her husband Charles, 63, she had only a brute. Smith beat Lucy constantly with a stick. They lived in abject poverty in a tent on wasteland a... more » May 10th 10/5/1880 William Dumbleton – Piddington, Buckinghamshire They called him Gentleman Johnny. He had given up the penury of farm labouring to make his own way as an itinerant clock and watch repairer, walking from village to village near his home on the Buckin... more » May 11th 11/5/1880 John Wood – Rotherham They met in a pub in Whiston, near Rotherham, and after a few drinks they began a serious pub-crawl. In the small hours of February 18th, 1880, they ended up in a brothel near Rotherham town centre. T... more » May 12th 12/5/1868 Robert Smith – Dumfries Dressed in a red cape just like Little Red Riding Hood, nine-year-old Thomasina Scott walked through a wood near Cummertrees in Dumfriesshire on her way to do some shopping for her mother when she was... more » May 12th 12/5/1879 Edward Smart – Thornbury, Gloucestershire Commercial traveller Charles Cox got the shock of his life when, riding through Pitpool in Gloucestershire, on April 12th, 1879, he saw Edward Smart, 35, standing in the road with the body of a woman ... more » May 13th 13/5/1848 Michael Stokes – Leeds It was a quiet Sunday afternoon in the Leeds barracks of the soldiers of the 57th Regiment of Foot. Some of the wives lived in with their husbands, and groups of men stood around talking to them in th... more » May 13th 13/5/1858 William and Daniel Cormack – Templemore, County Tipperary Land agent John Ellis had reason to be scared when, returning one night to his isolated home at Kilrush, near Templemore, County Tipperary, he saw uprooted bushes and branches blocking the lane to his... more » May 14th 14/5/1841 Dennis Doolan and Patrick Redding – Glasgow When the railway builders brought in John Green as ganger (foreman) to hurry things up on the construction of the Crosshill section of the Glasgow-Edinburgh line, the Irish navvies groaned. For Cheshi... more » May 15th 15/5/1888 John Gell – Manchester Mrs. Mary Miller, 46, was having a bit of a problem with her lodger. He didn’t like working in the winter, so reluctantly she allowed him to stay in her home at St. Mary’s Road, Moston, Manchester, fo... more » May 16th 16/5/1856 James Murphy and Thomas Dunne – County Cavan A Dubliner and a Loyalist, Miss Charlotte Hinds, 66, was an uncompromising landowner. She had seen her father’s business ruined by unpaid rents and took a tough line with her tenant farmers, directing... more » May 18th 18/5/1885 James Lee – Romford Investigating a burglary on a farm near Romford, Essex, Inspector Thomas Simmons, 38, and a constable noticed three men they recognised as burglars, casing an isolated house. When the trio – James Lee... more » May 20th 20/5/1879 William Cooper – Manchester Ellen Mather’s love life was full of problems. She split with her lover William Cooper, 42, after a row, and as a result Cooper joined the army and was posted overseas. He came back just two days afte... more » May 21st 21/5/1838 Elizabeth Jeffrey – Carluke, Lanarkshire Ann Newall was delighted when her next-door neighbour in Carluke, Lanarkshire, knocked on her door and presented her with a freshly cooked meal and a glass of whisky. “I made it myself,” Mrs. Elizabet... more » May 22nd 22/5/1866 Joseph Bell – Blairingone, Perthshire Utterly destitute, with not a penny in the world to buy a piece of bread, poacher Joseph Bell, 29, borrowed a shotgun and next day turned highwayman, waylaying farmer Alexander McEwan, 40, on his hors... more » May 22nd 22/5/1882 William Abigail – Norwich When Jane Plunkett, 22, went to sleep on the night of April 24th, 1882, she was never to wake again. For during the night her lover, William Abigail, 19, took a shotgun and blasted her through the hea... more » May 22nd 22/5/1888 James Richardson – Barnsley A king-size row between the works manager and a brickworks labourer at Messrs. Chamberlain’s Brick and Carbon Works, Dodworth Road, Barnsley, ended in murder on March 21st, 1888. The labourer, James R... more » May 23rd 23/5/1842 Daniel Good – Roehampton Investigating the theft of a pair of trousers from a pawnbroker’s shop in Wandsworth High Street, London, Constable William Gardner had a suspect in mind – Daniel Good, a coachman at a large house cal... more » May 25th 25/5/1885 Moses Shrimpton – Beoley, Worcestershire The alarm was raised when Constable James Davies, 33, stationed in the Worcestershire village of Beoley, failed to return from his night beat. A search was organised, and his body was found in a field... more » May 26th 26/5/1879 Catherine Churchill – Chard, Somerset A neighbour told police that she heard a cry of “Murder!” one evening in early March 1879, and next day the body of 82-year-old Samuel Churchill was found in his cottage, his head and shoulders burned... more » May 26th 26/5/1884 Mary Lefley – Wrangle, Lincolnshire The rice pudding William Lefley ate at his home in Wrangle, Lincolnshire, in February 1884 proved to be his last – his wife Mary, 40, had soaked it in arsenic. Her motive, according to the prosecution... more » May 26th 26/5/1868 Michael Barrett – Clerkenwell, London A dozen people were killed and many more severely injured when a bomb left in a wheelbarrow outside a prison wall in Clerkenwell, London, in December 1867 exploded. The terrorists responsible believed... more » May 27th 27/5/1844 William Crouch – London The defence at the trial of William Crouch, 26, claimed that a mystery woman had told him to kill his wife Frances, 28, at their home in Upper Marylebone Street, west London, because she had been unfa... more » May 27th 27/5/1870 Lawrence and Margaret Shield – Philipstown, County Offaly “If no one will shoot the scoundrel I’ll do it myself!” So shouted Margaret Shield when she and her brother Lawrence were released from a short prison sentence for assaulting their arch-enemy Patrick ... more » May 31st 31/5/1876 Thomas Barr – Glasgow Bruised, beaten and battered by her bookseller husband, Mrs. Margaret Barr, 23, finally slunk out of their Glasgow home and went to live with her mother, Mrs. Margaret Sloan, at her home in Gallowgate... more »
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