Vendors set up their carts and booths hours before execution time, doing a roaring trade selling food, drink, souvenirs, even pornographic material, to a frenzied crowd. Minstrels and jugglers entertained the crowd. With the advent of cheap printing in the 16th and 17th centuries, touts created lurid “broadsheets” detailing the supposed history and scandalous crimes of the victim, the precursors to modern day tabloids. These “broadsheets” sold like hotcakes to an excited audience. – The History of Executions in Olde London Towne– Roy Stevenson
Life was cheap in Georgian England as this 1817 broadside attests. Five criminals were executed in March 1817 for forgery, burglary, and robbery. Poor Elizabeth Fricker protested her innocence, but to no avail. Executions were public events, even during Jane Austen’s day, and one wonders if she ever saw a body left to rot on a gibbet, or if she cautiously avoided such sights and averted her eyes. In any event, crowds would gather early at the execution spot to witness the hanging. They came in droves especially if the execution was of a notorious person.
Vendors set up stalls, selling drinks and refreshments to the large crowd, which, as the Hogarth illustration shows, were stacked on top of each other. The atmosphere must have been festive and somber at the same time, for even though there were jugglers and entertainers to amuse the crowd, a certain “execution” protocol was followed. Criminals were expected to speak to the crowd and to die well.
Broadsides, which were purchased for a pittance (in this instance a penny) described the crimes in detail, and were purchased much like programs to sporting events are purchased today. Read the entire broadside here. This particular broadside was printed by J. Pitts of Seven Dials. Like other broadsides, it featured an illustration of the execution. Someone (the purchaser?) carefully penned in the date below the image.
Persistent Link to the Broadside:
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HLS.Libr:1087957
Description:
Executions of criminals: more generally known by the uninviting name of “Dying speeches.”. Execution broadside (Andrew Savage, Ben Savage, Thomas Cann, William Kelly, Elizabeth Fricker, James Baker, James Gates)
Page:
(seq. 11)
Repository:
Harvard Law School Library
Institution:
Harvard University
Accessed:
09 June 2011
Other related links:
- Broadside Murders
- The Tale of Jerry Abershaw, Highwayman, by Tony Grant
I just can’t imagine this being amusing. I’m definitely in the avoid the area circle.
Makes you think twice about the hubbub regarding too much realistic violence in video games now. Seems rather tame by comparison.
This was very interesting. I suspect that in a world of visual media that we are bombarded with whether we choose it or not, I think it is really beyond us to understand this cultural phenomena. People fought boredom daily. This seems horrific to our sensibilities and it is terribly vulgar but I suspect it can be compared with being glued to the tv or the internet to see the latest development in the latest breaking big news story, i.e. 9/11 or a search for a brutal murderer. Not justifying, just trying to understand how this could have been.
Fascinating!
Now we have Court TV and youtube…after all, aren’t we watching the slow, public, political death of a congressman, right now!
There’s nothing new under the sun; but things are certainly a lot less bloody!
How many people watched the execution of Saddam Hussein on Youtube?
Exactly, Barbara and Miriam: And how many were cheering in the streets at the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death.? We humans have not progressed so very far after all.
i see people gawking at car accidents, inciting a new one by their actions. frankly, there are times i am just as curious. i believe some of the people were there to see the criminal get their just deserved punishment. children would be there too. perhaps some of the parents told them, “see what happens to people who break the law?”
Thanks for this post, Vic. Not as pretty a picture of Austen’s world as Hollywood and the BBC would have us think. And something to consider the next time we find ourselves longing for a trip to Pemberley. For just down the road is where we are bound to encounter the scene you described.
Perhaps Jane Austen would say that everything is relative.
There was, during her time, a general disdain for the French and an abhorance of the excesses of the French Revolution, made all the more real as France is only a thirty+ mile boat trip across the English Channel!
Fantastic website. Thanks for posting so many wonderful resources. Really impressive.