Executions at Springfield Prison

And may the Lord have mercy . . .
"The sentence of the Court upon you, is that you be taken from this place to a lawful prison and thence to a place of execution and that you be hanged by the neck until you are dead; and that your body be afterwards buried within the precincts of the prison in which you shall be confined before your execution. And may the Lord have mercy on your soul....Amen."
The infamous words above were the basis of the death sentences passed on thousands of unfortunate criminals in British courts from the middle ages to the 1960s. In Essex, serious criminal cases were traditionally heard at the twice yearly Assizes in Chelmsford, (a third Assize would be held before Christmas if there were enough capital offence cases). For those receiving the ultimate punishment, execution traditionally took place at Moulsham Gaol, and from October 1825 the newly completed Springfield Prison, where some 43 individuals fell victim of the executioner’s rope in the years up to the end of 1914.
The prison’s main entrance was originally through an austere stone-built porter’s lodge in the middle of the Springfield Road frontage. The lodge’s flat roof was designed to support the gallows scaffold and drop, while the forecourt could easily accommodate the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of spectators that would congregate for an execution.
The first execution
The first man to be hanged at Springfield Prison was James Winter, alias Reuben Martin, who was executed on 10th December 1827. He had been found guilty of the murder of Thomas Patrick, landlord of The Yorkshire Grey at Colchester. Patrick had called the local constable to deal with the disorder that had arisen from an attempt by Winter to rob a man who had attended a sale held at the pub. Winter, angry at Patrick’s interference, struck and killed him with a heavy board. Following the execution Winter’s body was left to hang for the prescribed hour, visible from the hips upward to the onlookers below. The corpse was cut down and given to the prison surgeon for dissection, viewed by many prominent local men.
Eleven days later John Turner, alias Harris or Newman, was also dispatched to meet his maker. Turner was the head of a gang of thieves in the Runwell area who had been convicted of a robbery at Ramsden Crays. Two accomplices received sentences of ‘Death recorded and reprieved’.
The following year, 1828, saw four executions at Springfield Prison. After the Summer Assize John Williams was hanged for horse stealing at Epping. In December Michael Cashon and John Brien were executed for assault at East Ham, and Robert Oades hanged for an offence of horse stealing at Staines. Oades’ body was taken by his mother and lay for a while at the nearby Three Cups Inn. He was buried in ‘convenient, but unconsecrated ground’ but his body was subsequently removed ‘by persons unknown’.
The only execution in 1829 was that of James Cook, aged 16, who was hanged on 27th March for setting on fire the premises of a Witham farmer, William Green, with whom he lived as a cow boy.
In 1830 there were four hangings, the most noteworthy being that of Captain William Moir on 2nd August for the murder of William Malcolm, a fisherman, at Stanford-le-Hope in March 1830. Captain Moir had found Malcolm trespassing on his estate and, having previously warned Malcolm about the offence, Moir shot him to teach him a lesson. Afterwards the Captain took his injured victim to a surgeon for attention, but lockjaw set in and Malcolm died. Moir was executed despite pleas for clemency. His body was spared from dissection and returned to his family estate for burial. Corpses could be purchased from the hangman for around £4, a not inconsiderable sum in those days.
Moir was followed to the gallows by John Stammers, convicted of ‘an unnatural crime’ at Walton. He was probably the first man interred in the triangular burial ground between the prison and Sandford Road, consecrated on 28th July 1830 by the Bishop of London. The other two hangings in 1830 were James Ewan for arson at Rayleigh and Thomas Bateman for highway robbery and attempted murder at Lindsell.
Arson, rape and murder
The following year 36 year-old William Jennings was executed for setting fire to a house at Writtle and in 1832 John Hills met the same fate for rape at Chelmsford. Jennings was the first local job for William Calcraft the notorious bungling executioner who was born at Little Baddow in 1800, and who served from 1829 until 1874.
Two executions in 1835 were both for arson, George Cranfield for the offence at Bures and James Passfield at Mr. Davie’s farm at Toppesfield. These were the last occasions at Springfield when executions were for crimes other than murder or attempted murder. Davie had previously given evidence against Passfield when he was given a 16 month sentence for sheep stealing. By coincidence Passfield was married to the widow of John Turner, the second man executed at Springfield, back in 1827. Some 1200 spectators viewed the hanging on 27th March 1835, many of them farm labourers reputedly sent by their employers to witness what happened as a warning. The execution was delayed as the first rope was too short and another had to be substituted.
"I hope I shall meet you in heaven"
Over the next sixteen years there were only two more executions. In March 1839 Abraham Hilliard was hanged for shooting Susanna Playle, an innkeeper, at Mountnessing after she had spurned his advances. Hilliard’s last words were ‘Goodbye, goodbye all; I hope I shall meet you in heaven’.
With the formation of the Essex Constabulary in 1840 police officers began to attend executions for public order purposes. Their first real test was on 14th August 1848 when 38 year-old Mary May was executed for the murder of her brother William Constable, alias Spratty Watts, at Wix. She was the first woman to be executed at the prison and the event attracted over 3,000 spectators.
Double execution draws crowds
On 25th March 1851 the double execution took place of Sarah Chesham and Thomas Drory. Drory’s victim was the daughter-in-law of an old servant of his father who was expecting his child. She was strangled in a field after she arranged to meet him at Doddinghurst to ask him to marry her. Forty-two year-old Chesham had previously been acquitted of poisoning two of her own children and another child between 1845-47. She met her end after being convicted for attempted murder by poisoning her husband, Richard, with arsenic at Clavering. Between 700 and 1,000 people watched the double executions.
Over the next twenty years there were a further five executions at Springfield; in 1853 Charles Saunders for murder at Chadwell, in 1857 Michael Crawley for wife murder at Stratford and Charles Finch for murdering his sweetheart at Rivenhall, in 1864 Francis Wane for murder at Dagenham, and in 1865 Ferdinand Kohl for murder at Plaistow Marsh. Kohl’s was to be the last public execution at the prison - the 1868 Capital Punishment Amendment Act ensured that all future hangings took place within the prison itself, away from morbid onlookers.
The first private execution
The first ‘private’ execution at Springfield was that of Michael Campbell on 24th April 1871. The 28 year old Berwick born tailor and former soldier was convicted of murder of Samuel Galloway (49), a retired dock worker in Stratford, who was killed after giving chase to Campbell and three accomplices after they tried to break into his home at Cannon Street, Stratford. Mrs. Galloway witnessed the assault and was able to identify Campbell as the assailant; when Galloway died ten days later Campbell was charged with murder. He admitted his guilt but denied any intent.
Four years later a soldier, Gunner Richard Coates of the Royal Artillery, was executed on 29th March for the murder of a young girl, Alice Boughen at Aveley. He had beaten her to death in a school closet after attempting to violate her. He was arrested after being spotted unsuccessfully attempting to carry her body to a river. He confessed his guilt in the condemned cell and blamed it on drink.
A gardener murders his wife
The next execution at the prison was Charles Revell, a gardener, on 29th July 1878 for the murder of his wife, Hester (23) in Epping Forest. Following lunch with her parents on 10th June, Revell went out to fetch some ale for them all to share. When he returned home over an hour later he was drunk. Revell and his wife began to quarrel over money when she grabbed him by the lapels and struck him. He knocked her to the ground and fled from the house. Against advice from her family she followed him into the forest where her body was discovered the next day, her throat cut from ear to ear.

Police Inspector shot dead
On 18th May 1885 James Lee was hanged for shooting dead Inspector Simmons of the Essex Constabulary who, with a colleague, had approached three men suspected of being about to commit a burglary at Rainham. Two of the men pulled out pistols and minutes later Insp. Simmons fell mortally wounded. All three men fled but James Lee was later arrested and convicted at the Old Bailey. David Dredge was detained but was able to provide the unusual but successful alibi that he had not shot Inspector Simmons because at the time he was shooting at another police officer. The third suspect, James Martin, remained at large for nearly a year until he was involved in a robbery near Gretna and the murder of another policeman whilst trying to evade capture. He was hanged at Carlisle on 8th February 1886.
Lee was followed by 17 year-old Joseph Morley, executed on 21st November 1887 for the murder at Chigwell Row of a young married woman with whom he lodged by cutting her throat with a razor. After sentence was passed, he confessed that he had killed the woman, Mrs. Rogers, but denied that when he entered her room he had intended to kill her.
On 15th August the next year George Sargent, a railway labourer and sometime poacher from Copford, was hanged for murdering his 21 year-old estranged wife Annie. They had been married for just a year when she left him, fed up with his drunken and violent behaviour, and returned to her mother’s at Wakes Colne. When she refused Sargent’s pleas to come home, he became enraged, grabbed her by her hair, locked her head between his knees and cut from ear to ear with a clasp knife, almost severing her head. He ran away after the crime but was caught hiding in fields near the house.

Tobacco causes crime of passion
Thomas Sadler, a labourer, was hanged on 18th August 1891 for killing his lover’s husband William Wass at Colchester by stabbing him with a penknife behind the ear during a dispute over custody of Sadler’s children.
On 16th August 1893 John Davis was executed for battering to death Sergeant Adam Eves whose beaten body had been found in a ditch at Purleigh. He was one of three poachers who were charged, two of whom were found to have bloodstains on their clothes, which they claimed were from an animal. The jury took less than half an hour to find Davis (aged 34) and his younger brother, Richard guilty; the third, Ramsey, not guilty. John Davis made a full confession while awaiting execution, which partially exonerated his brother, who was granted an eleventh hour reprieve.
The following year, on 4th December, James Canham Read, a middle-aged, married bookkeeper at the London Docks was executed for the murder of one of his several mistresses, 18 year-old Florence Dennis. She was found shot in a field at Prittlewell. He had been arrested after police traced a telegram he had sent to a relative.
The next execution was again the result of a crime of passion. William Wilkes, a Canewdon shepherd, was hanged on 19th July 1898 for murdering his wife by kicking her to death after they had quarreled over some tobacco. As the executioner placed the noose around his neck Wilkes turned to the warder in tears and asked whether it would hurt him. Before the warder could reply he was dropped seven feet two inches to his death.
The final execution of the century at Springfield was that of Samuel Crozier, the landlord of the Admiral Rous Inn at Galleywood Common, who was hanged on 5th December 1899. On 25th June had assaulted his wife Ann (31) in a room above the pub. She died from her injuries the next day but with the doctor unaware of the fight, he stated the death was from natural causes as a result of a fall. Word soon reached the police about the fight and less than an hour after his wife’s funeral Crozier was in custody. He was initially charged with manslaughter and later with murder.
The Moat Farm murderer
On 3rd October 1900 William Burrett became the executioner’s first victim of the 20th century. The 35 year-old unemployed hawker had been convicted of fatally stabbing his prostitute wife, Ada, after she had told him that she did not intend to support him from her earnings. The trial, which took place at the Old Bailey, only lasted two days, such was the overwhelming evidence against Burrett.
The perpetrator of the famous Moat Farm murder was the next visitor to the gallows at Springfield. He was 57 year-old former Sergeant Major of the Royal Engineers, Samuel Herbert Dougal, who was executed on 14th July 1903 for the murder of wealthy spinster Camille Holland. Dougal had met her in 1898. They quickly moved into a love nest at Moat Farm, Clavering, but the couple fell out when a servant girl complained of his advances. Within days Holland went missing, but Dougal kept suspicion at bay by explaining that Holland had left for a yachting holiday leaving him in charge of the farm. However, over the next four years a succession of women came and left the farm and eventually a disenchanted mistress contacted the police. Dougal was arrested for forgery charges relating to misusing Holland’s bank details, but a thorough search of the farm led to the discovery of the remains of Holland who had been shot and buried in a ditch. His execution caused a controversy when it was alleged that a confession on the scaffold was badgered from him by an overzealous chaplain.
Less than three months later, on 1st December 1903, another soldier, 21 year-old Bernard White of the Essex Regiment, was executed for beating to death his 20 year-old ex-girlfriend, Maud Garret, at Warley Gap, having discovered that she was seeing someone else. This was the first Springfield execution at which the famous hangman Henry Pierrepoint had officiated.
Christmas quarrels and cut throats
Pierrepoint was in action a year later when 20 year-old Richard Buckham was hanged on 4th December 1904 for shooting dead an elderly married couple, named Watson, during a robbery at their bungalow in Basildon. Their bodies were dumped in a pond. Buckham’s brother was also charged, but acquitted.
Pierrepoint’s last ever execution was that of 45 year-old farm labourer Frederick Foreman on 14th July 1910. Foreman had battered to death the woman he lived with, Elizabeth Eley, at East Farm, Wennington after the couple argued on their way home from a Whit Monday drinking session.
Another quarrel, on Christmas Eve the same year, at Stratford between 19 year-old gas worker George Newton and his fiancée, Ada Roker, resulted in murder when Newton cut the 21 year-old’s throat. He was executed at Springfield on 31st January 1911 after his plea of insanity failed.
Coincidentally, a very similar murder occurred late the following year and led to the execution of 20 year-old William Beal on 10th December 1912. He too had murdered his fiancée, 17 year-old Clara Carter, again in Stratford, and again by cutting her throat as they kissed under a street lamp, after her parents forbade the couple from seeing one another. Beal also cut his own throat, and when he was hanged a large gash opened in his neck.
The oldest man to be hanged this century in Britain was 71 year-old German-born grocer Charles Fremd who was executed on 4th November 1914 for murdering his wife at Leytonstone. She was found dead from a cut throat. Her husband was beside her with only a minor self-inflicted wound. As Fremd was dropped he caught and bruised his head on the trap door. Shortly after Fremd’s death the prison was taken over by the army for use as a military gaol, and after it reverted to civilian use in 1931 there were no further executions. Thus, the oldest man was also the last man to feel the noose around his neck at Springfield Prison.