Broadside entitled 'Execution'

Commentary

This execution report begins: 'A Full and Particular Account of the Execution of Thomas Conner and Bell M'Menemy, who were Executed at Glasgow on Wednesday Morning, the 22d October 1828, for Assault and Robbery ; together with their Behaviour since their Condemnation, and at the place of Execution.'

Conner (or Connor) and McMenemy were executed at Jail Square, which was located in the Saltmarket area of Glasgow, for the assault and robbery of Alexander McKinnon. Their executioner was Thomas Young, who was hangman in Glasgow and elsewhere between 1815 and 1834. According to A.F. Young in 'The encyclopaedia of Scottish executions 1750-1963' (1988), McMenemy was the first woman to be hanged in Glasgow since Agnes White, who was executed in 1793 for poisoning her five-month old child.

Broadsides are often crudely illustrated with woodcuts - the earliest form of printed illustration, first used in the mid-fifteenth century. Inclusion of an illustration on a broadside increased its perceived value, especially among the illiterate. To keep costs down, publishers would normally reuse their limited stock of generic woodcuts.

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