Transcription
A particular account of the Execution of Hannah Halley, at Derby, on Mon- day last, March, 26, 1822, for the in- human Murder of her own new born infant, by crushing it into a jug, and pouring boiling water on it, with her reasons for comitting the barbarous act. Extracted from the London Courier of the 29th March 1822. LAST Friday, (22d instant,) Hannah Halley was tried before Mr Justice Best for the wilful murder of her infant child, in the month of August last. The evidence adduced in support of this accusation was conclusive, not merely as to the fact, but also the intention. She was residing in lodgings at a house in Brook-Strcet in this town, and about a quarter before nine in the morning of Tuesday, August 14th, passed thro' the lower room or house place, where her landlady and another female were sitting. They observed to her that she seemed very poorly, to which she replied, ' I am,' and went up stairs to her own apartment. Soon after this the cry of a child was heard by the women of the house, and on going into the prisoners room, appearances warranted them in charging her with being just delivered. She denied the imputation with great con- fidence, but was observed to put under the bed a jug, which she had previously been anxious to conceal under her clothes. As she persisted in denying that a child had been born, one of the women threatened to fetch a constable to apprehend her if she did not give up the babe. This threat being repeated, and the woman actually leaving the room for the purpose she had stated, the pri- soner rose from the bed on which she was sitting, and followed her to the top of the stairs. The other female took that opportunity of drawing the jug from under the bed, and on removing a coarse cloth with which it was covered, found within it a new-born child. On ex- amining the infant it was perocived to be dreadfully scalded, and in such a manner as to produce the conviction, that boiling water had been poured upon it after it had been thrust into the jug. Not with standing this treat- ment the child lived till the following Saturday, the 18th of August, when it died in consequence of the injury inflicted upon it by its unnatural mother. That it was her intention to destroy the infant was inferred from her constant denial of her pregnancy, ( except on the day prior to her delivery, when she admitted that she was three months advanced. She could not plead ignorance of her real situation as she had born a child fibe yearr ag) ; but she had allowed herself to marry only about seven weeks before het delivery to a man who knew not her condition and who was not the father of the child she meditated to destroy. During her long imprisonment she conducted herself with propriety, but much of her behaviour must be referred to the hope, which she indulged to the very day of her trial that she should escape. To this feeling also must be traced the solemn asservations of her innocence made when the Judge was about to pass upon her the dreadful sentence of the law. All hope of impunity , however, being cut off she hastened to relieve her over- burdened mind by a full confession of her guilty purpose, and of the means by which she intended to carry it into effect, thus confirming the evidence adduced against her on her trial in its full extent. The brief interval between her sentence and execution, she passed chiefly in devotional exercises with the worthy Chaplain of the Goal, and a Minister of the religious denomination to which she had formally attached herself ; in taking leave of her friends, and in mental preparation for the awful scene which lay boforo her She slept little, from the time of her condemnation, but had about three hours repose on on the night of Sunday last. Her frame was feeble, and acted upon as it had been by the consciousness of her situation, when the time arrived for her execution, she was weak and pale and powerless. Still she ascended the steps which led to the fatal platform with more firmness than was anticipated, and when brought out upon the drop she behaved with becoming fortitude. After the usual time spent in prayer, in which she join- ed the chaplain with apparent devotions, the platform fell, and she died with scarcely a struggle. Hannah Halley was 31 years of age, and was a native of May field in Staffordshire, At the time of her marriage and of her committing the Crime for which she has paid the forfeiture of life, she was living in Derby, and worked at the cotton-mill Darley After hanging the usual time, the body was taken down and given to the surgeons for dissection.
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Date of publication:
1822 shelfmark: L.C.Fol.74(070)
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