THE TERRIBLE STORY AND EXECUTION OF THE THREE MURDERERS AT TYBURN "A DAY NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN

 Three murderers at Tyburn


In 1751 Parliament passed an Act “for better preventing the horrid crime of murder” which specified that a person convicted of murder was to be kept in chains and fed on only bread and water and to be hanged within 48 hours, unless that would have been a Sunday in which case the execution was carried out on the following Monday. This Act mandated the dissection or gibbeting of the murderer's body after execution. Gibbeting was not applied to women prisoners.  The bodies of murderers were not permitted to be buried in consecrated ground.  This Act, known as “The Murder Act”, came into force on the 1st of July 1752 and was therefore in effect for these three murderers.  Ater their hanging all three bodies were taken down and conveyed to Surgeon’s Hall where William Peers was anatomized pursuant to his sentence and John Stockdale and Christopher Johnson were hanged in chains (gibbeted) on Winchmore Hill in the Borough of Enfield in north London, close to where they had committed the murder.  The local people in Winchmore Hill petitioned against the gibbetting, but to no avail.

17 year old John Stockdale and 20 year old Christopher Johnson were committed to Newgate, on their own confession, for murdering and robbing a postman named Zachariah Gardiner on the King’s highway in Enfield.  They had stolen his watch and other items before shooting him in the stomach, from which he died.  They came to trial at the July Sessions of the Old Bailey where they were appeared before the Recorder of London sitting with Middlesex Jury.  Upon conviction the Recorder passed sentence as follows: “You are to go hence to the Place from whence you came, and from thence to the Place of Execution, where you are to be hanged by the Neck until you are dead. Your Bodies are to be carried to Surgeons-hall, to be then hanged in chains, and the Lord have Mercy on your Souls.”  The executions were scheduled for the following Monday the 23rd of July 1753.  All three were conveyed to Tyburn in one cart that left Newgate prison at around 8.00 a.m.  It was reported that on arrival at Tyburn, Johnson was in such a state of fear that he was unable to speak.  Stockdale asked to speak to the Sherriff, telling him that he had not intended to shoot Mr. Gardiner, but that the pistol had discharged accidentally.

52 year old John Peers was convicted of the murder of his wife.  It would seem that his wife was abusive when drunk and that it was this that led to the murder.  They had gone to a local pub and this is where they got into a quarrel and he stabbed her to death.  At Tyburn Peers told the Ordinary, John Taylor that “He had no Malice in his Heart, nor Intention to kill his Wife”. It is probable that Thomas Turlis was the hangman.

Thomas Wilford was the first person to suffer in accordance with the provisions of the Murder Act of 1752 when he was hanged at Tyburn on Thursday the 2nd of July 1752.

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