William Brunskill was official executioner for London, Middlesex and Surrey from 1786 to 1814. He dispatched the assassin of Prime Minister Spencer Percival, carried out the last execution by burning in Britain, and during his long career Brunskill hanged more criminals than any of his predecessors.
Career
Clark, Richard. "Early English hangmen".
In his 30-year career as official executioner; William Brunskill hung/hanged 537 people outside Newgate. Before assuming the position, Brunskill had assisted his also prolific predecessor, Edward Dennis, in mass executions. [1]
On the 9th of December 1783 he and William Brunskill hanged nine men and one woman side by side on the "New Drop" at the first execution outside Newgate prison. [2] Upon Dennis' death on 21 November 1786, Brunskill assumed the position of official executioner. The very next day, Brunskill hanged seven men for housebreaking and highway robbery.
- John Bellingham shot Spencer Percival, the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated so far. [3]
- p.141 Colonel Despard, who was hanged for high treason on 21st February, 1803, was another of Brunskill's celebrated victims. [4]
- p.142 ..he had been a brave soldier, but, being the ringleader in a plot to assassinate the King [[[George III]]], he had been condemned to death with six of his associates. [5]
- 1807 accident at the execution of John Holloway and Owen Haggerty [6]
- Catherine Murphy (counterfeiter) the last woman to be officially sentenced and executed by the method of burning in England and Great Britain.
Catherine or Christian Murphy, outside Newgate in 1789. [2]
Brunskill was also the hangman for Surrey and executed 68 at Horsemonger Lane Gaol between 1800, when it opened and 1814. The largest group were the seven Despard Conspirators, whom Brunskill put to death at Horsemonger Lane Gaol in Surrey on Monday, the 21st of February 1803. The seven men were Colonel Edward Despard, John Francis, John Wood, James Broughton, James Sedgewick, Arthur Wrutton and John McNamara all of whom had been convicted of High Treason. They were symbolically drawn around the prison yard before their execution and beheaded after death. [2]
Brunskill was also the hangman for men condemned by the High Court of Admiralty for crimes committed at sea. He hanged Capt. John Sutherland on the 29th of June 1809 at Execution Dock in Wapping, for the murder of his 13 year old cabin boy, Richard Wilson. On May 12th 1812 Brunskill executed John Bellingham at Newgate for the assassination of the Prime Minister, Spencer Percival. He was the only British prime minister to be assassinated. [2]
Brunskill, by now aged 69, suffered a stroke in 1814 and was granted a pension of 15 shillings (75p) a week after he retired. [2]
Sources
-
^ Clark, Richard.
"Early English hangmen".
Edward Dennis was the official executioner for London and Middlesex from 1771 till his death on the 21st of November 1786 and carried out 201 hangings at Tyburn and Newgate, plus two burnings at Newgate. Dennis hanged 95 men and one woman between February and December of 1785, with 20 men being hanged on one day alone, Wednesday, the 2nd of February of that year. - ^ a b c d e Clark, Richard. "Early English hangmen".
- ^ Bailey 1989, p. 141
- ^ Bleackley 1991, p. 142
- ^ Bleackley 1989, p. 142
- ^ Bleackley 1989, pp. 142–3
References
- Linklater, Andro (2013). Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die: The Assassination of a British Prime Minister. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 227. ISBN 9781408831717.
- Clark, Richard. "Early English hangmen".
- Bleackley, Horace (1929). The Hangmen of England: How They Hanged and Whom They Hanged. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780715811849.
- Bailey, Brian J (1989). Hangmen of England: A History of Execution from Jack Ketch to Albert Pierrepoint. p. 44. ISBN 9780491031295.