User:Hillbillyholiday/Articles/Martin Clench and James Mackley

Martin Clench (some give "Clinch"), James Mackley Believed to be innocent of a charge of murder, they were executed before Newgate, 5th of June, 1797, after the gallows collapsed.

Newgate Calendar 1

This woodcut used in the book was also used for other accounts of executions.

Sydney Fryer, Esq., a gentleman of considerable property, on Sunday, 7th of May, 1797, called, by appointment, on his cousin, Miss Ann Fryer...in order to take a walk with her into the environs of London, to pay a visit to their aunt. When they had proceeded across the fields to the back part of Islington Workhouse they heard, as they thought, a female voice in distress; upon which Mr Fryer, contrary to his cousin's advice, leaped over the hedge into the field whence the voice seemed to proceed, but instead of seeing a woman he met with three men, who, upon his rashly drawing his tuck-stick (the sword of which dropped out), fired, and wounded him a little above the left eye, and he fell into a small pond. One of the villains took the watch out of his pocket and a purse from the lady, and another took her cloak. Mr Fryer died two hours after.

Several suspects were questioned with Miss Fryer present, but were "dismissed for want of evidence."

Clench, Mackley were arrested on the 27 May by the Worship Street officers?

The Newgate describes how The prisoners were "most impartially tried by Mr Justice Grose." They had four counsel: Messrs Const, Knapp, Alley and Gurney; so that no ingenuity was wanting to plead their case effectually to the jury. Indeed there was no positive evidence except Miss Fryer's, who swore to the identity of the two prisoners' persons.

After only half-an-hour's deliberation, the jury returned [with?] a verdict of guilty.

A short time before their caps were drawn over their eyes the platform, by some improper management, suddenly went down, with the two clergymen, the executioner and his man. The Catholic priest who attended Clench, being very lusty, suffered most, but fortunately not materially. When the two men died, most of the people were of opinion that their fate was just; but soon after the confessions of three separate criminals, who could have had no interest in taking the crime upon themselves, threw a different light upon the transaction, and recalled to mind the strong assertions which Clench and Mackley had made of their innocence; for Clench, upon retiring from the bar, returned thanks to the Court for the fairness of his trial, but observed (though in a rough way) that, though they were condemned to die, and be teased afterwards, alluding to their dissection, they were no more guilty of murder than their prosecutrix. One Burton Wood, who was afterwards executed at Kennington Common, and another, while under sentence of death, wrote a letter to Carpenter Smith, Esq., magistrate of Surrey, declaring the innocence of Clench and Mackley, for that they were, with another not then in custody, the murderers. Soon after the third man suffered for another offence at Reading gallows, and made the same confession. His name was Timms.

It was at the hanging of Martin Clench and James Mackley, on the 5th of June, 1797, that Langley had this conspicuousness thrust upon him. And it was through one of Brunskill's periodical bungling that it came about.

The two criminals were standing on the scaffold beneath the cross-beam when the event occurred. While the hangman and his mate were fixing the halter, and the Rev. Mr. Villette, Ordinary of Newgate, and a Roman Catholic priest – who is described as a "very lusty fellow" [fat] – were administering to the doomed men according to their respective creeds, suddenly and without warning the platform gave way.

Clench and Mackley were precipitated to their deaths, half-shrived and without their caps, and down went the two padres and the executioners through the open trap-door in a struggling heap.

Villette escaped with a few bruises, but the priest, being a man full of habit, suffered severely when a couple of heavy hangmen fell on top of him. Brunskill, of course, should have satisfied himself that the bolts were secure, and would have to answer for his carelessness to the Under-Sheriff.

bodies were publicly exposed in a stable, in Little Bridge Street, near Apothecaries' Hall, Surgeons' Hall.

The incident came to be regarded with superstitious awe, since not long afterwards it was believed that Clench and Mackley were innocent of the murder for which they were convicted.

Some years afterwards, Burton Wood, who was executed on Kennington Common, and Timms, who suffered a similar fate at Reading, severally confessed at the gallows the commission of the deed for which Clinch and Mackley had innocently suffered.

For several years thereafter an old residence in Shepard Street was much gazed at by the curious. Londoners pointed it out to their visiting kin from the country. One of the rear windows was heavily barred with iron, and sometimes a ghastly, phantomlike face was seen at that window. That is Mistress Anne Fryer, the Londoner would say to his wondering cousin from the back districts. She sent two men to the gallows by giving mistaken testimony, and when she learned the truth she became a raving madwoman. She is kept in that room all year round, and sometimes when she is violent they gag her and chain her to the floor.

See also

List of unusual deaths [[William Brunskill]]

References

Sources

• Knapp, Andrew; Baldwin, William (1825). 2 The Newgate Calendar: Comprising Interesting Memoirs of the Most Notorious Characters who Have Been Convicted of Outrages on the Laws of England Since the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century; with Occasional Anecdotes and Observations, Speeches, Confessions, and Last Exclamations of Sufferers. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)
• Bleackley, Horace (1929). The Hangmen of England: How They Hanged and Whom They Hanged : The Life Story of "Jack Ketch" Through Two Centuries. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780715811849.
• Gatrell, V. A. C (1996). The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People 1770-1868. ISBN 9780192853325.
• "Medical Jurisprudence". Galignani's magazine and Paris monthly review. 5 (August). 1823.
• Curiosities (1871). Curiosities of street literature: comprising 'cocks' or 'catchpennies', street-drolleries.(&c. Ed. by C. Hindley) p.181
• Kent, W. (1866). The St. James's Magazine, Volume 15. p. 105.
• Bailey, Brian J. (1993). Hangman: From Ketch to Pierrepoint, 300 Years of Execution. p. 52. ISBN 9780863696237.
• Clinton Mirror. 27 May 1916 http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2281&dat=19160527&id=JgEoAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AwUGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4034,3165079. {{cite news}}: |url= missing title (help)