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Francois
Benjamin Courvoisier - for the murder of his master. |
Progressively, attitudes to public hangings were changing between 1800 and 1868. At the beginning of the century, hangings were attended by all classes of society. But as the century progressed it was no longer fashionable to be seen at these events. Whether the propaganda of the abolitionists was having the desired effect on the middle and upper classes is unclear, or whether it was the Victorian notions of morality that had come to the fore and people had become embarrassed to admit to watching a hanging.
There were exceptions to this though, such as the execution of 23 year old
Swiss born valet, Francois Benjamin Courvoisier, at Newgate on Monday the 6th of
July 1840. Drawing of Courvoisier.
He had murdered 73 year old Lord William Russell in the early hours of the 6th
of May 1840 in his home at
His Lordship’s body was discovered lying in his bed by Sarah Mancer at around 6.30 a.m. the following morning. Lord Russell had a seven inch deep gash
running between his left shoulder and throat. Courvoisier had tried to fake a
burglary to cover his tracks, but nothing was found to be missing from the
ransacked house, although a number of items had been concealed in Courvoisier’s
room. This led police to see him as the prime suspect.
The Old Bailey trial before Lord Chief Justice Tindall
began on Thursday the 18th of June and was attended by members of the nobility.
It was to last three days. Near the end of the first day’s proceedings it was
given in evidence that some silver plate had been taken from the house and were in the possession of Madame Piolaine,
the keeper of a French hotel in
"His lordship was very cross with me and told me I must quit his service.
As I was coming upstairs from the kitchen I thought it was all up with me; my
character was gone, and I thought it was the only way I could cover my faults
by murdering him. This was the first moment of any idea of the sort entering my
head. I went into the dining-room and took a knife from the sideboard. I do not
remember whether it was a carving-knife or not. I then went upstairs, I opened
his bedroom door and heard him snoring in his sleep; there was a rushlight in his room burning at this time. I went near the
bed by the side of the window, and then I murdered him. He just moved his arm a
little; he never spoke a word."
Courvoisier still required Mr. Phillips to continue his defense, which of
course he was duty bound to do. However
there was enough evidence for the jury to convict and Lord Chief Justice Tindall passed the inevitable death sentence. Courvoisier was returned to Newgate via the
underground passage linking the buildings and placed in the Condemned Cell. There would be no reprieve and the execution
was set for the 6th of July at 8.00 a.m.
The gallows was brought out from the Press Yard in the early hours and
set up outside the Debtor’s Door, guarded by a troop of Javelin men. The 40,000 strong crowd’s excitement rose as
the hour of execution arrived and there were the usual shouts of “hats off”
when Courvoisier was brought out. William Calcraft officiated at this execution
and it is recorded that Courvoisier became still after a few convulsive struggles.
A drawing of the execution is here. The body was taken down at 9.00 a.m. and a
death mask casting was made - see photo.
This was to be the sole hanging at Newgate in 1840. Forty years earlier it was possible to watch multiple hangings here, for instance, on the 5th of June 1800, 7 men were to share the drop with a further three the following month. By the 1840’s, executions had become rare events and therefore probably of far greater public interest, especially where the murder victim was a member of the nobility.
The author and novelist William Makepeace Thackeray witnessed Courvoisier’s hanging and spent some hours prior to it in observing what he described as a good natured crowd. He noted that there were many young people of both sexes present. Charles Dickens was also there and had hired a spot with a good view of the gallows. Thackeray and Dickens were born within a year of each other, in 1811 and 1812 respectively. Thackeray records in “Going to see a man hanged” that he could not bring himself to look upon the final scene and that he had flashbacks of the execution for two weeks afterwards, such was the impression it had made on him.
Several broadsides were printed outlining the trial, confession and execution, one of which is reproduced here.
Courvoisier was suspected in the murders of 21 year old barmaid Eliza Davies whose body was found on the morning of the 9th of May 1837, on the landing outside her bedroom with her throat cut. On the 27th of May 1838, prostitute Eliza Grimwood was found with her throat cut and her abdomen viciously cut open. Watchmaker Robert Westwood's dead body was discovered in his home on the 3rd of June 1839. Again his throat had been cut with great force and his clothes had been set on fire. Courvoisier was never charged with these murders.
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