Executions in Montgomeryshire 1735-1799

7 confirmed executions and 2 possible ones have been traced. There were no executions in the unlisted years.

Session      NameCrime                 Date of execution
1735 – 2 confirmed plus 1 possible execution
Tu 15 April    David Griffiths       Murder of Lewis Evans   Unknown
S  2 August  Evan Hugh JonesMurder of John Rea   ??/August
“Margaret Jones     Murder of John Rea   ??/August
Both above hanged in chains on a hill near their home at Manafon.

Dr Angela Muir, FRHistS, FHEA, Associate Professor in British Social and Cultural History at University of Leicester has provided the following update that shows that Evan Hugh Jones was also gibbeted.

She says that “a page from the relevant Great Sessions minute book (NLW GS 14/6) says as much. I know newspapers from the time reported otherwise. I suspect they weren’t hanged at Manafon either, as that had no connection to the crime itself and was not ‘the usual pace of execution’, as far as I know? I suspect the gallows were either at Montgomery or Welshpool (which was the main site of the Great Sessions in earlier centuries). The Shrewsbury Chronicle reported that two other convicts were executed at Montgomery fifty years later after being convicted at Welshpool (2 April 1785, p. 3), so that would be my best guess for the earlier cases too.”.
1747 – 1 possible execution
F   21 AugustJohn Price            Murder of Richard Gothin    Eo Th 10 Sept
1765 – 1 execution
M 25 MarchEvan JenkinsMurder of Elizabeth Evans F 29 March
1780 – 1 execution
M   3 April    William Thomas        Housebreaking         W  19 or 26 April
1784 – 1 execution
Th  1 April    Thomas Dodd           Horse theft  Tu 11 May
1785 – 2 executions
Th 17 March Thomas Fardoe &Burglary               M  28 March
“William Challenor     Burglary               M  28 March

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