Introduction
Fanny Stewart, as she was known, was the first woman in England to be hanged by the newly introduced “long drop” method when she was put to death at London’s Newgate Prison on Monday, the 29th of June, 1874, by William Marwood, who had succeeded William Calcraft. It should be noted that her Christian name was recorded as Francis (the male version) at her trial.
The Crime
Frances was a forty-three-year-old widow convicted of drowning her one-year-old grandson, Henry Ernest Scrivener, after a quarrel with her son-in-law. She lived with her daughter Henrietta and Joseph Scrivener at No. 4 Lordship Place, Chelsea, in London.
Joseph had accused his mother-in-law of breaking the door of the henhouse, which she denied. This led to an acrimonious quarrel, with Joseph telling Frances that she would have to go or they would. On the evening of Tuesday, the 28th of April, Frances did leave and took young Henry with her.
She went to the house of a friend, Mrs. Sparville, who put them up for the night. Frances left with the baby the following morning, telling Mrs. Sparville that she had not decided whether to return to Lordship Place. In the event, she did not and wandered the streets all day instead.
She went back to Chelsea in the evening and met Mrs. Ireland, who knew both her and Henrietta. Mrs. Ireland took the exhausted Frances to her home and then went out to get some beer for them. She asked Frances to take the baby home to his mother before she left later in the evening. Frances told her that the baby was all right and that he loved his granny and she loved him.
The Disturbing Letter
Joseph Scrivener received a highly disturbing letter that same evening suggesting that Frances had drowned herself and the baby. The letter read:
“Joe, I have left Mrs. Sparville. If you or your wife had come there you would have found the child. It is the only thing I can do to make your heart ache as you have made mine so long.”
Joseph immediately went to the police with the letter.
Arrest and Confession
Frances, however, was still alive and was seen on Friday, the 1st of May, in Great Queen Street, where she pushed a note through the letterbox of the house where her younger daughter Caroline worked. The note read:
“Come at once as I have done murder, and I want you to give me into the hands of justice.”
Later, Frances went to the door and spoke to Caroline, who had not seen the note. Caroline sent for the police, and Frances told them that she had taken the child.
She was arrested and taken before a magistrate, who committed her for trial and remanded her to Newgate. However, there was no body at this point to show that a murder had occurred, only Frances’s partial confession.
Discovery of the Body
The body of Henry was found a week or so later in the River Thames by a waterman called Edward King near Millwall Dock. There were no external injuries, and the cause of death was drowning.
Frances was visited by her daughter in Newgate, who told her more of the circumstances of the boy’s death. Frances said that she had been crossing Albert Bridge over the River Thames but could not find anywhere to sit down. She leaned against the bridge parapet and lost her grip on Henry, who fell into the river below.
The Trial
Her trial, held at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, the 10th of June, before Mr. Justice Blackburn, was a relatively brief affair, and the jury quickly convicted her. However, in view of her age, her recent widowhood, her known love for the baby boy, and the provocation of her son-in-law, they added a recommendation to mercy.
Once again, this was not apparently endorsed by the trial judge, even though he was reported as saying that she “had committed the act under some perversity of mind.” Sir Richard Asheton Cross, the Home Secretary, saw no reason to interfere with the course of the law in this rather sad case.
The Execution
Frances was to be the last woman to be hanged on the old gallows set up in one of Newgate Prison’s yards. The hanging took place at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, the 29th of June, 1874. A pit had been dug under the gallows to allow for the longer drop that William Marwood used.
On the morning of her death, she was pinioned in the condemned cell by Marwood and then led in a procession of two matrons, the under-sheriff, and the chaplain to the gallows, whose steps she was able to climb unaided.
On the platform, Marwood made the necessary preparations and released the trapdoors. According to a report from the Echo newspaper, he bungled the execution by not tightening the noose sufficiently so that the eyelet had moved around to the back of her neck, causing her to struggle for two to three minutes.
However, in evidence to the Aberdare Committee, Mr. Leonard Ward, the then Chief Warder at Newgate, reported that Frances turned her head at the last moment, thus altering the position of the eyelet to the back of her neck, but that she still died instantly. With a long drop, all that would be seen was a taut rope hanging down from the beam; the prisoner’s body would have been completely below the level of the trapdoors.
After the drop, the black flag was flown from the prison flagpole to signify that the execution had been carried out.
The body was left on the rope for an hour to ensure total death before being taken down for inquest and burial within the prison.
Aftermath and Legacy
This case did not attract great publicity at the time, and Madame Tussaud’s did not feel the need to make a wax effigy of Frances for the Chamber of Horrors, as they did with more heinous murderers.
William Marwood was to hang eight more women:
- Mary Williams at Liverpool on the 31st of August, 1874
- Elizabeth Pearson at Durham on Monday, the 2nd of August, 1875
- Selina Wadge at Bodmin on the 15th of August, 1878
- Catherine Churchill at Taunton on the 26th of May, 1879
- Catherine Webster at Wandsworth on the 29th of July, 1879
- Annie Tooke at Exeter on the 11th of August, 1879
- Louisa Jane Taylor, a poisoner, at Maidstone on the 2nd of January, 1883
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