Changing Attitudes Toward Public Hangings
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.
The Murder of Lord William Russell
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.
He had murdered 73-year-old Lord William Russell in the early hours of the 6th of May 1840 in his home at Norfolk Street, Park Lane, in the West End of London, having been reprimanded by his employer for failing to tell the coachman to collect his lordship from his club that afternoon.
Lord Russell was a widower who lived in the house with his three servants: Courvoisier, his valet; Sarah Mancer, the housemaid; and Mary Hannell, the cook—plus a coachman and a groom.
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 Trial at the Old Bailey
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 was in the possession of Madame Piolaine, the keeper of a French hotel in Leicester Place, Leicester Square. These items were positively identified as having belonged to Lord Russell.
After this evidence, Courvoisier made a full confession to his counsel, Mr. Charles Phillips, as under:
“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.
The Execution
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. The body was taken down at 9:00 a.m., and a death mask casting was made.
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, seven men were to share the drop, with a further three the following month. By the 1840s, executions had become rare events and therefore probably of far greater public interest—especially where the murder victim was a member of the nobility.
Eyewitness Accounts
The author and novelist William Makepeace Thackeray witnessed Courvoisier’s hanging and spent some hours prior to it 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 afterward, such was the impression it had made on him.
Several broadsides were printed outlining the trial, confession, and execution.
Other Suspicions
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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