Jane Jameson – A Matricide

The Crime at Keelmans Hospital

Jane Jameson (also given as Jamieson) was hanged at Town Moor, Newcastle, on Saturday, the 7th of March, 1829, for the murder of her mother, an inmate at the Keelmans Hospital, by stabbing her with a red-hot poker on the 2nd of January, 1829, from which she died some two weeks later.

The Motive

It appears that the reason for attacking her mother, 60-year-old Margaret Jameson, was that the latter had accused her of killing her two illegitimate children.

The Trial at Newcastle Assizes

Jane was tried on the 5th of March, 1829, at Newcastle Assizes.

The jury heard evidence from Mary Carr, a resident of Keelman’s Hospital, who testified:

“Hearing words, I looked in at the door and saw a weapon in the prisoner’s hand, held in a very threatening manner to her mother. It was a poker. She was pointing the poker at her mother.”

Ann Hutchinson told the court:

“I can hear in my room what passes in hers. I heard the prisoner say, ‘You old, lousy, stane-naked, kill-good-man.’ I heard her mother, in reply, say, ‘No, I did not kill my man, but you killed your two bairns.’” (Bairns is a Northern word for children.) “I heard nothing more till the mother gave a great shout and said, ‘Oh! dear me.’ I got up and went in immediately.”

It took the jury just 45 minutes to reach a guilty verdict.

Jane was sentenced to be returned to Carliol Street Gaol, where she was to be kept in fetters and fed only on bread and water. She was then to be hanged within 48 hours and thereafter her body given to surgeons for dissection, as required by the Murder Act of 1751.

In the Condemned Cell

In the condemned cell, she told the prison chaplain, the Rev. Robert Green:

“I might as well say that I had done it as that I had not done it, for I was so drunk that I knew nothing at all about it.”

It appears that Jane was much more concerned about the dissection part of her sentence than the actual hanging.

This was not uncommon at the time, when to have one’s body desecrated and not given a proper Christian burial was considered a far greater punishment than hanging itself.

Public Execution on Town Moor

At 8:45 a.m., she was pinioned and then placed in a cart to take her to the gallows on Town Moor. Mr. Turner, the turnkey, rode with her.

The procession, comprising the Town Sergeants, the town marshal, Jane sitting on her coffin in the cart, eight javelin men, ten constables, and a coach containing the Rev. R. Green, Mr. Adamson the Under Sheriff, Mr. Sopwith the Gaoler, and Mr. Scott, clerk of St. Andrews, moved at a very slow pace to the spot near the barracks on the Town Moor, which was the usual place of execution.

At the gallows, a prayer was said, then a cap was placed over her face. She stepped up onto a stool on the cart, said, “I am ready,” and was then “launched into eternity,” dying almost without a struggle under the short drop.

She was suspended at ten o’clock exactly and was cut down at five minutes before eleven. A broadside was published on her case.

It was reported that some 20,000 people had turned out either to see Jane passing in the cart or at the place of execution, and that half of them were females.

Anatomical Dissection and Public Display

The body was then taken to the Newcastle Barber Surgeon’s Hall for display to the public (but not dissection) until six in the evening. A penny was charged to each person wishing to view it.

Jane’s body was afterward used for anatomical lectures for several days by surgeon Mr. John Fife.

Anatomical dissection of murderers remained standard legal procedure until the passage of the Anatomy Act in 1832, as seen in cases like that of Mary Ann Burdock in 1835 where dissection was no longer enforced.

Itemized Execution Costs

The execution cost Newcastle £28 13s. 3d, quite a large sum back then, as detailed in the official borough records:

• 7 sergeants (5s. each)
• 20 constables (3s. 6d. each)
• 16 free porters (5s. each)
• Tolling St. Andrews great bell (2s. 6d.)
• Executioner (£3 3s.)
• Halter and cord (3s.)
• Cart and driver (15s.)
• Mourning coach (15s.)
• 9 horses for officers (5s. each)
• Summoning 20 constables (6d. each)
• Allowance for free porters, sergeants, constables, etc. (£2 18s.)
• A person attending the prisoner to the place of execution (5s.)
• Joiner’s bill for scaffold and coffin (£8 5s. 3d.)
• Allowance to joiners (6s.)

Total cost: £28 13s. 3d.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Jane Jameson?

Jane Jameson (also spelled Jamieson) was a Newcastle woman convicted and publicly hanged in 1829 for the matricide of her 60-year-old mother, Margaret Jameson, an inmate at the Keelmans Hospital.

How was the murder committed?

During an alcohol-fueled argument in which her mother accused her of killing her illegitimate children (“bairns”), Jane attacked her mother with a red-hot hearth poker, inflicting severe internal burns and puncture trauma from which the victim died two weeks later.

Why was Jane Jameson’s body publicly exhibited and dissected?

Under the Murder Act of 1751, all condemned murderers were denied a traditional Christian burial and were sentenced either to anatomical dissection by surgeons or to be hung in chains (gibbeted). Her corpse was exhibited for a penny per viewer at the Barber Surgeon’s Hall in Newcastle before being used for surgical dissection lectures.

Where and when was Jane Jameson executed?

She was hanged from a cart gallows on the Town Moor in Newcastle on the morning of Saturday, 7 March 1829, before an estimated crowd of 20,000 spectators.

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