Troubled Marriage and Poverty in Nuneaton
Mary Wright (later Ball) was born in Nuneaton to Isaac Wright and Alice Ward in 1818 and was christened there in June of that year.
She married Thomas Ball in 1837 at the age of nineteen. Over the next twelve years, she bore him six children, of whom only one daughter, Mary Ann Ball, survived infancy.
The marriage was mired in destitution and frequent domestic turmoil. Violent domestic quarrels repeatedly erupted, occasionally spilling into the public street.
Thomas discovered that Mary was conducting an affair with nineteen-year-old William Bacon, further escalating domestic tensions.
By 1849, Thomas had found work as a railway labourer helping to construct the Trent Valley Railway.
The Fatal Supper and Doctor’s Misdiagnosis
On the evening of Friday, 18 May 1849, Thomas went fishing with two acquaintances after finishing his shift.
Upon returning home, he ate his supper, which consisted of bread and gruel prepared by Mary.
Shortly after consuming the food, he was seized by excruciating abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. A medical practitioner, Dr. Prouse, was called to the home and diagnosed inflammation of the bowels.
Thomas’s condition deteriorated through Saturday, and on Sunday, 20 May 1849, he died.
Dr. Prouse returned to the house and certified the cause of death as natural causes.
Contradictory Statements and Forensic Autopsy
Although medical authorities initially suspected nothing untoward, intense village gossip circulated regarding the suddenness of the death and Mary’s marital discord.
Constables Haddon and Vernon questioned Mary regarding her recent movements.
Under interrogation, Mary provided four separate statements filled with glaring contradictions:
- She initially claimed she had purchased a pennyworth of white arsenic from local chemist Mr. Iliffe solely to exterminate bed bugs—a common domestic pest control remedy at the time—and had subsequently burned the paper wrapper and discarded the mixing cup.
- In a later statement, she maintained that the arsenic had been stored on the mantelpiece and was accidentally confused with medical salts.
- In her final statement, she admitted intentionally mixing the arsenic with salts into the gruel, claiming she merely intended to give Thomas a purgative to make him sick.
Following her admissions, an autopsy was conducted by Dr. Prouse alongside George Shaw, Professor of Chemistry at Queen’s College, Birmingham.
Toxicological analysis isolated two to three grains of metallic arsenic within the stomach lining.
On 22 May 1849, Mary was formally committed on capital charges for the wilful murder of her husband.
Assizes Trial at Coventry County Hall
At this time, the City of Coventry retained its own independent assizes, separate from the county of Warwickshire (a privilege that ended when the Coventry Assizes were abolished in 1854).
Mary’s trial commenced at the Coventry Summer Assizes held in the County Hall on 28 July 1849 before Mr. Justice Coleridge.
The proceedings lasted over ten hours. Mr. Hayes led the prosecution for the Crown, while defence counsel Mr. Miller delivered an impassioned address urging the jury to consider the absence of clear homicidal intent.
Mary pleaded not guilty throughout the hearing.
The jury deliberated for two hours before returning a verdict of guilty, accompanied by a recommendation to mercy.
When Mr. Justice Coleridge asked the foreman for the legal grounds of their recommendation, the jury could offer no explanation. The judge donned the black cap and passed the mandatory sentence of death by hanging.
Mary was remanded to the condemned cells of Coventry Gaol.
The Condemned Cell Candle Scandal
While awaiting execution, Mary was visited in her cell by the prison chaplain, the Reverend Chapman.
Frustrated by Mary’s steadfast refusal to confess her guilt, Reverend Chapman took her bare arm on 4 August and held it directly over the flame of a lighted candle to give her a foretaste of hellfire, causing severe burns and blistering.
Word of this torture reached Coventry Prison Governor Mr. Stanley.
Governor Stanley immediately notified the visiting magistrate, the Reverend Bellairs, who opened an inquiry. Reverend Chapman was summarily dismissed from the prison service for gross misconduct.
On the following day, Mary made a voluntary confession to Governor Stanley. Asked what drove her to commit the deed, she explained:
“My husband was in the habit of going with other women, and used me so ill – no one knows what I have suffered.”
Home Secretary Sir George Grey reviewed the trial transcripts and, following standard government policy regarding domestic arsenic poisonings, declined to grant a reprieve.
Public Execution in Cuckoo Lane
The execution was appointed for Thursday, 9 August 1849.
Coventry prison authorities declined to pay the high fee demanded by London hangman William Calcraft, opting instead to engage James Japhcote, a local executioner from Nuneaton.
A crowd estimated between 15,000 and 20,000 spectators gathered in the narrow confines of Cuckoo Lane outside County Hall.
Shortly before 10:00 a.m., Mary was escorted onto the platform of the “New Drop” gallows.
Japhcote adjusted the halter and white hood before releasing the trapdoors. Mary died quickly with little visible convulsion under the short drop.
After hanging for the statutory hour, her corpse was taken down and buried within the prison grounds.
A plaster death mask of Mary Ball was cast following the execution and remains on display at the West Midlands Police Museum in Coventry.
A commemorative stone plaque mounted on the exterior wall of County Hall marks the site today as Coventry’s final public hanging.
The Peak Year of Female Executions
The year 1849 was one of the peak years of the 19th century for the execution of women in Great Britain, with seven women hanged nationwide.
In England and Wales, five of the seventeen total executions carried out in 1849 were of women—representing over 29% of all hangings that year.
Prominent executions that year included seventeen-year-old Sarah Harriet Thomas at Bristol in April, infanticide mother Rebecca Smith at Devizes in August, and Maria Manning outside Horsemonger Lane Gaol in November.
Arsenic murder remained a persistent domestic issue until Parliament restricted over-the-counter purchases under the Arsenic Act 1851, following similar contemporary convictions including Sarah Westwood (1844), Eliza Joyce (1844), and Sarah Freeman (1845).
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Mary Ball?
Mary Ball (née Wright) was a 31-year-old woman from Nuneaton who was convicted and executed in August 1849 for murdering her husband, Thomas Ball, by mixing white arsenic into his supper gruel.
What was the prison chaplain scandal involving Mary Ball?
While Mary was in the condemned cell of Coventry Gaol, the prison chaplain, Reverend Chapman, attempted to force a religious confession by holding her bare arm over a lighted candle flame, inflicting severe burns. When the prison governor discovered the abuse, the visiting magistrate dismissed Chapman from the prison service.
Why was Mary Ball executed by a local hangman instead of William Calcraft?
The civic authorities of Coventry considered London executioner William Calcraft’s travel expenses and professional fee too expensive, choosing instead to hire James Japhcote, a local tradesman and executioner from Nuneaton, to carry out the hanging.
Why is Mary Ball’s execution historically significant in Coventry?
She was the last person ever executed in Coventry. Her hanging on the New Drop gallows outside County Hall in Cuckoo Lane was attended by up to 20,000 spectators and is commemorated by an official wall plaque on the site.
Where and when was Mary Ball executed?
She was publicly hanged in Cuckoo Lane in front of County Hall, Coventry, on the morning of Thursday, 9 August 1849.
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