Usk Prison was originally constructed as a House of Correction, opening in 1844 and being enlarged in 1870 to become the County Gaol for Monmouthshire.
It has an imposing stone-built gatehouse and four cell blocks radiating off from a central spine, in the normal panopticon principle that was popular in Victorian times.
The reason for this form of construction was that one warder on each floor could keep watch on all the cells on that floor from a central guard point in the glass-topped rotunda.
Usk closed as the County Gaol in 1922 but reopened as a Borstal (for juvenile offenders) in 1939.
It became a Detention Centre in 1964, a Youth Custody Centre in 1983, and a Young Offenders Institution in 1988.
Finally, it became an adult Category C prison for vulnerable prisoners in 1990 and remains so today.
Monmouthshire was one of a small number of counties that had the County Gaol in a different town to the county town, Cheshire being another example, whose county gaol was at Knutsford rather than Chester, as detailed in our gazetteer of execution sites from the late 18th century to abolition in 1964.
Hangings and Hangmen at Usk
As public executions had ceased in 1868 following the Capital Punishment Amendment Act, all seven executions at Usk took place within the prison walls.
It was reported that the original place of execution was in an angle of the prison near the magistrates’ room on the south side of the complex.
The gallows was described as being constructed of deal and painted black. It was set over a pit dug in the yard, operating under the principles of the evolution of the long drop in the 20th century.
19th-Century Executions at Usk
Three men were hanged here in the 19th century:
| Name | Date of Execution | Executioner / Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| James Henry Gibbs | 24/08/1874 | William Marwood / none |
| Joseph Garcia | 18/11/1878 | William Marwood / none |
| Thomas Edwards | 22/12/1892 | James Billington / none |
James Henry Gibbs (1874)
On Wednesday the 3rd of June 1874 a farmer, John Hughes, discovered the body of Susan Ann Gibbs, the foul odour of decomposition leading him to the scene.
Susan was lying in a ditch with a few twigs covering her. She had not been seen since the 12th of May.
Suspicion immediately focused on Gibbs, who was a butler at nearby Llanrumney Hall.
He had married Susan the previous July, having met her in Reading where they both worked for the same family.
Gibbs was forced to live separately from his wife at Llanrumney Hall, and she took lodgings in Cardiff where he visited her on his days off.
It appears that 22-year-old Gibbs was also having an affair with a Miss Mary Jones at St. Mellons.
However, in early May he had promised to leave Llanrumney Hall and take Susan away with him.
On the 12th of May, Susan confronted Gibbs over his relationship with Mary.
Mary had, according to a witness, taken her umbrella with her, and this would later be found, together with her keys, in Gibbs’ possession.
Susan’s landlady, Mrs. Mahoney, received several letters from Gibbs on the 17th, 19th, and 29th of May, all of which implied that Susan was still alive and saying that she was unwell, but when she recovered they would come and collect her belongings.
The inquest on Susan opened on the 6th of June 1874 and, having adjourned and reconvened, returned a verdict of wilful murder against Gibbs, who was therefore committed for trial at the Monmouthshire Assizes.
The trial opened on Thursday the 6th of August at the Town Hall in Monmouth, before Mr. Justice Lush. The public gallery was full.
A letter written by Gibbs to Mary Jones was read out in court, in which he promised to meet her at St. Mellons.
Various witnesses described the angry meeting between Gibbs and Susan.
Mary Jones told the court that she believed Gibbs was single and had agreed to marry him.
The jury returned a guilty verdict on the Friday, having heard a lengthy statement from the defence, which did not offer any alternative scenarios.
Gibbs continued to protest his innocence in the condemned cell of Usk Prison, but to no avail.
On Monday the 24th of August he had to be dragged to the gallows by warders to face William Marwood. His final words were:
“God bless you all. God forgive me for these and other sins. It is a happy thing for me to know I die innocent.”
Marwood pulled the lever and Gibbs died almost without a struggle.
The Western Mail newspaper, which had devoted a huge amount of space to the trial, condemned Gibbs for his constant denial of his guilt.
Joseph Garcia (1878)
Four years would pass before the next execution.
Multiple murders were rare events in the late 1800s, especially in rural communities.
A particularly tragic case occurred on the evening of Wednesday the 17th of July 1878, when all five members of the Watkins family were murdered in their cottage at Llangibby, two miles south of Usk.
In the garden lay the bodies of forty-year-old William and his wife Elizabeth, 44, whilst in the upstairs bedrooms were discovered the bodies of their children: eight-year-old Charlotte, five-year-old Frederick, and four-year-old Alice.
All had been stabbed repeatedly, and the upstairs rooms had been set alight, the fire burning parts of the children’s bodies.
A fellow farm worker, seeing the smoke, went to investigate and made the grim discovery.
It seemed apparent from the state of the house that robbery had been the perpetrator’s initial motive and that the fire had been started in the hope of destroying the evidence of the murders.
A twenty-one-year-old Spaniard named Joseph Garcia had been released from Usk Prison on the morning of the murder, after serving a nine-month sentence for housebreaking.
He had decided to walk from Usk to Newport and was offered a lift by the driver of a cart, which he refused.
The driver was later to identify him from his appearance and unusual accent.
Later that evening he was spotted at Newport railway station, where he was arrested by Sergeant M’Grath.
He was found to be carrying a knife, and there were bloodstains on his clothes which he had attempted to wash and which were still damp.
He also bore cuts and bruises from his struggle with Mr. and Mrs. Watkins.
The police also found items belonging to William Watkins on Garcia, including his boots and some of his wife’s clothes.
On Monday the 22nd of July he was committed to the next Monmouth Assizes for trial.
The Spanish Consul, Señor Uncilla, had instructed a Mr. Ensor from Cardiff to defend Garcia.
After an application by the defence, who were concerned that Garcia would not get a fair trial in Monmouthshire, the trial judge, Baron Pollock, moved the venue to Gloucester, and his case was heard there on the 28th of October 1878.
Garcia spoke very little English and was represented by a Spanish-speaking barrister at the trial, throughout which he maintained his innocence.
The prosecution was conducted by Mr. Bosanquet and Mr. Lawrence.
He was convicted of the murders and returned to Usk to await execution.
He was hanged by William Marwood at 8:00 a.m. on Monday the 18th of November 1878.
The gallows was set up in an open quadrangle within the prison, and Garcia was led from the condemned cell to a pinioning cell adjacent to the quadrangle.
After pinioning he was accompanied to the gallows by Father Echevarria.
It would seem that Garcia’s neck was not broken by the drop, and the Western Mail reported that:
“the vibrations of the rope lasted for about five minutes.”
After the execution Marwood walked to the railway station to catch a train to Manchester for the hanging of James M’Gowan there the following day.
He received a hero’s send-off from waiting crowds at the station, such was the intense local feeling against Garcia.
In view of the heinous nature of the crime, it was widely reported in the English daily newspapers, and the Western Mail devoted a whole page to the case.
The scaffold was the same as was used by Marwood in the case of Gibbs.
Thomas Edwards (1892)
Thomas Edwards was a 30-year-old soldier who was hanged by James Billington on the 22nd of December 1892 for the murder of 21- or 22-year-old Mary Connolly at Abergavenny on the evening of Friday the 16th of September of that year.
Mary had been released from Usk Prison on this day having served a short sentence, and met up with Edwards for a drink at the Somerset Arms in the town.
As they walked from the pub along Hatherleigh Road, Edwards slit her throat with a razor.
He turned himself in on the following Sunday and was later identified by five witnesses.
Edwards was tried on the 1st and 2nd of December 1892 at the Monmouthshire Assizes before Mr. Justice Day.
It took the jury just ten minutes to return a guilty verdict.
The execution was reported as follows in The Evening Express:
“The scaffold was approached by two steps, which the prisoner scaled with the same resolute fortitude which had characterised him all through and quietly allowed himself to be placed on the drop and his legs to be pinioned.
Billington then adjusted the rope which dangled from the beam above and quickly placed a white cap over the man’s face, the bolt was withdrawn, and the convict dropped between five and six feet into the pit which had been excavated beneath.
Death appeared to be instantaneous. There was scarcely a quiver of the rope as he hung.
The whole transaction from the time the poor wretch left his cell till the moment he was launched into eternity was so expeditiously got through that the chaplain had only read a few of the sentences of the Burial Service when the drop fell, the poor convict had paid the penalty, and the service was abruptly ceased.”
It seems that Edwards wanted to kill prostitutes and wished to go to Newport to kill more, but fortunately could not afford the train fare.
It is not clear from surviving records whether Mary was actually a prostitute.
20th-Century Executions at Usk
In the 20th century a further four hangings took place at Usk:
| Name | Date of Execution | Executioner / Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Jeremiah Callaghan | 12/12/1902 | William & John Billington |
| John Edmunds | 03/07/1909 | Henry Pierrepoint & John Ellis |
| Thomas Clements | 24/03/1910 | Henry Pierrepoint & John Ellis |
| William Sullivan | 23/03/1922 | John Ellis & Thomas Phillips |
Jeremiah Callaghan (1902)
Jeremiah Callaghan, aged 42, was the next to be executed here.
Callaghan was from Ireland and a former soldier who had been convicted of the murder of his girlfriend, 38-year-old Hannah Shea, on the evening of the 4th of October 1902 near Bedwellty Workhouse, Tredegar.
The couple had been together for a number of years and had four children.
Callaghan was often unable to provide for his family, and Hannah and the children had to go into the local workhouse during these periods.
She and the children still saw Callaghan at weekends.
However, he began to believe that Hannah was seeing someone else and that she was spending their limited finances on drink.
At the time of the crime Callaghan was working for a stonemason and had arranged to meet Hannah after work, which he did in a local pub, the Black Prince, where he consumed a large quantity of beer.
He appeared to be quite drunk when they left the pub and tried to accompany Hannah and another workhouse inmate, Elizabeth Prothero, back to the workhouse, falling over at least twice on the way there.
As they neared the workhouse Callaghan pushed Hannah back against a stone wall, took a knife from his pocket, and slashed her throat.
She was able to run a few yards before she collapsed in the street.
The children managed to escape from their father.
Several people tried to save Hannah, including a local nurse, but to no avail.
In the meantime Callaghan had himself gone to the workhouse, where he was found casually smoking a pipe.
On hearing the news of Hannah’s death, William Thomas, the workhouse master, got Callaghan into his office and noted that the man’s hands were bloodstained.
He was able to detain him until the police arrived and took him into custody.
By Sunday Callaghan had sobered up and was surprised to learn that he was being charged with murder, expressing no recollection of the event.
He was tried at Monmouth Assizes, convicted, and hanged by William and John Billington on December 12th, 1902.
John Edmunds (1909)
John Edmunds, aged 33, was executed on July 3rd, 1909, for the murder of his elderly aunt, 72-year-old Mrs. Jane Morgan, at her farm cottage near Abersychan.
Edmunds had battered her to death with an iron bar before robbing her of a sum of money he knew she kept hidden in the house.
He was arrested following inconsistencies in his statements and blood found on his clothing.
He was convicted at the Monmouth Assizes and hanged by Henry Pierrepoint, assisted by John Ellis.
Thomas Clements (1910)
Thomas Clements, aged 32, was hanged on March 24th, 1910, for the brutal throat-slashing murder of his wife at Newport.
Clements, a laborer with a history of domestic violence and heavy drinking, attacked his wife during an argument in their home.
He was convicted at Monmouth Assizes and executed on the gallows by Henry Pierrepoint and John Ellis.
William Sullivan (1922)
William Sullivan, a 23-year-old seaman, became the final person executed at Usk Prison on March 23rd, 1922.
Sullivan was convicted of the robbery-murder of an elderly shopkeeper in Newport, whom he had bludgeoned to death during a raid on her shop.
He was tried at the Monmouthshire Assizes and sentenced to death.
He was hanged by John Ellis, assisted by Thomas Phillips.
Following Sullivan’s execution, Usk closed as the County Gaol later that year, and all future capital executions for Monmouthshire were transferred to Cardiff Prison up until the abolition of capital punishment in Britain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was the County Gaol of Monmouthshire built in Usk rather than Monmouth?
Although Monmouth was the historic county and Assize town, the county authorities chose Usk in 1844 to construct a modern House of Correction and enlarged it in 1870 as the County Gaol due to its central geographical position within Monmouthshire.
How many executions took place at Usk Prison?
A total of seven executions took place at Usk Prison between 1874 and 1922—three in the 19th century and four in the 20th century. All were carried out privately within the prison grounds.
What was the Llangibby cottage massacre?
On July 17, 1878, five members of the Watkins family—William, Elizabeth, and their three young children—were brutally stabbed to death and their cottage burned at Llangibby. Joseph Garcia, a Spanish sailor recently released from Usk Prison, was convicted of the crime and hanged by William Marwood on November 18, 1878.
Who was the last person executed at Usk Prison?
William Sullivan, a 23-year-old seaman convicted of murder in Newport, was the final person executed at Usk Prison on March 23, 1922, hanged by executioner John Ellis and assistant Thomas Phillips.
What is Usk Prison used for today?
After closing as a County Gaol in 1922, Usk served successively as a Borstal, a Detention Centre, a Youth Custody Centre, and a Young Offenders Institution. In 1990 it was repurposed into an adult Category C prison for vulnerable prisoners, a role it retains today.
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