“If Pa killed Ma who’d kill Pa – Marwood”
Early Life and Career
William Marwood was born in 1818 at Goulceby, near Horncastle in Lincolnshire.
He was a cobbler by trade who had, over the years, taken a great interest in the “art” of hanging and felt that the mechanical process could be greatly improved.
He introduced the “long drop” method of hanging to England, which had originally been developed by medical surgeons in Ireland, notably the mathematical research of Dr. Samuel Haughton.
Marwood realized that if the condemned prisoner was given a calculated drop of 6 to 10 feet depending upon their body weight, and with the noose correctly positioned beneath the angle of the jaw, death would be “nearly instantaneous” due to the cervical spine being broken (fracture-dislocation of the $C2$/$C3$ vertebrae), as detailed in our study of the evolution of the long drop in the 20th century.
The long drop method removed all the gruesome struggling and agonizing convulsing from the proceedings that had characterized the older short drop method operated by William Calcraft and his predecessors, as surveyed in our introduction to the Bloody Code.
It was undoubtedly far less cruel to the prisoner, and far less trying to the governor and staff of the prison who, since the Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868 ended public spectacles, had to witness the executions at close quarters within prison walls.
First Execution: William Frederick Horry (1872)
Marwood had never previously hanged anyone or even assisted at an execution.
However, at the age of 54, he successfully persuaded the magistrates and prison authorities at Lincoln Castle to permit him to carry out the hanging of William Frederick Horry on the 1st of April 1872.
Horry had been convicted of the fatal shooting of his wife, Jane Horry, at Boston.
The execution went off without a hitch, producing instantaneous death, and deeply impressed the governor of Lincoln Prison and attending civic officials.
Appointment as Official Hangman
When London’s long-serving executioner William Calcraft retired under pressure from the authorities in 1874, Marwood was duly appointed as official executioner by the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex.
He received an official retainer of £20.00 per annum plus a fee of £10.00 for each execution performed.
Unlike Calcraft, he received no fixed municipal salary.
In accordance with long-standing tradition, he was still permitted to claim the condemned person’s clothing to sell to collectors and waxwork museums, and received reimbursed travelling expenses.
His first execution at Newgate Prison took place on the 29th of June 1874, when he hanged Frances Stewart for the murder of her grandson.
National and International Reach
The British railway network was so advanced by the 1870s that Marwood could travel anywhere in the country with ease and speed.
This made it possible for him to carry out the vast majority of judicial executions across England and Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, establishing a centralized standard across jurisdictions detailed in our historical survey of execution sites from the late 18th century to abolition in 1964.
He also carried out the last public hanging in the British Isles when he executed Joseph Philip Le Brun at St. Helier on the island of Jersey on the 11th of August 1875.
The Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868, which mandated private executions within prison walls, had overlooked the Channel Islands, which maintained separate insular legal systems.
Persona and Public Perception
Marwood strongly disliked the vulgar term “hangman” and never referred to himself as anything other than the “public executioner.”
He was something of a national celebrity and had official business cards printed reading:
“William Marwood, Public Executioner, Horncastle, Lincolnshire”
The words “Marwood Crown Office” were prominently displayed over the entrance to his shoemaking workshop.
This was a small, one-storey building situated near the village church in Horncastle.
In addition to his traditional shoemaking tools, hemp execution ropes hung from the roof beams, with which he had carried out many of his famous executions.
He was very proud of these ropes and was always prepared to exhibit them to curious visitors, discoursing freely on the notorious criminals whom they had hanged.
One particular rope had been used successively to execute:
- Charles Peace (the notorious burglar and double murderer);
- Dr. George Henry Lamson (who poisoned his brother-in-law with aconitine);
- Percy Lefroy Mapleton (the railway murderer);
- Kate Webster (who murdered and dismembered her mistress in Richmond).
Last Words and Religious Reputation
Before his execution at Leeds Prison in 1879, Charles Peace reportedly said to Marwood:
“Do your work quickly,”
to which Marwood reassuringly replied:
“You shall not suffer pain from my hand.”
Peace responded:
“God bless you! I hope to meet you all in Heaven!”
Marwood frequently reflected on his official calling, telling newspaper reporters:
“I am doing God’s work, according to the Divine command and the law of the British Crown.
I do it simply as a matter of duty and as a Christian.
I sleep as soundly as a child and am never disturbed by phantoms.”
Execution Record and Technical Innovations
In his eleven years of active service between 1872 and 1883, Marwood hanged 179 people, including eight women:
- England and Wales: 145 executions (including his solitary job at Stafford Prison hanging Robert Taylor in 1874);
- Ireland: 26 executions;
- Scotland: 7 executions;
- Channel Islands: 1 execution (Jersey).
His career included 14 double executions, three triple hangings, and one quadruple hanging at Newgate Prison.
He worked without an assistant for the majority of single executions, though prison warders assisted on the scaffold when required.
Marwood introduced significant technical improvements to the physical apparatus:
- The Brass Eyelet Noose: He replaced Calcraft’s stiff, crude hemp loops with a free-running rope fitted with a copper or brass thimble/eyelet, which tightened smoothly around the neck during the drop.
- Sub-Aural Knot Placement: He insisted on positioning the running eyelet under the left angle of the jaw, ensuring that the jerk of the rope snapped the neck backward, fracturing the cervical vertebrae.
- Improved Pinioning Gear: He redesigned leather body belts and wrist straps to secure the condemned prisoner swiftly.
- Scaffold Architecture: He petitioned prison authorities to eliminate steep steps leading up to raised scaffolds, designing gallows where the trapdoor was installed flush with the execution chamber floor over a sunken pit.
Notable Cases in Ireland: The Phoenix Park Murders
Marwood was frequently summoned to Ireland by the prison authorities.
His most prominent Irish commission occurred following the Phoenix Park murders of May 6th, 1882, in which Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Henry Burke, the Permanent Undersecretary, were stabbed to death in Dublin by the Irish National Invincibles.
Marwood was engaged to execute Joe Brady and four other members of the Invincibles gang:
- Joe Brady (hanged 14 May 1883);
- Daniel Curley (hanged 18 May 1883);
- Michael Fagan (hanged 28 May 1883);
- Thomas Caffrey (hanged 2 June 1883);
- Timothy Kelly (hanged 9 June 1883).
All five executions were carried out by Marwood inside Dublin’s Kilmainham Gaol.
Final Years, Mishap, and Death
Marwood’s final execution was that of James Burton at Durham Prison on the 6th of August 1883.
During the drop, Burton’s pinioned arm caught in the slack of the rope hanging down his back, preventing the loop from tightening properly and failing to break his neck.
The executioner was forced to haul the conscious prisoner back up to the platform, readjust the rope, and release the trap a second time to complete the hanging.
Less than four weeks later, on the 4th of September 1883, William Marwood died at his Horncastle home at the age of 65 from “inflammation of the lungs” (pneumonia).
Assistants and Legacy
Marwood worked alongside George Incher of Dudley on occasions requiring an assistant (such as multiple executions) until 1881.
Following Marwood’s sudden death, the Home Office and county sheriffs received hundreds of applications from candidates eager to succeed him, including several applications submitted by women.
He was succeeded as principal executioner by Bartholomew Binns and subsequently by James Berry, who expanded Marwood’s principles into comprehensive tables of drops based on body mass and kinetic energy.
Marwood’s scientific long-drop principles were adopted throughout the Empire, influencing colonial executions conducted by John Robert Radclive in Canada (as at the hangings of Cordelia Poirier and Hilda Blake) and executions across Australasia, including Minnie Dean in New Zealand and Jean Lee in Australia.
His innovations laid the direct foundation for the official 1886 Aberdare Committee Report and the 1913 Home Office Table of Drops, which governed British capital justice until the abolition of capital punishment in Britain in 1965.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was William Marwood?
William Marwood (1818–1883) was a Horncastle shoemaker who served as Britain’s official executioner from 1874 until his death in 1883, carrying out 179 executions. He is renowned as the pioneer who introduced the scientific long-drop method of hanging to Great Britain.
What was the “long drop” method introduced by Marwood?
The long drop was an execution method where the prisoner was dropped a calculated distance of 6 to 10 feet based on body weight. When combined with sub-aural knot placement, the kinetic force broke the cervical vertebrae instantly, ending life immediately and replacing the slow suffocation of the short drop.
Who was William Marwood’s first execution?
Marwood carried out his first execution at Lincoln Castle on April 1, 1872, hanging William Frederick Horry for the murder of his wife, after persuading local magistrates to test his long-drop method.
Which famous criminals were executed by Marwood?
Marwood executed many notorious 19th-century figures, including burglar and murderer Charles Peace, poisoner Dr. George Henry Lamson, railway killer Percy Lefroy Mapleton, baby farmer Margaret Waters, and the Phoenix Park Invincibles at Kilmainham Gaol.
Where and when was the last public execution in the British Isles?
The last public execution in the British Isles was carried out by William Marwood on August 11, 1875, when he hanged Joseph Philip Le Brun at St. Helier on the island of Jersey, as the Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868 did not apply to the Channel Islands.
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