The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-27 00:00:00

THE HALMENEND MURDER

EXECUTION OF DOWNING AND POWYS.
STAFFORD, SATURDAY AFTBRNOON.—A com-
munication having been received this morning by the
authorities, that the decision of the judges had been
against the prisoners, the Sheriffs fixed twelve o'clock
to-day for their execution. At an early hour the Rev.
Chaplain visited the unhappy men, and continued with
them up to the period when the fatal bolt was drawn.
At elevea o'clock the wretched men received the
Holy Sacrament, and paid the most mrrked attention
to every part of that impressive service, making the
responses with apparently much fervour. In the
course of the morning Downing said, in reply to a
question put by the Rev. Gentleman, " I have spoke
the truth—it is a hard thing to suffer for other folks'
deeds ; and the lad and me is as free as the Bible of
this." He afterwards said, in the course of conversa-
tion, " If we suffer, we shall suffer wrongful ; we
could na' help what folks said agen us, or the jury
bringing us guilty; but we are as innocent as a child
unborn ;" and Powys, in reply to the Rev. Gentleman,
said, " I am innocent of it."
After the unhappy men were pinioned, the chaplain
asked them whether either of them had any request
to make with respect to their relatives ? They both
desired him to inform their friends that they hoped
they would prepare to meet them in Heaven, and
that they would lead a good life ; that they were
going out of the world innocent, and were not afraid
to die. Precisely at twelve o'clock the tolling of the
prison bell announced that the melancholy procession
was moving towards the place of execution.
The culprits, who had undergone no apparent alte-
ration since their trial, walked with a firm and un-
faltering step. On reaching the lodge, Powys, who
saw Mr. Superintendent Bergen, requested him to
shake hands with him, and said, emphatically, " God
bless you! It's hard to die innocent ; but I can for-
give you." Downing ascended the drop with a hasty
step, and placed himself immediately under the fatal
beam, and whilst the executioner was adjusting the
rope, he said—" Gentlemen, here is two chaps going
to be murdered. We are going to die as innocent as
a child unborn. We are free from it." Powys then
ascended the scaffold, and whilst the executioner was
putting the rope round his neck, he said to him, " I
want to say something ; don't put the rope so tight—l
can't breathe." The chaplain then shook hands with
Downing, and exhorted him, in the most solemn
manner, to tell the whole truth, as he was about to
leave the world ; to which Downing replied, " I am
not guilty ; lam as innocent as a child unborn. The
Lord in Heaven knows we are, and we shall be with
him in a very short time." The chaplain having also
shaken hands with Powys, and repeated the ex-
hortation, Powys said, " We are going to die
for a thing we know nothing about, and I hope the
Lord in Heaven will protect us." He added, "'We
are going to suffer for that which we are innocent of ;"
to which Downing rejoined, " Yes, and it will be
known before twelve months who is the guilty person,
and they will be no better off than we are." Powys
said, " We have had our lives sworn away ; but I can
forgive." Downing further said, "I hope it will come
out, and that the country will know that we are in-
nocent, and our friends will be cleared of it. The
Lord knows that we are going to suffer for a thing
that we never did." He also said he was going to die
for injuring a man he never injured in his life, and
the man never injured him. After the caps had been
drawn over their faces, and whilst the chaplain was
proceeding with the burial service, both the criminals
praying aloud, apparently with great fervour, that
their souls might be saved. Whilst they were engaged
in prayer the drop fell, and the world closed upon
them for ever. Downing ceased at once to live, but
Powys was greatly convulsed, and struggled for
several minutes.

THE EARL OF MORNINGTON.—We regret to hear
there is no improvement whatever in the health of this
venerable nobleman. Up to an advanced hour, the
answer given to the numerous inquiries was, that the
Noble Earl remained much the same.
Lord Francis Egerton has, we regret to say, been
suffering from an attack of gout, at Hatchford Hall. His
Lordship is, however, again convalescent. Mr. F.
Egerton has joined the Excellent, at Port mouth.

EXECUTION OF WM. HO WELL,
IPSWICH, SATURDAY AFTERNOON.—This wretched
man expiated his offence on the scaffold in front of
Ipswich gaol at twelve o'clock. His two companions
in crime—Walter Howell, his brother, and Israel
Shipley—were respited on Friday.
The Rev. Mr. Page has been most unremitting in
his attention to the condemned criminals, all of whom
have conducted themselves in an exemplary man-
ner. When the elder Howell (William) entered the
gaol, about five months since, he was not able to read
or write, nor did he know a syllable of the Lord's
Prayer ; but, by the excellent regulations of the prison,
he had made himself a tolerable plain scholar by a
close application to the books that were furnished him
by the visiting justices and the chaplain.
On Friday he saw his mother and sister, in the
bpresence of the Governor and another officer, and the
scene was a very distressing one. The prisoner
throughout his confinement has protested his inno-
cence, and on Thursday night he slapped Turner,
one of the turnkeys, on the shoulder, and remarked,
" I know I deserve to die for the many offences I
have committed, but I declare to God I never steeped
my hands in human blood." Soon after he observed,
" There is a man in this prison who could save my
life if he liked." This was in reference to a smuggler
lately apprehended, and to whom all the condemned
criminals addressed a letter, which they entrusted to
the Rev. Chaplain to deliver. On another occasion
he observed, " That man ought to pray to his God to-
morrow at twelve, when I am on the scaffold."
On Friday night, after the chaplain left the prison,
the culprit offered up a sincere prayer, and then sank
down from exhaustion in his bed.
From an early hour thousands began to assemble
in the vicinity of the prison, and the all-absorbing
topic was whether all the culprits were to die, for it
was not generally known iu the town that any re-
spites had arrived.
At nine o'clock the Rev. F. Page entered the gaol,
and directly proceeded to the prisoner's cell. Having
remained about an hour with the culprit, he next
proceeded to the chapel to prayers. The prisoner
joined in the devotional service with great earnest-
ness, and at the conclusion partook of the sacrament.
His brother, Walter Howell, and Shipley, likewise
partook of the sacrament, and betrayed great emotion
and penitence.
The prayers having been ended, the two Howells
and Shipley, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Page,
went into the Rev. Gentleman's room, which is ad-
joining the Governor's house, at the western end of
the convicts' yard. Here it was that they took their
final leave, and a most distressing scene ensued.
From eleven o'clock the bell of St. Margaret's
Church tolled at intervals, up to twelve o'clock, a
solemn death-knell for the criminal. About the
latter hour the awful procession was discovered
emerging out of the door• way of the governor's
house, and wending its slow progress to the gate-
keeper's lodge, in front of which the gallows was
erected.
On entering the lodge the prisoner knelt down in
the centre, before a stool, and the chaplain continued
reading prayers. The culprit three times ejaculated,
with his hands upraised and clasped together, in a
firm but agonised tone, " Gracious Lord, look down
upon me ; Lord help me ; Lord have mercy upon me !"
Calcraft pinioned his arms while he was kneeling,
and this having been done, he stood up and cried
aloud, " Gracious God, be merciful unto me !
0 Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit !
O Saviour, blessed Jesus, receive my soul !" He
took no notice of those who surrounded him,
but ascended the ladder unassisted, and with a
firm step. Calcraft having adjusted the fatal noose,
and drawing a cap over his face, he continued to move
his hand, and pray aloud. Immediately before the
drop fell, he said, with great emphasis, to the mob,
" My dear friends, I die innocent of the crime laid to
me, that is all I wish to say to you." The drop then
fell, and the wretched man was launched into eternity
without making scarcely a perceptible struggle. The
body having been suspended an hour, it was cut down,
and was to be buried at night within the precincts of
the gaol. It was calculated that there were above
12,000 spectators 'present, a majority of whom were
females and boys.
THE CHAPLAIN'S STATEMENT.
After the last penalty of the law had been enforced,
the chaplain was so deeply affected that he was com-
pelled to retire to his private reom in the gaol ; but
as soon as he had recovered from the shock his nerves
had sustained, he favoured the reporter with the fol-
lowing statement :
" From the first moment that he (Howell) came
here, five months ago, there has always been a spirit
of devotion about him ; and although some points
were reserved for the judges, he prepared to meet his
fate immediately after his trial. When I informed
him, on Sunday morning last, that the judges had
decided against him, he gave himself up from that
time to constant prayer, and placed himself entirely
in the hands of his spiritual instructors, exhibiting the
most extreme penitence. This morning he took the
sacrament with the two prisoners who have been re-
spited. Ido not generally administer the sacrament
—I did not to the last poor woman—but I believe
their minds were in a fit state to receive it. He ap-
peared to find great comfort in the prayers of the
Communion Service, the meaning of which I had
fully explained to him on Friday night.
When he heard from me that Walter's life was
to be spared, but his own doom remained unchanged,
he said, Thank God, for sparing my poor brother
Walter's life ;' he made no complaint of his own
sentence being carried out ; not a word of any kind
escaped his lips. On Thursday, when he parted with
his mother, he sent word to his wife and child—he
told his mother, ' Oh, tell my, dear wife to turn
from sin and serve God, and bring up my child in
the fear of God.' Up to the time the younger Howell
received the message of mercy, he was young and
thoughtless, and I could not fix his mind upon the
awful fact that he was about to die. From the mo-
ment, however, that he was told his sentence was
respited, he has been deeply overcome. After they
had left the chapel this morning, they came into my
room and he threw his arms round his brother's neck
at parting, and several times kissed him ; his brother
enjoined him to repent, but his exact words I do not
know. Shipley also bade the criminal good-bye, and
shook hands with him, on which Howell emphatically
said, Oh, Shipley, turn from sin.' The Rev. Ed-
ward Harstson, the Rector of St. Stephens, and the
Rev. Mr. Reeve, of Trinity, assisted me in affording
them spiritual consolation before the respite arrived,
and we are all agreed that William Howell died in a
repentant and believing state of mind and heart. We
received a letter from the Secretary of State this
morning, ordering Shipley and Walter Howell to be
transported for life. We made very important com-
munications, the nature of which I cannot tell you,
to the Secretary of State, and I believe they led to
the commutation of their sentences. I doubt if Sir J.
Graham was influenced by the petition from the town."