The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-30 00:00:00

EXECUTION OF GEORGE CHAMPION

AND JOHN JAMES.

The above unfortunate young men,—
one of whom was only 21 and the other
22 years of age, underwent the awful sentence
of the law on Friday, at the New Drop of the
Devon County Gaol, having been convicted at
the late Assizes of robbing the house of Mr.
Tucker, watchmaker, &c. of Tiverton. Up to
the period when the reprieve came for Vallack
and Pickup, convicted of the Kingsand rob-
bery, they entertained hopes that mercy would
be extended towards them ; but that expectatiors
having vanished with the above circumstance,
they gradually resigned themselves to their fate,
and awaited it with fortitude, which, on the
part of Champion, almost approached to indif-
ference.

So-little, however, did the terrific doom that
awaited them impress their minds with horror,
that they seemed to enjoy an extraordinary degree
of tranquillity, never rejecting their food, and
nightly taking their regular repose. On the
morning of the day when the world was to closes
upon them for ever, they received the sacrament
in a most becoming manner, and seemed fully
sensible of the importance of that solemn cere-
mony. With respect to James, the real situa-
tion in which he stood, evidently absorbed every
other consideration, and, we think, led to sin-
cere repentance. Shortly after 12 o'clock they
were conducted from the cells, through the Go-
vernor's 'house, to the press-room, the stairs
leading to which they ascended with the greatest.
fortitude, though by no means insensible to
what passed around them, and exhibiting no
sign of levity whatever. During the dreadful
preparation of pinioning their arms and attach-.
ing the heavy irons to their legs, Champion em-
phatically said, " It is a shocking thing for twd
such young men as we to die like this." To
which his companion, with a bursting heart, and
the greatest exertion to suppress the tears rising-
in his eyes, replied, "0 ! it is, George." They
ascended the other flight of steps to the drop
with the same firmness that had characterised
them through the former part of the distressing:
scene, and even upon the platform it did not
forsake them. They bowed repeatedly to
the crowd that were assembled in the
field fronting the gaol. Turning to the
prisoners, who were, as is customary, arran-
ged to have a sight of them, they shook
their heads, as if telling them to view and take
warning from their fate. After the ropes were
adjusted, Champion inquired for the chaplains
remarking, nearly at the same moment, that he
hoped his father was not in the crowd, to see his
melancholy end ; and he occasionally lifted his
eyes to the beam around which the rope was
placed, surveying it with the utmost compla-
cency, and occasionally addressing himself to the
executioner, or any one near him. The feelings
of James, however, appeared so completely over-
powered, that he did. not utter a syllable, with
the exception of his reply to Champion in the
press-room, but surveyed every person around
him with the utmost self-possession. Previous
to the usual service fin. such occasions being
read, the Rev. Mr. Chave asked if they had any
thing they were desirous to communicate; when
Champion confessed to his having, in connection
with another, who has since been transported,
robbed a person of Cardiff, named Markes, a
watchmaker, to a considerable amount—he wish-.
ed, he said, to disclose this circumstance, it being
gent ally believed that he never hid been robbed
at all. James preserved an uninterrupted silence,
and nothing further escaped either of them to
elucidate any transaction in which they might
formerly have been concerned. The Rev. Gen-
tleman then proceeded to read the prayers in a
most impressive tone, the wretched culprits re-
peating them with unsubdued resolution ; and
when, as the Minister drew nearly to the close,
the executioner ascended the ladder to draw the
caps over , their faces, Champion hastily lifted
his, requesting that he might be allowed to kiss
his " partner." They then joined hands, and
the service was proceeded in, when, at a certain
part of it, the bolt was withdrawn, and they were
launched into eternity. They struggled a con-
siderable time, and many minutes elapsed before
life was extinct—Champion's sufferings in death
appeared great, but James's were more lengthen-
ed.—Exeter Alfred.