Milford chronicle., 1924-06-13
One Woman Hung
In Sussex County
Many Years Ago
She Was a NegresS, Convicted at
Georgetown for Poisoning Girl.
BY HENRY c. CONRAD

ware has led me to make some re
search of the records of Sussex count,
and to consult some of our oldest in
habitants regarding the matter.
George w. Hatfield retired under
taker, now in his seventy-ninth year
suggested that as a boy he remember
ed that in his boyhOod days three cul
prits suffered death on the scaffold il
Georgetown on the same day, two oi
whom were men and one a woman.
William w. Rawlins, the respected
cashier of the Farmers Bank also re-
membered the same things although
that was two years before he came to
live in Georgetown. 1t was through
the suggestion of Mr. Rawlins that |
got in contact with Motion R. Pepper.
a retired contractor and carpenter of
this town, now in his eighty-second
year.
Records Show Conviction
Mr. Peppers recollections were
clear and distinct. The court records
here disclose that at the October
term, 1860 of the Oyer and Terminer
Court in this county, that Sarah Jane
Bradley, cOlOred, was tried and con-
Victed of murder of the first degree
for the killing Of one Ella L. Wright.
The facts as established at the trial
showed that the prisoner was a house
maid in the family of one William
Wright and in the absence of the fam
lily was left in charge of a young
child, Ella, and that she poisoned or
strangled the child by administering
to it water in which a box of blue
head matches had been soaked
At the same term of court Levi
Jenkins, described in the indictment
as a free Negro, was tried and con-
victed Of rape on one Hester Ann
jenkins, a young cOlOred woman, pre-
sumably related to the prisoner.
A third case tried at the same term, |
was that of John H. Cannon, also /
free Negro, indicted for the killing of |
one Sarah Ann Griffith, white school .
teacher, who lived in the vicinity of
Greenwood. He was convicted of
murder in the first degree.
At the conclusion of the three capi
tai cases the court sentenced each of |.
the three convicts to be hanged by
the neck until dead" within the pris-
on yard enclosure on Friday. the 18th 1
day of Dcember next, 1860. The court ;
was composed of Chief Justice Gilpin
and Associates Houson, WoOtten and
Wales. The three leading lawyers in
the county were assigned by the court
to defend the prisoners, Alfred P.
Robinson being named to represent I
the Bradley girl Caleb s. Layton to S
defend Cannon, and Jacob Moore TO \
defend Jenkins.
When the sentence of death was \
pronounced upon the girl, Bradley, t
she became hysterical and was highly Y
nervous and excitable during the two n
months that elapsed from the day of
sentence until the date of the eXecu- K
tion, her cries and bewailings being so 8
loud as to be heard all over town.
GrueSOme Task for Sheriff II
To Motion R. Pepper and his father, 81
Peter Pepper, fell the task of erecting
the scaffold in the Jail yard, Peter 1t
Pepper being for years the leading W
carpenter in the town. The scaffold
was of unusual size in order to ac- b.
commodate the three convicts. The G
day of execution arrived and as large in
a crowd as ever assembled in George
town came together, beginning to ar to
rive early in the day. The prisoners al
were seated on the platform, their
arms and legs pinioned and the caps m
placed over their heads. The girl, eI
Bradley, kept up piteous pleading to er
the end; the men were stolid and in be
different. When the time came to OF
pull the rope that released the trap, w
the sheriff, William F. Jones, became aV
unnerved, and failing to release the
trap, an eX-sheriff known locally as te
Duck Lofand, volunteered to pull
the rope and in a moment the trap fell pc
and the bodies were dangling in the ca
air. Death was almost instantaneous, pa
all being pronounced dead within ten
minutes. frt
The mother of Cannon, who lived at en-
Milford, claimed the body of her son, on
and arranged with a Milford man lee
named White to take it to Milford on
The body in a pine coffin, was deliver the
ID to White, but it is asserted that be-
ore reaching his destination White wa
old the body to some medical stu it !
ents and substituted bricks and pie
tones in the coffin in place of the
ody. The coffin was not delivered to mil
he mother but buried by White, who wit
epresented to the mother that the I
ody was not fit to be seen. The mo- the
her, it is said, had the coffin dug up the
nd opened and the contents of brick pro
nd stones was disclosed. 1
The bodies of Jenkins and the girl, fro
radley were placed in coffins, fur n
ished by the sheriff and after dark, ten
n the night of the execution, they is
Tere taken by Motion Pepper and wee
ufus Warren to Layton's woods or N
licket, about a mile or so from town Mes
nd buried. Mr.. Pepper says the day Of
nd night of the execution was as cold at
5 any he ever felt and that the task N
! burying the bodies was an unpleas- bee
1T and forbidding as any he ever I'm hav
ertook. the
On the Sunday following the dis T
,sal of the bodies, Mr.. Pepper and lear
lrty of young men went to the woods Mrs
Id found that the coffins and bodies by
ID been dug up and removed--the the
Drk of medical students-as Pepper M
i'd the generality Of people of that quit
Y believed. recc
So herein, I have related the story W
sixty-four years ago, of the one ines
,man, who so far as I can learn. the
is the only woman who has paid the
treme penalty of the law for the
King of a human life.
Judges, jurors, court officers, attor-
VS., all are gone, only two or three
I tn recall the gruesome story. "a