The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1875-04-03 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

EXECUTION AT STAFFORD.  The execution of John Stanton, who was convicted at the last Assizes for the murder of his uncle, Thos. Nield, at Stafford, took place within the County Prison yesterday morning. The murder was committed in a public-house, where the two parties had been for hours drinking. A quarrel took place, and Stanton went out for a shoemaker's knife, with which he stabbed Nield. Since his condemnation Stanton has been very penitent, and in his interviews with relatives and friends has expressed his readiness to suffer for his crime. He was visited on Monday morning by his father and mother, who have, it is said, been for many years separated. It is reported that after these parties left the prison they made for an adjacent public-house. The woman was prevented going in by a companion, but shortly afterwards she escaped from restraint and spent the day in drinking. By seven o'clock yesterday morning large numbers of people had congregated around the corner of the prison where it was known the gallows were to be fixed, and considerable anxiety was manifested by some of them to get as close as possible to the precise spot so (as some of them said) that they might hear " the drop." During the night Stanton agoke several times and engaged in devotion for a Time, again sleeping calmly. Finally aroused, he partook of breakfast, and evidently looked forward to his dreadful end with composure and resignation. He had, in fact, declared that it was better for him that he should die, prepared as he then was, than still live among his evil associations. He underwent the terrible pinioning process with great firmness, and shortly before eight o'clock, the procession started for the final scene. There were present the deputy sheriff, Mr. Blakiston ; the deputy chief constable, Mr. Osswell ; the deputy governor of the prison, Mr. Mountford ; the two chaplains, and a few subordinate' officers. The condemned 'man, although lame, walked the whole distance to the gallows and mounted the steps without assistance, although one of the warders walked near to him to render him instant help if needed. While the procession moved from the cell to the scaffold the culprit fervently prayed, and continued to do so until the last moment, in fact even after the white cap was drawn over his face his lips were plainly seen to move. Being only a small man he did not die quickly, and terrible traces of suffering and agony were marked on his features as two hours afterwards he lay in the dead house. The usual inquest was held by the coroner. The hangman's name has not transpire& but it is said that in consequence of pressure of business at a distance, Marwood would not officiate, and the authorities have been at their wits' end to find an executioner, who at the last moment turned up from the Black Country, but in so torn and tattered a concStion that he had to be rigged out in a suit of clothes before he -was considered decent enough for his employment. Judging from appearances, his new suit was the cast-off raiment of a clergyman. Stanton was 22 years of age and has been married about six months. His wife's friends reside at Bloxwish, and the poor woman left Stafford for that town. It is rather more than sixty years since a Stafford man was executed for murder. About twenty-three years ago a murder took place near the town, at the Ashflats, but on that occasion the culprit, although a resident, was not a native.  MR. Phillip Gray, landlord of the Bird and Bolt Hotel, Cambridge, was fined £5 and costs by the Cambridge magistrates on Saturday for permitting gambhug on his premises. The evidence upon which the conviction was based was that of two policemen, who ,said that at different periods of the 'night they stood against the shutters outside defendant's commercial room, and distinctly heard money chinking and remarks made indicating that card playing was going on. The persons in the house were commercial travellers.  A 130euaoss correspondent states that Captain Boyton, the American gentleman who ha invented the lifesaving dress which bears his name, has arrived there to make arrangements for his perilous feat of crossing the Channel in his apparatus. He has fixed the 7th of April to make his attempt, and purposes starting from Dover on that morning at eight a.m. Boulogne and not Calais, as previously announced, will be the point of arrival, and Captain Boyton estimates at fifteen hours the time that will be 000upied by the hazardous passage.  TO