Recollections of John Thurtell, who was executed at Hertford on Friday, the 9th of January, 1824 for murdering Mr. W. Weare. Including various anecdotes, and an account of his demeanour after sentence was passed. Also, the condemned sermon, and a correct view of the execution, taken on the spot by an eminent artist / by Pierce Egan ; being an appendix to his account of the trial.
- Pierce Egan
- Date:
- 1824
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Recollections of John Thurtell, who was executed at Hertford on Friday, the 9th of January, 1824 for murdering Mr. W. Weare. Including various anecdotes, and an account of his demeanour after sentence was passed. Also, the condemned sermon, and a correct view of the execution, taken on the spot by an eminent artist / by Pierce Egan ; being an appendix to his account of the trial. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![into your most serious consideration. I now for the last time assert my inno- cence. | repeat, I hope your Lordship will take my request into.your serious-con- sideration, when I beseech you to postpone the execution until Monday next, My reason for asking) this is, that my friends.are at a considerable distance, and many of them wish to see me. For myself alone I would not ask this delay ; for if the sentence were. to be executed now, I am.ready ; but I ask it for the sake of those whose feelings on this occasion are of more interest to me than my own, Between me and some members of my family there are some matters to be arranged which will require the delay for which I ask. cig auf wad'é During this short address, the prisoner spoke‘in a subdued though }firm tone of voice, and was evidently, labouring under considerable anxiety... Whenever any allusion was made to his family, he seemed to be much affected. - The prisoner Hunt declined to address the court. oe Justice Park, having put on the black coif, addressed the prisoners as follows :— ** John 'Thurtell and Joseph Hunt, after a very full, a very fair, and, I trust,.an impartial trial by a jury of your country, you have been found, I think with great pro- priety, guilty of the offences with which you have been respectively charged—you, John Thurtell, as a principal in the murder, and you, Joseph Hunt, as his accessory. It cannot but give to every feeling mind deep regret, that a person who has this day. shown himself born for better things, and who, I hope, in earlier life, received im- pressions of virtue from his parents, should have committed so detestable a crime; for, notwithstanding the assertions of innocence which you have over and oyer again made, I, who can only judge like all other mortals from the evidence before me, am as fully satisfied of your guilt, as if I had seen you commit the crime with my mortal eyes. I beseech you not to lay that flattering unction to your soul, lest that all-seeing eye, which, as you have this day truly said, reads all hearts, should discover that you have entered his presence with a lie in your mouth, and perjury in your right hand. You know, and he knows, whether there is any foundation for the assertion which you have so often repeated. By the evidence before me, it appears that this is one of the most foul and wicked murders that ever was perpetrated. That you should have formed an ntimacy with the deceased in those haunts of gaming and vice which are the bane of society; that you should have professed friendship for him; that you should have invited him to the house of your friend; that he should have carried with him clothes for his ornament and for his use; and that in a moment of darkness, and before he reached that house, he should be no more—cut off by your hand, are all circumstances aggravating your crime. If he was a man of such character as’ has been represented, think how much the criminality of you and your accomplice has been increased, by sending him to his final account before he could once think of his God, or call upon his name.*I seek not to aggravate this offence. I wish not to make you more wretched, but I hope that you will not apply some healing falsehood to your souls. Short as your time is for preparation, remember that it is more than twenty times told, that which you gave to this unhappy man. Between the last -assizes and the present time, I hope you have not been wanting in providing the defence you have: this day made, as well as in a much more important affair, in making your peace with that God with whom alone is mercy. The clergyman of this gaol is, I under- stand, a most respectable man. I recommend you to converse earnestly with him, and to seek the only means of regaiuing, through the meritstof your Saviour, the pardon of God whom you have offended. I implore you to seek for it earnestly, and I pray most sincerely that the gates of mercy may be still a to you. [The Judge was here much affected; the prisoner Hunt sobbed lou ly, and placed his handkerchief before his face. ‘Thurtell’s countenance indi- cated-no emotion; he was serious and profoundly attentive.] To that mercy I commit you. The sentence of !the law upon you John Thurtell is, that you be taken hence to the use from whence you came, and that on Friday next, the 9th of January, you be taken to a piare of execution, there to be hanged by the neck untik you are dead ; and that your body be afterwards taken down and delivered over to be dissected and anatomized. Upon.you, Joseph Hunt, who have been convicted of ma- liciously aiding and abetting this murder, the sentence is, that you be taken hence to the place whence you came, and thence to a place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck until you are dead; and may the Lord, of his great mercy, have pity on your souls.” ; Thurtell continued to display the same firmness to the end of this sentence: Hunt was extremly dejected. When it was finished, Thurtell talked for a few moments to some persons in the court, and then both prisoners quitted the dock with the gaoler and his officers. The court was excessively crowded ; no persons had been allowed to enter for an hour and a half preceding, The judge retired to his lodgings at five o'clock, and the court was cleared,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33287442_0114.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
