The last public execution in Exeter took place 157 years ago. A crowd of 20,000 people gathered in front of the Exeter Gaol to witness the hanging of Mary Ann Ashford.
They wanted to see justice for the cruel killing of her husband William a few months before. Mary had employed the classic "woman's weapon" of poison in her husband's tea. He had stood in the way of a passionate affair she was having with a local workman.
But the sad spectacle Mary presented as she was led to the gallows and the amateurish way the sentence was carried out left a sour note. The hanging of Mary Ann Ashford was instrumental in ending public executions in England two years later.
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The year is 1865. William and Mary Ashford lived together in Clyst Honiton. They were good friends with the local policeman and his wife, who lived next door, and had been married for 20 years. William was a cordwainer (shoemaker) with an estate worth about £120.
But Mary Ann had a passion for the workman and for two years had been in an affair with Frank Pratt, who was 22 years her junior. According to contemporary newspaper accounts the besotted wife concocted the death plot to get her hands on her husband's money and start a new life with her young lover.
The deadly deed took place on November 3. Mrs Butt, wife of the village constable who lived next door, was visiting and noticed some gritty blue substance in the tea. She removed a sample and wrapped it in a piece of paper for closer inspection.
Early the next morning William, who took medicine for unspecified ailments, went into convulsions and dropped dead. Mrs Butt then produced the blue powder and told her husband she had also seen it in William's medicine.
Constable Butt arrested Mary Ann on the spot. She responded by trying to throw the remaining powder onto the fire. Unfortunately some of it ended up on her dress. When analysed the powder was found to be Hunter’s Vermin Powder which contained arsenic and strychnine.
Mary Ann's trial took place at Devon Lent Assizes on the March 16-17, 1866. Mr Justice Byles was the judge and she was represented by eminent barrister Mr Coleridge, a relative of the famous poet. But there was little anybody could do to save her and the jury only took a few minutes to reach a guilty verdict.
The sentence for murder was death and Mary Ann went to Exeter Prison to await her fate. One account from the time says she attempted suicide by strangling herself with a pocket handkerchief. A matron, who was supposed to be keeping a close eye out for such behaviour, had nodded off. She woke up after hearing the heavy breathing and prevented Mary Ann's early demise.
On March 28 all the usual parts were in place for a public execution. Hangman William Calcraft had set up his gallows over the gatehouse in Northernhay.
Between 1770 and 1830, an estimated 35,000 death sentences were handed down in England and Wales, most of these ended in a reprieve of one sort or another, often deportation.
But deadly punishments for petty crimes like pickpocketing and more serious offences like rape had been phased out since the beginning of the century as part of a long period of reform of the system. The death penalty remained mandatory for murder unless commuted by the monarch.
Efforts were made to get Mary to explain more about her motives. All she would say was that she was guilty.
When the time came for the hanging the crowd was expectant. Mary Ann was so weak that she had to be carried to the scaffold by three warders. They held her up over the trap into which she would fall.
There are different accounts of what happened next, none of them very entertaining. One says that when the bolt was drawn Mary struggled to the extent that Calcraft had to grab her legs and pull in order to end her suffering. She is said to have "writhed and moaned horribly." The whole hanging took three minutes to complete.
The spectacle was so distasteful that questions were raised in parliament about public hangings. Two years later they were banned by the Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868. From that date executions in Great Britain were carried out only in prisons. March 28, 1866 was the last public hanging in Exeter.
As was common in the era, a ballad was written about the murder and execution.
Good people all both far and near
Pray listen unto me
Mary Ashford she did die
On Exeter’s Gallows tree.
For the murder of her husband, dear,
William Ashford was his name.
She poisoned him at Clist Honiton,
And died the death of shame ..
