fy the public and cripple all
attempts at obtaining reform. Four judges were sent to Derby to try the
poor peasants for rebellion, and commenced their duties on the 15th and
ended them on October 25th. Three of the ringleaders, Jeremiah
Brandreth, William Turner, and Isaac Ludlam, were found guilty of high
treason, and the capital sentence passed upon them; the greater part of
the other prisoners were condemned to transportation. Little time was
lost in carrying out the sentence; the death warrant for the execution
was signed on November 1st by the Prince Regent, and it remitted only
quartering, and directed that the three men be hung, drawn, and
beheaded. It appears that the High Sheriff, after consultation with the
surgeon of the prison and other officials, proposed taking off the heads
of the unfortunate men with a knife, and the operation to be performed
by a person skilled in anatomy. On this being brought under the notice
of the authorities in London, it was, however, decided that the
execution should be carried out according to old usage with the axe.
Bamford, a blacksmith, of Derby, was entrusted with an order for two
axes, to be made similar to the one used at the Tower. They measured
eight and a half inches across the edge and were one foot long. On the
morning of November 7th, before execution, the three men received
Sacrament. The town blacksmith knocked off the irons by which they were
loaded, and substituted others that were fitted with locks, so that they
might easily be removed. A simply made hurdle was then brought in the
prison-yard, and on it they were pulled by a horse to the gallows. It
was so roughly constructed that the poor fellows had to be held to keep
them on it. "On mounting the scaffold in front of the gaol," says Dr.
Cox, to whom we are indebted for many details in this chapter,
"Brandreth exclaimed, 'It is all Oliver and Castlereagh;' Turner,
following him, also called out, 'This is all Oliver and the Government;
the Lord have mercy on my soul.' They hung from the gallows for
half-an-hour. On the platform, in front of the gallows, was placed the
block and two sacks of sawdust, and on a bench two axes, two sharp
knives, and a basket. The block was a long piece of timber supported at
each end by pieces a foot high, and having a small batten nailed across
the upper end for the neck to rest upon. The body of Brandreth was first
taken down from the gallows, and placed face downwards on the block.