swooning fit by suggesting that her home in St James’s Street was little more than a brothel, but his behaviour may have alienated the jury even more than it distressed Anne Porter. Either way, the verdict was the same though on this occasion the jury took all of fifteen minutes to declare Williams guilty. He was sentenced to six years in Newgate.
Rhynwick Williams quickly became one of Newgate’s principal attractions and a source of earnings for the turnkeys who continued to ply their customary trade of charging an admission fee to inquisitive visitors who wished to view the gaol’s more noteworthy residents. He also enjoyed a brief notoriety as a waxwork figure in Mrs Salmon’s exhibition in Fleet Street, which specialised in exotic and violent scenes. Williams also managed to prosper despite his altered circumstances. He resumed his trade of making artificial flowers, which he sold to his visitors. He also composed a pamphlet entitled An Appeal to the Public in an unsuccessful attempt to gain an early release. Some visitors were disappointed at his commonplace and unthreatening demeanour while Williams himself seems to have settled reasonably comfortably into the prison where one of his fellow prisoners (there were only five long-term prisoners) was the (by now Jewish) Lord George Gordon, until Gordon’s death in 1793. Thereafter he was soon joined by his defence counsel, Theophilus Swift, who was sent to Newgate for a libellous attack on the Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin who had offended him by failing to award any prizes to Swift’s son.
Rhynwick Williams was finally released from Newgate in December 1796 and the following February he married. He and his new wife, Elizabeth, already had a son called George who had been conceived in Newgate and baptised at nearby St Sepulchre’s Church in May 1795. From these happy conjugal circumstances we may conclude that, during his stay in Newgate, Williams was living in one of the more salubrious parts of the prison, presumably on the proceeds of his flower making. Nothing certain is known of the later career of Rhynwick Williams, one of the more curious of Newgate’s residents. 46
CRITICAL DATES IN THE HISTORY OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN BRITAIN
1571
The Triple Tree built as a permanent gallows at Tyburn
1686
Alice Molland the last to be hanged for witchcraft
1723
Waltham Black Act began process of creating many capital crimes
1752
Dissection could be substituted for gibbetting of murderers
1760
Portable gallows with ‘drop’ replaced the Triple Tree at Tyburn
1789
Catherine Murphy last to be burned at the stake at Newgate (for coining)
1820
Last ‘hanging, drawing and quartering’ (of Cato Street conspirators)
1829
Thomas Maynard last to be hanged for forgery
1831
George Widgett last to be executed for sheep stealing
1832
John Barrett last to be executed for stealing Royal Mail; number of capital crimes steadily reduced from this time
1843
Practice of gibbetting abolished
1861
Criminal Law Consolidation Act limited capital punishment to murder, treason, piracy and arson in the royal dockyards
1866
Royal Commission recommended ending of public executions
1868
26 May, Michael Barrett, Fenian, executed at Newgate; the last public execution in Britain
1870
Practice of hanging and beheading traitors officially abolished
1902
Closure of Newgate; George Woolfe executed on 6 May, the last of 1,106 men and 49 women executed there
1908
Children Act; capital punishment prohibited for those aged under 16
1933
Minimum age for capital punishment raised to 18
1946
William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) last to be hanged for treason
1955
Ruth Ellis last woman to be hanged in Britain
1957
Homicide Act; distinguished between capital and non-capital murder
1960
Francis Forsyth, 18, last teenager to be hanged in Britain
1964
Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans last to be hanged in Britain
1965
Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act suspended capital punishment for murder for five years; made
Rhynwick Williams quickly became one of Newgate’s principal attractions and a source of earnings for the turnkeys who continued to ply their customary trade of charging an admission fee to inquisitive visitors who wished to view the gaol’s more noteworthy residents. He also enjoyed a brief notoriety as a waxwork figure in Mrs Salmon’s exhibition in Fleet Street, which specialised in exotic and violent scenes. Williams also managed to prosper despite his altered circumstances. He resumed his trade of making artificial flowers, which he sold to his visitors. He also composed a pamphlet entitled An Appeal to the Public in an unsuccessful attempt to gain an early release. Some visitors were disappointed at his commonplace and unthreatening demeanour while Williams himself seems to have settled reasonably comfortably into the prison where one of his fellow prisoners (there were only five long-term prisoners) was the (by now Jewish) Lord George Gordon, until Gordon’s death in 1793. Thereafter he was soon joined by his defence counsel, Theophilus Swift, who was sent to Newgate for a libellous attack on the Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin who had offended him by failing to award any prizes to Swift’s son.
Rhynwick Williams was finally released from Newgate in December 1796 and the following February he married. He and his new wife, Elizabeth, already had a son called George who had been conceived in Newgate and baptised at nearby St Sepulchre’s Church in May 1795. From these happy conjugal circumstances we may conclude that, during his stay in Newgate, Williams was living in one of the more salubrious parts of the prison, presumably on the proceeds of his flower making. Nothing certain is known of the later career of Rhynwick Williams, one of the more curious of Newgate’s residents. 46
CRITICAL DATES IN THE HISTORY OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN BRITAIN
1571
The Triple Tree built as a permanent gallows at Tyburn
1686
Alice Molland the last to be hanged for witchcraft
1723
Waltham Black Act began process of creating many capital crimes
1752
Dissection could be substituted for gibbetting of murderers
1760
Portable gallows with ‘drop’ replaced the Triple Tree at Tyburn
1789
Catherine Murphy last to be burned at the stake at Newgate (for coining)
1820
Last ‘hanging, drawing and quartering’ (of Cato Street conspirators)
1829
Thomas Maynard last to be hanged for forgery
1831
George Widgett last to be executed for sheep stealing
1832
John Barrett last to be executed for stealing Royal Mail; number of capital crimes steadily reduced from this time
1843
Practice of gibbetting abolished
1861
Criminal Law Consolidation Act limited capital punishment to murder, treason, piracy and arson in the royal dockyards
1866
Royal Commission recommended ending of public executions
1868
26 May, Michael Barrett, Fenian, executed at Newgate; the last public execution in Britain
1870
Practice of hanging and beheading traitors officially abolished
1902
Closure of Newgate; George Woolfe executed on 6 May, the last of 1,106 men and 49 women executed there
1908
Children Act; capital punishment prohibited for those aged under 16
1933
Minimum age for capital punishment raised to 18
1946
William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) last to be hanged for treason
1955
Ruth Ellis last woman to be hanged in Britain
1957
Homicide Act; distinguished between capital and non-capital murder
1960
Francis Forsyth, 18, last teenager to be hanged in Britain
1964
Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans last to be hanged in Britain
1965
Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act suspended capital punishment for murder for five years; made
Similar Books
