Now! Then! The laments of Ann Barber, adulterous poisoner, on the scaffold at York

Excerpt

As the hurdle came to the threshold, so that she could see part of the platform, she bitterly exclaimed, “O Lord God, that I should come to this.” During the few moments that intervened till she reached the last fatal spot, she kept incoherently crying out, “O Lord, save me,” “O God, help me,” “O Lord, preserve my soul.” When the last service of religion was begun, she looked frantic and wild, dropped on her knees, and with fearful violence clasped the clerk’s hands, and caught up part of the words of devotion which reached her ears. The prevailing expressions were, “O Lord Jesus, save my soul,” “O God, deliver my soul this day to Heaven,” “O Lord, I forgive my enemies,” “O God, bless my bairns.” When the Lord’s Prayer was repeated the last time, she was directed to repeat after the chaplain; she instantly complied, and kept uniformly before the chaplain in her expressions. The prayer, “Forgive our trespasses,” was pronounced with dreadful energy. While the cap was drawing over her face, she frequently repeated, “O Lord, I forgive them that were the means of bringing me here; O God, bless my children.” Just when the rope was tightened round her neck, she earnestly cried, “O Lord Jesus, I am coming to thee,” the drop fell, and in less than a minute life was extinct. Throughout this scene, she manifested a vigour of motion and strength of nerve which could not have been expected from her appearance and manner at her trial. At the same time her features, and the expression of her eyes, indicated a distraction and amazement, which showed that she knew not well what she was about. In the most solemn part of the devotional service she gazed wildly around to see the rope by which she was to be suspended. The multitude of spectators was greater than was ever seen on a similar occasion at York.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

Via John Bibby (Bibby 2022), who found her in John Mayhall, who adds the piquant detail that “she was educated among the persons called Ranters (Mayhall 1860). I wonder how much of the above is true, and, particularly given the tale with which it is paired (Anon 1821), whether this and other items in the genre are intended in part as asphyxiation erotica. Martin J. Wiener writes re Barber:

One marker of altered sentiment … was the change in newspaper and broadside accounts of murderers of husbands (or, rarer events, of fathers) to focus less on the crime and more on the female criminal’s state at the trial and on the scaffold. The sufferings of the accused woman were coming to compete with the murder itself as the center of public interest (Wiener 2001).

But that doesn’t for me adequately explain why, for example, Thomas Stubbs, Master of the Ripon House of Correction, had in his collection of curiosities a “piece of skin of Ann Barber, who was executed at York for the murder of her husband, and dissected at Leeds, in 1821” and “part of the tongue of Mary Bateman, the notorious Yorkshire Witch, who was executed at York for murder: dissected at Leeds Infirmary about 56 years ago” (Stubbs 1867).

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Original

On Friday, the 10th of August last, Ann Barber, aged 45, of Rothwell, near Leeds, was tried at York for the murder of James Barber, her husband. The prisoner was proved to have bought a penny worth of arsenic at a druggist’s shop, in Wakefield, on the 16th of March last, which, according to her own confession, she administered to him, in a quantity of warm sweetened ale, in consequence of which he died in the course of a few hours. The motive which induced her to commit the diabolical crime, was a criminal attachment to one William Thomson, with whom she left her house in December 1820, and lived for a week with him, in a cottage which she had taken for the purpose, at Potovens [Wrenthorpe], four miles distant from her husband’s house; but the neighbours became so indignant that the prisoner and Thomson were driven with riot from the cottage. The husband received her again, but Thomson was obliged to leave her society, but he promised to marry her if her husband was out of the way. She confessed she gave the drink to her husband, with intent to kill him, because she was stalled of him.

The jury retired for 10 minutes, and found a verdict of guilty. When his lordship had covered his head, and was proceeding to pass sentence, she shrieked and dropped down. After sentence, she clung to the person next her, and cried, “O save me, save me.”

THE EXECUTION

On Monday, the 13th August, at twelve o’clock, this most wretched woman suffered the punishment of her aggravated crime. She had yesterday become somewhat more gentle and resigned. She admitted her guilt in general terms, and appeared extremely penitent. Her mother, her youngest daughter, and her sister, visited the unfortunate woman in her cell, and all of them were mutually affected in the deepest manner. A short time before twelve o’clock, she was led into the grand jury room. She had then again become violent and clamorous. Her shrieks were bitter and piercing, beyond any thing that is possible to imagine. She was drawn from the grand jury room to the scaffold, according to her sentence, on a hurdle. The heart-rending cries that announced her approach filled almost every face with dismay.

As the hurdle came to the threshold, so that she could see part of the platform, she bitterly exclaimed, “O Lord God, that I should come to this.” During the few moments that intervened till she reached the last fatal spot, she kept incoherently crying out, “O Lord, save me,” “O God, help me,” “O Lord, preserve my soul.” When the last service of religion was begun, she looked frantic and wild, dropped on her knees, and with fearful violence clasped the clerk’s hands, and caught up part of the words of devotion which reached her ears. The prevailing expressions were, “O Lord Jesus, save my soul,” “O God, deliver my soul this day to Heaven,” “O Lord, I forgive my enemies,” “O God, bless my bairns.” When the Lord’s Prayer was repeated the last time, she was directed to repeat after the chaplain; she instantly complied, and kept uniformly before the chaplain in her expressions. The prayer, “Forgive our trespasses,” was pronounced with dreadful energy. While the cap was drawing over her face, she frequently repeated, “O Lord, I forgive them that were the means of bringing me here; O God, bless my children.” Just when the rope was tightened round her neck, she earnestly cried, “O Lord Jesus, I am coming to thee,” the drop fell, and in less than a minute life was extinct. Throughout this scene, she manifested a vigour of motion and strength of nerve which could not have been expected from her appearance and manner at her trial. At the same time her features, and the expression of her eyes, indicated a distraction and amazement, which showed that she knew not well what she was about. In the most solemn part of the devotional service she gazed wildly around to see the rope by which she was to be suspended. The multitude of spectators was greater than was ever seen on a similar occasion at York.

715 words.