1. The Bloody
Code

2. John Amy Bird Bell
• On 1st August, 1831, an illiterate
pauper was hanged by the neck
until dead
• Four thousand people came to see
him hang in Maidstone, Kent
• Afterwards his body was
dissected by surgeons
•He was 14 years old

3. “At the trial the prisoner exhibited
the utmost indifference to his
fate, and appeared to entertain no
fear for the consequences of his
guilt.”

4. The Sentence:
DEATH BY
HANGING

5. At half­past eleven o'clock on
Monday morning the wretched
malefactor ceased to exist, and
his body was given to the
surgeons of Rochester for
dissection.

6. “He exhibited some emotion
when he was informed that a
part of the sentence was
that his body should be given
over to the surgeons to be
dissected.”

8. Bird had attacked and murdered
a 12 year old boy who was
collecting money for his
disabled father.
The victim had been stabbed in
the throat with a knife and
robbed of nine shillings.
Bird admitted he had planned
the crime with his brother.

9. Despite what you
may think, it was rare
for people as young
as this to be hanged
in 1831.
One hundred years
earlier, it was a different
matter altogether….

10. William Jennings, aged 15 year old Elizabeth
15 year old James
12, was hanged at
Booty (age also given as Morton was hanged at
Tyburn on Monday, the
12) suffered at Tyburn Nottingham on the 8th of
12th of March 1716, April 1763 for the
on Monday, the 21st of
having been convicted murder of two of her
May 1722 for the rape
of housebreaking at
of a 5 year old girl. employer’s children.
the February Sessions.
Four juveniles were hanged at Tyburn on Monday, 15 year old Elizabeth
Marsh was convicted of
the 20th of May 1717. They were 18 year old
the murder of her
Martha Pillow who had been convicted of stealing
grandfather. She was
in a shop, 17 year old Thomas Price and 18 year
hanged in public on
old Joseph Cornbach for housebreaking and 17
Monday, the 17th of
year old Christopher Ward for burglary. March, 1794.

11. Possibly the youngest children ever executed in Britain
were Michael Hammond and his sister, Ann, whose ages
were given as 7 and 11 respectively in a book published in
1907. Previously, no claims as to their precise ages had
been made, although they were referred to as being “under
age,” without specifying what this term actually meant, and
as “the Boy and the Girl” as they were both small.
They were reportedly hanged at (Kings) Lynn on
Wednesday, the 28th of September 1708 for theft. The local
press did not, however, consider the executions of two
children newsworthy! A painting of the two being taken in
the cart to the gallows appears in Paul Richard’s book
”King’s Lynn”.
It was reported that there was violent thunder and lightning
after the execution and that their hangman, Anthony Smyth,
died within a fortnight of it.

12. The Bloody Eighteenth Century?
Why was hanging the answer to
everything in the 1700s?

13. The Bloody Code
No. of crimes carrying the
No of crimes carrying the death
death penalty
penalty16885017651601815225
1688 50
1765 160
1815 225

14. Some of the crimes carrying the death
penalty in the 1700s
•stealing horses or sheep
•destroying turnpike roads
•cutting down trees
•pick pocketing goods worth more than one shilling
•being out at night with a blackened face
•unmarried mother concealing a stillborn child
•arson
•forgery
•stealing from a rabbit warren
•rape
•murder

15. Plus…
quot;strong
evidence of
malice in a
quot;being in the
child aged 7–14
company of years of agequot;
Gypsies for
one monthquot; quot;blacking the
face or using a
disguise whilst
committing a
crimequot;

16. WHY?
• the attitudes of the
wealthy men who made
the law were
unsympathetic. They
felt that people who
committed crimes were
sinful, lazy or greedy
and deserved little Lord Chief Justice
1802­18
mercy.
Edward Law

17. WHY?
• since the rich made
the laws they made
laws that protected
their interests. Any act
which threatened their
wealth, property or
sense of law and order
was criminalised and
made punishable by
death.
Lord Chief Justice
1756­88
William Murray

18. WHY?
• the law was harsh
to act as a
deterrent. It was
thought that people
might not commit
crimes if they knew
that they could be
sentenced to death.

19. Was it effective?
Death sentences
3500
and executions,
3000
London
2500 1701­1825
2000
Death Sentences
1500
Executions
1000
500
0
1701­ 1726­ 1751­ 1776­ 1801­
25 50 75 1800 1825
It is no coincidence that during the period 1776­1800 the English
ruling class were fearing a revolution like in France….

20. The End of the Bloody Code
• Sir Samuel Romilly speaking to the
House of Commons on capital
punishment in 1810, declared that
quot;..[there is] no country on the face of the earth
in which there [have] been so many
different offences according to law to be
punished with death as in England.quot;

21. Whilst executions for
murder, burglary and
robbery were common,
the death sentences of
minor offenders were
often not carried out.
In 1808 Romilly had
the death penalty
removed from pick­
pocketing and other
trivial offences and
started reform that
continued over the
next 50 years.

22. Gibbeting
(the public
display of
executed
corpses) was
abolished in
1832 and
hanging in
chains was
abolished in
1834.

23. In 1861, the Criminal Law
Consolidation Act further reduced
the number of capital crimes to
four:
•murder
•treason
•arson in royal dockyards
•piracy with violence

24. Public executions
were abolished in
1868
From 1868 onwards, all
hangings in Britain took
place inside prison, on
gallows like this one at
HMP Wandsworth.

25. So...to cap it all off.......
What actually happened?
Why did it come about?
• The number of capital
• Fear of crime by the rich
sentences rose
• The rich set the laws
• But the number of
• The laws protected their
executions in proportion
growing property
actually fell
• There were more poor
• Apart from times of real
people
fear – French Revolution,
• The rich thought that industrial unrest
harsh punishments would
• Juries were unwilling to
reduce crime
deliver guilty verdicts
• Transportation was a new
alternative to hanging
• Romilly ended the Bloody
Code in the 1820s.