PRISON DISCIPLINE AND EXECUTION OF JUSTICE.
Sir,--I am glad that you devote some part of your columns to the good work of bringing forward facts and anecdotes which, though not generally known, your readers individually may have happened to notice, and which illustrate the manners of our ancestors. I dare say few of your correspondents have met with the London Magazine for the year of 1741. An imperfect copy fell into my hands when a lad; ever since which time I have been in a state of great wonderment at the story contained in the leaf which I enclose. I need hardly say that the italics are mine; and perhaps they are hardly necesssary. Yours, etc.,
BETA.
"TUESDAY, 21 [June].
"A very extraordinary Affair happen'd at the County Gaol in Hertford, where four Highwaymen, very stout lusty Fellows, viz. Theophilus Dean, Charles Cox (alias Bacon-Face), James Smith, and Luke Humphrys, lay under Sentence of Death, pass'd on them the last Assizes, and were intended to have been executed the following Day; Mr. Oxenton, the Gaoler, who keeps an Inn opposite to the Prison, went into the Gaol about four a Clock in the Morning, as was his Custom, attended by three Men, to see if all was safe, and, having lock'd the outward Door, sent one of his Men down to the Dungeon, where the four Felons had found means to disengage themselves from the Pillar and Chain to which they had been lock'd down, and one of them, viz. Bacon-Face, had got off both his Hand-Cuffs and Fetters; on opening the Door, they disabled the Man and all rush'd out; then coming up Stairs they met the Gaoler and his other two Men, of whom they demanded the Keys, threatening to murder them if their request was not immediately comply'd with: they then forced his men into the Yard beyond the Hatchway, and a Battle ensu'd, in which the Gaoler behav'd so manfully, tho' he had but one Man to assist him, that he maintain'd the Possession of his Keys till he was heard by his Wife, then in Bed, to call out for Assistance, who fortunately having another Key to the Gaol, ran to rescue him; the Fellows saw her coming and demanded her Key, threatening to murder her if she offer'd to assist her Husband: By this Time the Neighbourhood was alarm'd, and several Persons got to the Gaol Door, when Mrs. Oxenton, notwithstanding their Threats, at the utmost Hazard of her Life, open'd the same and caught hold of her Husband, who was almost spent, and with the Assistance of some Persons, got him out and lock'd the Door without suffering the Fellows to escape: They continued cursing and swearing that they would murder the first Man that attempted to enter the Gaol. In the mean Time Robert Hadsley, Esq., High-Sheriff, who lives about a Mile from the Town, was sent for, and came immediately; he parley'd with them some Time to no Purpose, then order'd Fire-Arms to be brought, and, in case they would not submit, to shoot at them, which these Desparadoes refusing to do, they accordingly fired on them, and Theophilus Dean receiving a Shot in the Groin, dropt; then they surrender'd, and the Sheriff instantly caus'd Bacon-Face to be hang'd on the Arch of the Sign Iron belonging to the Gaoler's House, in the Sight of his Companions and great Numbers of People; the other three were directly put into a Cart and carried to the usual Place of Execution, and there hang'd before seven a Clock that Morning."--Lond. Mag. July, 1741, p. 360.