1737. March 12. Twelve malefactors executed at Tyburn.
1738. January 18. Thirteen, convicted in October and December, executed at Tyburn.
1738. November 8. Eleven executed at Tyburn.
1739. March 14. Eleven executed at Tyburn.
December 20. Eleven executed at Tyburn.
1741. We are so fortunate as to possess an account of an execution written at this time by Samuel Richardson, the first great English novelist. It is found in a volume, printed without the author’s name; a kind of Polite Letter Writer, bearing this portentous title:—
“Letters written to and for particular friends on the most important occasions. Directing not only the requisite style and forms to be observed in writing familiar letters; but how to think and act justly and prudently in the common concerns of Human Life, containing one hundred and seventy-three letters, none of which were ever before published.”
Letter CLX. (p. 239), is as follows:—
From a Country Gentleman in Town to his Brother in the Country, describing a publick Execution in London.
Dear Brother,—I have this day been satisfying a Curiosity I believe natural to most People, by seeing an Execution at Tyburn. The Sight has had an extraordinary Effect upon me, which is more owing to the unexpected Oddness of the scene, than the affecting Concern which is unavoidable in a thinking Person, at a Spectacle so awful, and so interesting, to all who consider themselves of the same Species with the unhappy Sufferer.