“… yes, the day—
I joy in the idea—will arrive
When Britons philanthropic shall reject
The cruel custom, to the sufferer cruel,
Useless and baneful to the gaping crowd!”
On June 27 the fatal procession set out from Newgate. On this occasion “there was perhaps the greatest concourse of people ever drawn together by a like spectacle.” “Just before the parties were turned off Dr. Dodd whispered to the executioner. What he said cannot be known; but it was observed that the man had no sooner driven away the cart, than he ran immediately under the gibbet, and took hold of the doctor’s legs, as if to steady the body.” Another account says that the executioner, gained over by Dodd’s friends, had arranged the knot in a particular manner, and whispered to him as the cart drew off, “You must not move an inch!” When cut down the body was conveyed to the house of an undertaker in Goodge Street, where a hot bath was in readiness. Under the direction of Pott, a celebrated surgeon of the day, every effort was made to restore animation. But in vain. The crowd was so enormous that there had been great delay in the transport of the body, and this was fatal. Nevertheless, there were not wanting people who believed that Dodd had been resuscitated and carried abroad.
1779. April 19. The Rev. James Hackman executed at Tyburn for the murder of Miss Martha Ray.
As the spectators were leaving the performance of “Love in a Village” at Drury Lane, on the night of April 7, a gentleman, seeing Miss Ray, with whom he had some little acquaintance, in difficulty in getting to her coach, stept forward and offered his assistance. When close to the coach he heard the report of a pistol, and felt the lady fall. For a moment he thought that she had fallen in fright at the report, but on stooping down, to help her to rise, he found his hands covered with blood. With the aid of a light-boy, he got the lady into the Shakespeare tavern. She was dead. The murdered woman was Miss Martha Ray, the mistress of Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty; her murderer the Rev. Mr. Hackman.
Hackman was born in 1752. He was apprenticed to a mercer, but, disliking the business, his friends bought for him a commission in a foot regiment. While with a recruiting party at Huntingdon, he was invited to the country house of Lord Sandwich, and fell violently in love with the Earl’s mistress. In 1776 he left the army, took orders, and in 1779 was presented to the living of Wiverton, in Norfolk. It is doubtful whether he ever officiated there. He had not been able to forget Martha Ray. He continued his attentions, and offered her marriage. On the fatal day, having written a letter to a friend, announcing his intention to destroy himself, he went to the theatre armed with two pistols. After discharging one at the lady, he shot himself and fell at the lady’s feet, beating his head with the butt-end of a pistol and calling on the bystanders to kill him. On his trial his only defence was that a momentary frenzy overcame him. The letter contained nothing to indicate an intention to kill Miss Ray. He was executed on April 19.
Boswell records a stormy discussion between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Beauclerk on the subject of the murder. Did the fact that Hackman carried two pistols indicate an intention to kill Miss Ray as well as himself? Johnson held that it did; Beauclerk maintained the contrary, citing the case of a man inordinately fond of muffins, which disagreed with him. Determined to enjoy a last repast, he ate his muffins and then shot himself. He had ready two pistols for the purpose. As too often happens, neither disputant could convince the other (ed. Hill, iii. 383-5).