“Saturday, Sept. 3, 1831.”
The reading of this confession produced a terrific impression in the court; and the prisoner, notwithstanding his efforts to appear undisturbed, was evidently labouring under extreme mental excitement. Upon his being called upon for his defence, he declared that he had no wish to screen himself from the punishment of death, which he knew awaited him; but he urged that cases had occurred where, although the evidence had been more conclusive than in this, the persons charged had escaped.
The jury immediately returned a verdict of “Guilty,” and the learned judge sentenced the prisoner to be executed on the following Friday, and directed his body to be given up to be anatomised. During the passing of the sentence the wretched man endeavoured again to assume a firm demeanour, but his manner was embarrassed; the blood forsook his cheeks; and although at the conclusion of the address of the learned judge he pronounced the word “Amen” pretty firmly, he was evidently sensibly affected.
On his return to his cell, he threw himself on his bed in an agony of pain; and his cries for pardon from the Almighty, and his petitions that he might be saved from everlasting damnation, were distinctly audible through the prison-yard. On the following day he was visited by a gentleman named Nate, who had formerly been his employer, and to whom he re-asserted the truth of the confession which he had made. He also stated that he had seduced several women, whom he had forsaken; and that he had attempted to violate two others. His account of one of these attempts was as follows:—He had induced her to promise to accompany him in an excursion out to sea. “She was true to her appointment,” he said. “The morning was foggy, but I took the boat right out, and I kept pulling as hard as I could long after we had lost sight of the shore. She became alarmed at last; and on my attempting to take advantage of her, I found out my mistake, for she told me boldly that before she would comply with my wishes she would leap overboard. Her determined spirit so confounded me, that I could not look her in the face, and I rowed her back and took leave of her.”
On Friday morning he continued his devotions till nine o’clock, when he adverted, for the last time, to his forced marriage, and railed against the overseers of the parish of Ardingly. He had written, he said, an account of the whole affair, which he hoped would be a warning to overseers not to destroy the happiness of young persons as they had done his.
At twelve o’clock he mounted the scaffold with a firm step. There was a strong expression of disgust among the spectators. He fell on his knees and prayed for a short time, after which the rope was placed round his neck, and the cap drawn over his eyes. He then advanced to the front of the scaffold, and in a firm voice spoke as follows:—
“Now, my dear friends, I need not tell you that sin has brought me to this untimely end. As sin has brought me to this untimely end, I would entreat you to be aware that there is not one among you who, if he follows a life of sin and folly, may not be brought to the same condition: for when you trifle with sin, you know not where it will end. I know I suffer justly: I have spilt innocent blood; but, however deep my guilt, I hope in the mercy of that God who has said to the penitent, all your sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven you. Therefore turn from your sins, and the Lord will forgive you. After such a warning as this you now witness, you will have none to blame but yourselves if any of you should be overtaken in sin, and follow courses which lead to certain destruction. Consider seriously what I say, for in a short time the eye that now sees you will see you no more, and in a few years you will be in eternity. May the Lord bless you and keep you from sin, by which I am brought to this dreadful end; and may God Almighty, through the Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit!”
After he had finished his speech, he retired back on the platform, and the drop fell. The struggles of the culprit continued for some minutes.
At one o’clock the body was cut down, and having been placed in an oblong box, was delivered to a young surgeon connected with Brighton Infirmary, to which place it was instantly conveyed; where a public exhibition of the body of the murderer afterwards took place.
Holloway at the time of his execution was only 26 years of age, and was a remarkably small man, scarcely reaching five feet in height. Among his confessions in jail, was one also that he had robbed a man of his watch in a barn some years before; and that he had been tried for the robbery, but acquitted.