The commission was opened at Nottingham, on Wednesday the 4th of January 1832, and the proceedings of the court terminated on Saturday the 14th of January. Many prisoners had been convicted of minor offences in the course of ten days, during which the judges had sat, and had been sentenced to imprisonment, or fine; but on the 14th of January, those who had been capitally convicted were brought up to receive sentence. Their names were, George Beck, George Hearson, Thomas Armstrong, Thomas Shelton, and Thomas Berkins. These were placed in front, and behind them stood William Kitchen, David Thurman, Valentine Marshall, and Thomas Whitaker. The prisoners were addressed by Mr. Justice Littledale, in a feeling manner: and the learned judge having stated the leading circumstances attending the riots, said that the four last-named prisoners would be recommended as fit objects for the exercise of the royal clemency—the others, however, whose share in the riots had been greater, must prepare to quit this world.
The learned judge concluded by passing the sentence of death upon the five prisoners to whom he had severally addressed himself.
During the period which subsequently elapsed before the time fixed for the execution of these culprits, great and meritorious exertions were made by the inhabitants of Nottingham to procure a remission of their sentence, which were not entirely unsuccessful. On Tuesday 31st January, letters were received by the proper authorities from the Home-office, announcing a determination that the full sentence of death should be carried out upon Beck, Hearson, and Armstrong, but that the other two prisoners, Berkins and Shelton, should be respited. Some disappointment was exhibited that this measure of clemency did not extend to the whole of the prisoners under sentence; and the arrival of the mail on the next morning, when the other convicts were to be executed, was looked for with much anxiety, in the anticipation that further letters might be received. In obedience to the wish of the townspeople, the execution was postponed from eight o’clock on the Wednesday morning until eleven; but at a quarter-past ten the mail arrived with no further respite.
The prisoners were then immediately led from their cells to be pinioned, preparatory to their execution. They had passed their time since their conviction in the exercise of such religious observances as were deemed by Dr. Wood, the minister of the jail, best suited to their position, and declared themselves perfectly ready to die. During the period occupied by their being pinioned, they were all three perfectly calm and collected.
On Dr. Wood’s concluding the affecting prayer which is always read to criminals just before their execution, and on his consigning them to God’s gracious protection and mercy, the procession was formed to ascend the scaffold. Beck ascended it first with great seriousness, but with a firm and unfaltering footstep. Hearson, who had joined with much fervour in all the devotional exercises of the morning, surprised all who had seen his previous conduct by the manner in which he behaved after mounting the scaffold. He took his cap off his head waved it in a sort of triumph, and began to dance like a maniac in his chains. He recognised some individual who was seated on a housetop opposite the scaffold, and shouted out, “Well done, Will, lad.” A person in the crowd said to him, “Good bye, Curley,” addressing him by the name by which he was commonly known. This address set him to dancing again; and his extraordinary conduct at this crisis of his fate is attributed, not to any spirit of bravado, but to sudden delirium. He turned round to the hangman, and complained that he had not an inch of rope, saying, “Give me rope enough that I may be sooner out of misery.” Armstrong, who was brought last upon the scaffold, was much distressed on seeing the frantic gestures of Hearson. About eight minutes were consumed in these preparations. Exactly at twenty minutes before twelve, the hangman drew their caps over their faces; and that ceremony seemed to be the signal for a thousand voices to utter the fearful cries of “Murder!” and of “Blood!” These sounds must have been ringing in the ears of the unfortunate men at the very moment when the withdrawal of the fatal bolt carried them from the tribunals of man to appear at the bar of heavenly justice. They were clasping each other’s hands at the moment they fell, but the suddenness of their fall severed the association, and the agonies of death prevented their renewing it. They struggled, but not violently, for five minutes. At the expiration of that time, their frames had ceased to heave, and life was evidently extinct. After the cry of murder had subsided, the multitude, which must have consisted of eight or ten thousand people, behaved with great propriety and decorum. It did not, however, disperse until the hangman made his second appearance on the scaffold to cut down these unfortunate delinquents. This was done at twenty minutes before one o’clock. The bodies were then placed in their respective coffins, and were delivered to their friends in the course of the next day.
At the ensuing assizes for the county of Nottingham, some further convictions for robberies during the riots took place; and several prisoners were sentenced to transportation, to which punishment, also, the sentences of those who had been capitally convicted before the special commission, but respited, were commuted.
At the Derby assizes, on Saturday the 17th of March, several prisoners were put upon their trial for the alleged participation in the riots which had taken place in that town. The prosecution was sought to be supported by the evidence of an approver, who, however, was disbelieved by the jury, and a verdict of acquittal returned.
Other prisoners were not so fortunate, and paid the forfeit of their offences, by suffering imprisonment for various short periods.
In London, too, a similar measure of justice was dealt out to the offenders who had been secured, but the prisoners were almost all of the very lowest classes of the people, and their respective cases presented no features of general interest.