1830—March 11—Michael Toll, convicted of the wilful murder of Ann Cook, a woman with whom he lived, by knocking her into a pit at Oldswinford, was executed this day in front of the County Gaol. His body was given to the surgeons to anatomise, and afterwards exposed to public gaze at the Infirmary. In his stomach were found a number of pieces of blanket, which he had swallowed in order to produce suffocation.
1830—July 30—Charles Wall, convicted at the Summer Assizes of the murder of Sally Chance, at Oldswinford, was executed in front of the County Prison at six o’clock p.m., the execution having been deferred to that unusual hour in consequence of the election taking place that day. His body was delivered to a surgeon at Stourbridge, and afterwards exposed to view to great crowds who came from all the surrounding parts to see it. The party murdered was a little girl, whose mother the prisoner was about to marry, and he killed her by throwing her into a lime pit.
1830—August 13—Thomas Turner, a lad only seventeen years of age, convicted at the same Assizes of a rape upon Louisa Blissett, a child under ten years of age, at New Wood, about three miles from Kidderminster, was executed this day.
1831—March 25—Thomas Slaughter, a lad not eighteen years of age, was executed for setting fire to a large wheat rick, the property of Mrs. Rebecca Tomlinson, of Elmley Lovett. The poor fellow was wholly uneducated, and evidently of weak intellect.
1832—March 22—James and Joseph Carter, two brothers, aged twenty and twenty-two respectively, and condemned at the Lent Assizes for two cases of highway robbery at night, with violence, in the neighbourhood of Bewdley, this morning underwent the extreme penalty of the law in front of the County Gaol. Both men met death with firmness, but without bravado; and Joseph Carter addressed the populace from the scaffolding, warning them to avoid Sabbath breaking, drunkenness, and bad women. The crowd on this occasion behaved with unusual decorum, and seem really to have been impressed with a feeling of sadness at seeing two persons hurried out of life so early.
1834—March 12—Robert Lilly, convicted at the Lent Assizes of the murder of Jonathan Wall, at Bromsgrove, was executed in front of the County Gaol. Wall had interfered to prevent his ill-using his wife, and Lilly stabbed him in the abdomen with a clasp-knife. There was a large concourse of spectators at the execution—principally females, but the culprit did not address them, and he died without a struggle.
1837—March 23—William Lightband, executed in front of the County Gaol for the murder of Joseph Hawkins, shopkeeper, of Areley Kings, on the 8th September, 1836. He was a carpenter, entirely without education, and had pursued a sottish and irregular mode of life. However, the instruction he received when in prison seemed to have had effect upon his mind, and he met death in becoming manner. Though it snowed during the whole morning there was a great concourse of spectators, and the Rev. Mr. Dodd, assistant minister at the Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel, afterwards addressed them. Their behaviour was more decent than usual on such occasions.
1849—March 26—The last execution which took place in Worcester was that of Robert Pulley, who was condemned to death for the barbarous murder of a poor girl, named Mary Ann Staight, at Broughton, on the 5th of December, 1843. The manners of the prisoner were so brutish and careless as to induce a doubt in his sanity; and at the expense of the High Sheriff, Mr. John Dent, counsel was provided at his trial to defend him on this ground. It was also made the plea for a memorial to the Home Secretary on his behalf, which was signed by many benevolent persons, and by those opposed to all capital punishments. His conduct after trial, however, was such as to convince all who conversed with him of his perfect rationality. He was lamentably ignorant; but listened with much attention to the exhortations of the ministers who visited him. He displayed great firmness in his last moments. The execution took place at noon on the roof of the County Gaol, in the presence of a large crowd of spectators, who behaved with much propriety.
The excitement occasioned by this execution produced much discussion as to the expediency of capital punishments. A public meeting was held in the Guildhall, Worcester, by those who wished their abolition, at which Mr. Charles Gilpin attended and spoke. Mr. George Grove attempted to show that Scripture contained a command which was conclusive on the subject, and required us to shed the blood of the man who took away the life of another; but a resolution, declaring capital punishments to be opposed to the spirit of Christianity and inexpedient, was carried almost unanimously. The Rev. W. H. Havergal and Dr. Redford also preached upon the subject—the former in favour of, and the latter against, death punishments.