In the Newgate Calendar, or Malefactors' Bloody Register, vol. ii. p. 233., is the account of Margaret Dickson, who was executed for child-murder at Edinburgh, June 19, 1728, with an engraving of her "rising from her coffin near Edinburgh, as she was carrying from the place of execution in order for interment."
"By the Scottish law," says the author, "every person on whom the judgment of the court has been executed has no more to suffer, but must be for ever discharged; and the executed person is dead at law, so that the marriage is dissolved. This was exactly the case with Margaret Dickson, for the king's advocate could not pursue her any farther, but filed a bill in the High Court of Justiciary against the sheriff for not seeing the judgment executed. And her husband being a good-natured man, was publicly married to her within a few days after the affair happened."
Zeus.
For the information of your correspondent I send an extract from the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1767:
"Saturday 24th (Jan.).—One Patrick Redmond having been condemned at Cork, in Ireland, to be hanged for a street robbery, he was accordingly executed, and hung upwards of twenty-eight minutes, when the mob carried off the body to a place appointed, where he was, after five or six hours, actually recovered by a surgeon, and who made the incision in his windpipe called bronchotomy, which produced the desired effect. The poor fellow has since received his pardon, and a genteel collection has been made for him."
C. R.
I would refer your correspondent Σ., who has put a Query whether persons who have suffered execution by hanging have outlived the infliction, to a case of a woman named Anne Green, which appears to be authenticated upon the most unequivocal testimony of two very estimable authors. The event to which I allude is described in Dr. Robert Plot's History of Oxfordshire, folio, Oxford, 1705, p. 201.; and also in the Physico-Theology of Rev. W. Derham, F.R.S., 3rd edit., 8vo., London, 1714, p. 157. The above-mentioned Anne Green was executed at Oxford, December 14, 1650.
I will not trespass upon your space, which appears pretty well occupied, with a lengthened detail from the authors pointed out, as their works are to be found in most libraries; and thinking Polonius's observation that "brevity is the soul of wit" may be more extensively applied than to what relates to fancy and imagination. I would, however, crave one word, which is, that you would suggest to your correspondents generally that in referring to works they would give, as distinctly as possible, the heads of the title, the name of the author, the edition, if more than one, the place of publication, date, and page. I have experienced much loss of time from incorrect and imperfect references, not to mention complete disappointment in many instances, which I trust may plead my apology for this remark.[[4]]
Γ.
Footnote 4:[(return)]