After 1821, although the records give the sentence of hanging for the above crimes, we find that although it is often executed, yet there is frequent mention of “pardoned by the king,” “respited,” “transported (so many) years in prison,” “pillory,” and “lashes.” One burglar sentenced to be hanged is respited and sent for five years to Quebec! It is strange to find cases of murder and manslaughter punished thus: “Murder, to be burned in the hand;” “drowning a man, six months in jail and to be burned in the hand in open court.” One of those executed in 1813 for stealing a cow was B. Clement, a boy of thirteen and a half years of age.
In 1818, March term, L. Bourguignon, convicted of grand larceny and condemned to be hanged, “prays for the benefit of the clergy,” which being granted by the court, he is sentenced to two-years’ House of Correction.
Desertion or attempt at desertion among the soldiers stationed in the Montreal district was not uncommon in 1838, after the first curl revolt of 1837. Transportation for a term of fourteen, twenty-one years, or “for the period of his natural life” was the sentence meted out to the “felon” who was marked with a D for deserter. A few records of deserting will suffice:
Fifteenth of May, 1838: Fourteen soldiers, deserters, under sentence of transportation, sent to Mr. Waud, Jailor, under charge of officer of Thirty-fourth Regiment.
Eleventh July: Three soldiers sentenced to fourteen, twenty-one, and twenty-one years’ transportation by G.A. Wetherall, commanding officer of the Second Battalion, “The Royal.” Three for a term of “natural life”—the Seventy-first Regiment.
Fifth of August: Five soldiers of the Seventy-first Regiment, fourteen years.
Third of September: Two of the Fifteenth Regiment, fourteen and seven years. Three of the Seventy-first Regiment, fourteen years and all marked D.
In May, 1839, no less than twenty-four soldiers were committed at one time for desertion, by order of the town major; five were discharged, the remainder were transported. These belonged to the Eighty-fifth and Thirty-second Regiments.
It is not our purpose to record the gruesome punishments further. There are, however, living with us those who have heard from their fathers the days in the ’20s when hangings were conducted in public in the yard of the old jail close to the Champ de Mars. The following description is from a lady eyewitness still living in 1914: