Oct. 7, 1847. An extraordinary instance has occurred of the application
of the electric telegraph at the London Bridge terminus of the South
Eastern Railway.
Hutchings, the man found guilty and sentenced to death for poisoning his
wife, was to have been executed at Maidstone Goal at twelve o’clock.
Shortly before the appointed hour for carrying the sentence into effect,
a message was received at the London Bridge terminus, from the Home
Office, requesting that an order should be sent by the electric telegraph
instructing the Under-Sheriff at Maidstone to stay the execution two
hours. By the agency of the electric telegraph the communication was
received in Maidstone with the usual rapidity, and the execution was for
a time stayed. Shortly after the transmission of the order deferring the
execution, a messenger from the Home Office conveyed to the railway the
Secretary of State’s order, that the law was to take its course, and that
the culprit was to be at once executed. The telegraph clerk hesitated to
sending such a message without instructions from his principals. The
messenger from the Home Office could not be certain that the order for
Hutchings’s execution was signed by the Home Secretary, although it bore
his name; and Mr. Macgregor, the chairman, with great judgment and
humanity, instantly decided that it was not a sufficient authority in
such a momentous matter.
An officer of confidence was immediately sent to the Secretary of State,
to state their hesitation and its cause, as the message was, in fact, a
death warrant, and that Mr. Walter must have undoubted evidence of its
correctness. On Mr. Walter drawing the attention of the Secretary of
State to the fact, that the transmission of such a message was, in
effect, to make him the Sheriff, the conduct of the railway company, in
requiring unquestionable evidence and authority, was warmly approved.
The proper signature was affixed in Mr. Walter’s presence; and the
telegraph then conveyed to the criminal the sad news, that the suspension
of the awful sentence was only temporary. Hutchings was executed soon
after it reached Maidstone.
—_Annual Register_, 1847.