principals in the murder of William Galley.
“Deliberate murder is most justly ranked amongst the highest crimes
human nature is capable of; but those you have respectively been
convicted of, have been attended with circumstances of very high and
uncommon aggravation.
“The persons who have been the objects of your fury, were travelling on
a very laudable design, the advancement of public justice. For this
they were beset in their inn, tempted to drink to excess, and then laid
asleep in an inner room, while a consultation was held in what manner
to dispose of them: and in the end a resolution was taken to carry them
to some distant place and to dispatch them by some means or other.
“In consequence of this resolution they were set on horseback, and
exercised with various kinds of cruelty for many hours together, till
one of them sunk under the hardships he suffered and died upon the road.
“The other was carried to a place of safe custody, there kept chained
on a heap of turf, expecting his doom for three days. During this
dreadful interval, a second consultation was held, and a resolution
taken to dispatch him too; not a single man of thirteen who were
present offering a word in his behalf.
“He was accordingly hurried to his death; and though he begged
earnestly to live but one day longer, that small respite was denied
him. I will not repeat every circumstance: but I cannot forbear putting
you in mind of one. When the poor man was told he must die that very
night, some of you advised him to say his prayers, and accordingly he
did address himself to prayer.
“One would have hoped that this circumstance should have softened your
hearts, and turned you from the evil purpose you were bent upon. Happy
had it been for you, if you had then reflected, that God Almighty was
witness to every thing that passed among you, and to all the intentions
of your hearts!
“But while the man, under great distraction of thought, was
recommending his soul to mercy, he was interrupted in his devotion by
two of you in a manner I scarce know how to repeat.
“I hope your hearts have been long since softened to a proper degree
of contrition for these things; and that you have already made a due
preparation for the sentence I am now to pass upon you.
“If you have not, pray lose not one moment more. Let not company, or
the habit of drinking, or the hopes of life divert you from it; for
Christian charity obliges me to tell you that your time in this world
will be very short.
“Nothing now remains but that I pass that sentence upon you which
the Law of your Country, in conformity to the Law of God, and to the
practice of all ages and nations, has already pronounced upon the crime
you have been guilty of. This court doth therefore award that you,
Benjamin Tapner, William Carter, John Hammond, John Cobby, Richard
Mills the elder, Richard Mills the younger, and William Jackson, and
each of you shall be conveyed from hence to the prison from whence you
came, and from thence you shall be led to the place of execution, where
you shall be severally hanged by the neck, until you shall be dead, and
the Lord have mercy upon your souls.”
* * * * *
Having now completed the trials of these seven bloody criminals, I
shall next give you the short Appendix which has been published by
three of the clergymen who attended them after their conviction, and
who have signed their names to the same, after which I shall give a
much fuller account of their wicked lives and behaviour.
After sentence, the prisoners were carried back to Chichester gaol. The
court were pleased to order them all for execution the very next day,
and that the bodies of Jackson, Carter, Tapner, Cobby, and Hammond,
the five principals, should be hung in chains. Accordingly, they were
carried from the gaol, to a place called the Broyle, near Chichester;
where, in the presence of a great number of spectators, on Thursday,
the 19th day of January last, about two o’clock in the afternoon, all
of them were executed, except Jackson, who died in jail, about four
hours after sentence of death was pronounced upon him.
The heinousness of the crimes of such notorious offenders may possibly
excite in the reader a desire to be informed of their respective
behaviour whilst under sentence of death, and at the place of
execution; to satisfy which is subjoined the following authentic
account, under the hands of the several clergymen who attended them
alternately in gaol, and together at the place of execution:--
“The first time I went to the malefactors under condemnation, being the
evening after sentence was passed upon them, I prayed with them all;
viz., Carter, Tapner, Cobby, Hammond, and the Mills’s (Jackson being
dead just before I went to the gaol) but many persons being present,
I had no opportunity of saying any thing material, and therefore told
them I would visit them early the next morning, which I did accordingly.
“After prayers, I talked with them about their unhappy condition, and
the heinous crimes that brought them into it. I asked them if they
desired to receive the Sacrament; they all and each of them desired
that I would administer it to them; accordingly I attended them again,
about ten o’clock, for that purpose; and during the whole time of
my performing that office, they all behaved with great decency and
devotion, especially Carter and Tapner.
“Afterwards I put the following questions to them, and desired they
would be sincere in their answers as dying men; first, whether they
did not acknowledge the sentence that was passed upon them to be just,
and what they highly deserved? Carter, the most sensible and penitent
amongst them, first answered, Yes; as did afterwards Tapner, Cobby, and
Hammond; but the two Mills’s did not.
“Secondly, I asked them whether they forgave everybody; they all and
each answered they forgave all the world. Tapner then owned that Edmund
Richards and another were the cause of his ruin, but yet forgave them.
“Carter laid his ruin to Jackson for drawing him from his honest
employment.
“JOHN SMYTH,
“Curate of St. Pancras, in Chichester.”
* * * * *
“Both Carter and Tapner, a few hours before their execution, confessed
to me that they with several others assembled together with a design
to rescue Dimer out of Chichester gaol; that the only person amongst
them who had arms was Edmund Richards; but that being disappointed
by a number of persons who had promised to join them from the East,
their scheme was frustrated and their purpose carried no further into
execution; that one Stringer[9] was at the head of this confederacy,
but not present with them at the time of their assembling together.
“SIMON HUGHES,
“Vicar of Donnington in Sussex.”
“Benjamin Tapner, of West Stoke, in Sussex, labourer, son of Henry
Tapner, of Aldingbourne, Sussex, bricklayer, aged 27, before he was
turned off, owned the justice of his sentence, and desired all young
persons to take warning by his untimely end, and avoid bad company,
which was his ruin. When in gaol, before he was brought out for
execution, he said he did not remember he put the rope about Chater’s
neck.
“William Carter, of Rowland’s Castle, thatcher, son of Wm. Carter, of
East Meon in Hants, aged 39, at the place of execution and in gaol,
confessed the justice of the sentence passed upon him, and acted more
suitably to a person in such unhappy circumstances than any of them; he
likewise at the gallows, cautioned every one against those courses that
had brought him to so shameful an end.
“Tapner and Carter, when all the ropes were fixed, shook hands, but
what or whether any words then passed between them, was not heard.
“Richard Mills the elder, of Trotton, in Sussex, colt-breaker, son
of ---- Mills of List, in Hants, labourer, aged 68, was unwilling to own
himself guilty of the fact for which he died, and said he never saw
Chater; but being asked whether he never heard him, as he was confined
so long in the next room to that in which he generally sat, made no
answer.
“Richard Mills the younger, of Stedham, colt-breaker, son of the
aforesaid Richard Mills, aged 37, would willingly have been thought
innocent; and it being put to him whether he made that speech about
the council of war, &c., and whether he was not at the consultation,
denied both; but in the latter Tapner confronted him, and said, ‘Yes,
young Major, you was there;’ to which Mills replied, ‘Ay, for a quarter
of an hour or so,’ or to that purpose. It so happened that his rope
was first fixed to the gallows, and a considerable time was taken up
in fixing the rest, which interim he might have much better employed
than he did in gazing at the spectators, and then at the hangman (while
tying the ropes of the other malefactors) till the cart was almost
ready to drive away.
“John Cobby of Sidlesham, in Sussex, labourer, son of James Cobby of
Birdham, in Sussex, carpenter, aged 30, appeared to be very dejected,
and said but little in gaol, and little at the gallows.
“John Hammond of Bersted, in Sussex, labourer, son of John Hammond of
the same place, labourer, aged 40, seemed likewise very much dejected,
and had little to say for himself, excepting his pretending that the
threats of Jackson, Carter and the rest, were the occasion of his being
concerned in the murder.
“Cobby’s excuse was much the same.
“They all, except the two Mills’s, seemed sensible of the heinous
nature of the crime for which they died, and behaved as became men in
their unhappy condition, more particularly Carter; but the Mills’s,
father and son, appeared hardened and unaffected, both in the gaol and
at the gallows, especially the son, who seemed by his behaviour, even
when his rope was fixed to the gallows, to be as little moved at what
he was about to suffer, as the most unconcerned spectator. However,
just before the cart drove away, he and his father seemed to offer up
some prayers to God.
“R. SANDHAM,
“Vicar of Subdeanry in Chichester.
“JOHN SMYTH,
“Curate of St. Pancras.”
As Jackson died so soon after condemnation, no other account can be
given of him, than he was of Aldsworth, near Rowland’s Castle, in
Hampshire, labourer, aged about 50 years; and that being very ill all
the time of his trial, as he had been for a considerable time before,
was shocked at the sentence of death, and the apprehensions of being
hung in chains, to such a degree as hastened and brought on his death
before he could pay the forfeit of his life in that ignominy to which
he was most deservedly doomed, and more particularly due to him as a
ringleader in the most cruel and horrid barbarities and murders.
He professed the Romish religion some years before his death, and
that he died a Roman Catholic may very reasonably be presumed from a
printed paper that was found carefully sewed upon a linen purse in his
waistcoat pocket immediately after his death, supposed to be a popish
relique, and containing the following words, viz.:--
“Sancti tres Reges
Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar,
Orate pro Nobis nunc et in Hora Mortis Nostræ.
Ces Billets ont touche aux trois Testes de S. S. Roys
a Cologne.
Ils sont pour Des Voyageurs, contre Les Malheurs de Chemins, Maux de
Teste, Mal-cadaque, Fievres, Sorcellerie, toute sorte de Malefice,
Morte subite.”
In English thus:
“Ye three Holy Kings,
Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar,
Pray for us now, and in the hour of death.
These papers have touched the three heads of the Holy
Kings at Cologne.
They are to preserve travellers from accidents on the road, headaches,
falling sickness, fevers, witchcraft, all kinds of mischief and sudden
death.”
The body of William Carter was hung in chains in the Portsmouth road,
near Rake, in Sussex; the body of Benjamin Tapner on Rook’s Hill, near
Chichester; and the bodies of John Cobby and John Hammond upon the sea
coast, near a place called Selsea Bill, in Sussex, where they were seen
at a great distance, both east and west.
The bodies of the Mills’s, father and son, having neither friend or
relation to take them away, were thrown into a hole, dug for that
purpose, very near the gallows, into which was likewise thrown the
body of Jackson. Just by is erected a stone having the following
inscription, viz.:--
“Near this place was buried the body of William Jackson, a
proscribed smuggler, who upon a special commission of Oyer
and Terminer, held at Chichester, on the 16th day of January,
1748–9, was with William Carter, attainted for the murder
of William Galley, a custom-house officer; and who likewise
was, together with Benjamin Tapner, John Cobby, John Hammond,
Richard Mills the elder, and Richard Mills, the younger, his
son, attainted for the murder of Daniel Chater; but dying in
a few hours after sentence of death was pronounced upon him,
he thereby escaped the punishment which the heinousness of his
complicated crimes deserved, and which was the next day most
justly inflicted upon his accomplices.
“As a memorial to posterity, and a warning to this and
succeeding generations,
“This stone is erected
“A.D. 1749.”
Having now given an account of the behaviour of these seven bloody
criminals, as occurred to the three clergymen who attended them after
their receiving sentence of death, and who signed their names to the
same; we shall now insert the account of their behaviour from the time
of their being brought to Chichester gaol, to their execution, which
account was taken by two persons who constantly attended on them, and
is what occurred at the times the clergymen before-mentioned were not
present; and are inserted to make this account complete.
The seven prisoners that were condemned, together with William
Combleach the gardener, committed on suspicion of being concerned in
the murder of Daniel Chater, were brought from Horsham gaol, in one
waggon under a strong guard of soldiers, to Chichester, on Friday the
13th January, 1748–9.
Jackson being sick, was kept upstairs in a room by himself; and the
other seven, William Combleach being with them, were put in a lower
room, all ironed and stapled down, and well guarded; but behaved very
bold and resolute, and not so decently as became people in their
circumstances. They ate their breakfast, dinner and supper regularly,
without any seeming concern, and talked and behaved freely to everybody
that came to see them. Old Mills looking out of a window the day after
they came there, which was market-day, young Mills said to Tapner, “D--n
the old fellow, he will have a stare out.”
1. Richard Mills, sen., was formerly well respected by the gentlemen
of the county; but having had for many years concerns with the
smugglers, and a smuggler himself, and having prevailed on his sons to
go a-smuggling likewise, he lost most of his business and character.
He frequently said, that he was only sorry for his sons, for as to
himself, he was under no trouble, for he was sure that he could not,
according to the common course of nature, live above a year or two
longer.
A few hours after sentence was passed upon him, a clergyman who lived
near him, went to see him in the gaol, in order to discourse with him
and bring him to a true sense of his deplorable condition; to which
purpose he recommended him to make use of his few remaining moments
in preparing for eternity. While the clergyman was thus seriously
talking to him about the concerns of his soul, the old man interrupted
him and said, “When do you think we shall be hanged?” The gentleman,
after reproving him for the little concern he discovered about the
more important affairs of another world, told him he believed his time
was very short, and that he thought his execution would be ordered
some time the next day, but could not exactly say at what hour. Mills
replied, that as to the murder it gave him but little trouble, since he
was not guilty of it; but as to the charge of smuggling, he owned he
had been concerned in that trade for a great many years, and did not
think there was any harm in it.
Being particularly asked, if he did not know that Chater was kept
chained in his turf-house, he answered very indifferently, that he
could not tell, he believed he did, but what was that to the murder?
But being told that his maid, Ann Bridges, had declared upon oath,
that he got up when Jackson and Little Harry[10] brought Chater to
his house about three o’clock in the morning, and that he ordered
her not to go into the turf-house, for there was a person there whom
it was not proper she should see; he could not tell what to say, but
stood seemingly dumbfounded; and an answer being pressed from him, he
acknowledged that he did get up and let them in, and told Little Harry
to carry him (Chater) into the turf-house, and chain him; and that he,
as well as Little Harry, did look after him till the gang came and took
him away the Wednesday night, but that he was no ways concerned in
the murder; but at last he did acknowledge, that he did know they had
agreed to carry Chater to the well by Lady Holt Park, and hang him, and
throw him into it; and that Tapner took a cord for the purpose from his
house.
Old Mills had been poor some time, and had left off smuggling, that is,
going with the gangs to the seaside to fetch the goods, being sensible
of the danger of going with others in a gang with firearms; but he got
something by letting the smugglers bring anything to the house; and to
blind the neighbours, he lived privately with his maid, Ann Bridges,
and had, for upwards of a year, received alms from the parish, as he
himself acknowledged.
2. Richard Mills, jun., had been concerned in smuggling for many years.
He was a daring, obstinate, hardened fellow, and seemed capable of any
mischief. He said to a gentleman, who went to see him, that he did not
value death, but was not guilty of the murder of which he was accused,
since he was not present when it was done; though if he had, he should
not have thought it any crime to destroy such informing rogues. After
his trial was over, two gentlemen going up to see him, they told him
that his brother John,[11] who had been advertised in the Gazette as
an accomplice in the murder of one Hawkins, and was likewise concerned
in the murder of Mr. Chater, but not then taken, was seen following
the judges over Hynd Heath, in their way to Chichester. “What,” said
Mills, “there has been no robbery committed upon the highway lately,
has there?” Upon which the person replied, “Not that I have heard of.”
Mills made answer, “I suppose Jack must take to the highway, for he
has no other way to live, till an opportunity offers of his getting to
France, which I heartily wish he may do.” After their conviction on
Tuesday night for the murder of Chater, he and the rest of them were
remanded back to prison, and ordered to be brought down the next day,
when Jackson and Carter were to be tried for the murder of Galley, and
the whole to receive judgment, when Mills said, “What the d--l do they
mean by that? Could not they do our whole business this night, without
obliging us to come again and wear out our shoes? Well! if it must be
so, the old man and I will go first, but I will give the old man the
wall,” as he accordingly did.
3. John Cobby seemed a harmless, inoffensive creature, and being of an
easy temper, it is supposed he was the more easily influenced to take
on with the smugglers, though he declared he had not long been with
them. He acknowledged that he was at the well when Chater was hung, and
flung into it, and that he, as well as the rest, were all guilty of the
crime for which they were condemned. He was very serious, and seemed
very penitent; owned he was a great sinner; begged pardon of God for
his offences, and hoped the world would forgive him the injuries he had
done to anybody.
4. Benjamin Tapner was born of very honest parents, who gave him good
schooling; and he always lived in good repute, till being persuaded by
Jackson and some others to follow their wicked courses: which he had
done for something more than two years. He behaved all the time under
his confinement more decently than some of the others, and frequently
prayed very devoutly. He was always very reserved if mention was made
of the cruelties he exercised on Chater. A gentleman, who desires his
name may not be mentioned, went to see him on Tuesday evening, just
after his conviction, who, taking him to one corner of the room, asked
him if there was anything in the report of his picking Chater’s eyes
out, when he declared, as a dying man, he never made use of any weapon
but his knife and whip; and that he might in the hurry pick one of his
eyes out with the point of his knife, for he did not know what he did,
the devil had got so strong hold of him. He said he had been in many
engagements with the King’s officers, and been wounded three times; and
hoped all young people would take warning by his untimely fate, and
keep good company, for it was bad company had been his ruin.
5. William Carter behaved himself very serious, and said that Jackson
had drawn him away from his honest employment to go a-smuggling, which
was the cause of his ruin; and indeed his general character was very
good except in that particular. He declared that these murders would
never have happened, had not Mrs. Payne, at Rowland’s Castle, sent for
him and Jackson, and in some measure exasperated them against Galley
and Chater, as being informers. This Mrs. Payne and her two sons are
in custody in Winchester Gaol, in order to take their trials at the
ensuing assizes, when it is hoped they will meet their just reward.
6. John Hammond was a hardened, obdurate fellow, and very resolute,
and always had great antipathy against the King’s officers and others
concerned in suppressing smuggling; and often would let drop words out
of his mouth, and that he did not think it any crime in killing an
informer; but when he came to receive sentence he began to cry very
much. He frequently lamented the case of his wife and four children,
and said that was all that touched him; as for dying he did not mind it.
7. William Jackson died in his room about 7 o’clock the same night
he received sentence of death. He had been one of the most notorious
smugglers living in his time; and most of them, as well as Carter,
gave him the worst of characters, and that he was even a thief among
themselves; for when he knew that any of them had got any run goods, he
would contrive to steal them away from them. He reflected on himself,
after receiving sentence, for what he had said on his defence, that
Tapner only was guilty; for he declared they were all concerned; and
that when he had been concerned in the murder of Galley, he contrived
to bring Cobby, Hammond, the three Mills’s, Stringer, Tapner, and the
rest, to be concerned in the murder of Chater, lest they might, one day
or other, run to the government, and make themselves an evidence, but
by being guilty of murder, it would be an entire bar to them.
The afternoon preceding their execution, a person came to take measure
of Jackson, Cobby, Hammond, Carter and Tapner, in order to make
their irons in which they were to be hung in chains! which threw the
prisoners into very great confusion, and they seemed under a greater
concern than ever they had shewed before. But when old Mills and his
son were told that they were exempted from that part of the punishment,
they seemed to be mightily pleased at it, and contented to be hung only
as common malefactors.
But it deserves particular notice, with respect to Jackson, that he was
no sooner told that he was to be hung in chains, but he was seized with
such horror and confusion, that he died in two hours afterwards; and
though he was very ill before, yet it is believed that this hastened
his end, and was the immediate cause of his death.
The foregoing accounts are a melancholy proof of the dreadful effects
which are the fatal but too frequent consequences of the offence
of smuggling--a crime which, however prejudicial to the kingdom in
general, and to every fair trader in particular, perhaps may not, from
an inattention to the many and monstrous mischiefs derived from it,
have met with that general detestation and abhorrence it so highly
deserves.