First Hanging Execution at Lincoln Prison
Execution at Lincoln
James Anderson, 50 years of age, was hanged at Lincoln in February 1883 for the murder of his wife at East Ferry, near Gainsborough, in the previous December.
In a quarrel between the parties Anderson struck his wife, then stabbed her in the throat with his pocket-knife. The jugular vein was severed, and the unfortunate woman bled to death in a few minutes.
This was the first execution at Her Majesty’s new prison at Lincoln, and the gallows was so erected that the convict stepped out of his cell and on to the scafold without leaving the premises.
William Marwood, who was the executioner, allowed the man a fall of eight feet, and instant death was the result.
Anderson, who had been attended by the superintendant of the Wesleyan Circuit, died very penitent.
The public executioner William Marwood is a cousin to my family on my mothers side he came from Horncastle where he was acobbler by trade & as far as I know he has s statue of himself in Madame Tussards in London in the chamber of horrors as he was the creator of the ” long drop ” which brought instant death as the old way left people dying in agony & he believed this not right