William Calcraft was one of Britain’s most prolific executioners and it is estimated that he despatched about 450 people during his 45 years in the job.
A cobbler by trade, he began his unsavoury life by flogging juvenile offenders at Newgate prison before being promoted to hangman.
He was often considered incompetent and sometimes inflicted great suffering to his victims by the use of the ‘short drop’ rope.
This caused his victims to strangle slowly rather than die quickly from a longer rope, that gave a clean break of the neck.
In 1867 he was called to Taunton to execute a man from the Frome area, George Britten, for the murder of his wife. This would be the last public hanging outside that particular jail.
This foul but fascinating crime of passion, along with other local infamous acts, appears in our recently published book ‘Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and Around Frome’.
While in Taunton, Calcraft stayed at the County Inn, whose landlord was a Mr. Sully, and ran up a bill of 13 shillings and 6 pence.
The bill remained unpaid and Sully demanded his money, provoking the following response,
“Sulley I am quite a Shamed at your meanness of sending me that open peace of paper to expose me in that way to think that you want me to spend 2 or 3 pounds to com to your place to Pay you the som of 14s which I never had half of it. it ( I ) will Swear if ihad you had half of it what did it cost me when whe ware out together you never spent one half penny and you to charge me that exorbant sum isuppose you thought of fritening me but iwas too near awood to be fritened by an Owl the sum you charged me’
When the sum still remained unpaid the case went before the registrar who asked Sully how soon he expected Calcraft to settle his bill.
Sully replied he expected the money immediately. “But trade is bad now is it not?” said the Registrar and gave Calcraft a month to pay.
Whether the sum was ever repaid or not, has seemingly been lost in the midst of time.
Mick Davis & David Lassman
