William Henry Hollins
Hollins was tried at the Old Bailey by the First Middlesex jury, before Mr. Baron Graham on the 14th of September 1814.
William Henry Hollins, alias Henry William Hollins, aged 45, was indicted for the wilful murder of Elizabeth Pilcher in Lower Grosvenor Street in London on the 4th of July 1814. He had called at the home of George Cartwright on several previous occasions asking to speak to Elizabeth who was a servant there.
Around 10 p.m. on Monday the 4th, Mr. Cartwright heard a pistol shot and went into the hallway to find Elizabeth being supported by his other servant, William Martin.
in evidence Martin testified that he had let Hollins in and called Elizabeth downstairs and she went outside with Hollins, leaving the front door open.
Hollins was detained at the scene by watchman Samuel Long and offered no resistance.
Long was close by and heard the shot so immediately ran to assist.
Elizabeth succumbed to her wound on the following Sunday.
The post-mortem carried out by surgeon, John Heaviside revealed that Elizabeth had been shot with a shotgun pistol and he recovered a large number of very small pellets from her liver and bowel.
Evidence was given by several people, including Hollins’ landlord, Richard Stone, of his weird behaviour and probable insanity but this was rebutted by William Martin, who testified that Hollins appeared to him to be perfectly sane at the time of the crime.
James Mitchell
33 year old James Mitchell was indicted for the wilful murder of Mary Ann Welchman, spinster, before Mr. Justice Heath at the same Sessions.
The murder, also by shooting took place at the home of Robert Watkins at no. 27, Mount Street in London on the 4th of August.
Mary Macey ran a dress making business and Mary Ann Welchman had worked for Mary Macey for some three years.
Mitchell was in a relationship with Mary Ann and on this evening, they quarrelled over a pair of scissors that she accused him of taking and he accused her of withholding a letter from him.
Later that evening Robert Watkins heard two pistol shots in quick succession and found Mary at the top of the stairs near death from two pistol ball wounds to the head.
Constable Thomas Moon, with three watchmen, carried out a search of the house, recovering two pistols and a hat that belonged to Mitchell.
The hat was an important piece of evidence because Mitchell was afterwards seen in the vicinity without his and later borrowed one from a friend.
At the end of the Sessions on the Friday both men were sentenced to death. Under the terms of the Murder Act of 1751 the executions were scheduled for the following Monday.
The Act specified that the execution should take place within 48 hours of sentence unless the period included a Sunday which was a “dies non”.
It was normal practice at the Old Bailey to pass sentence on murderers on Fridays thus giving them an extra day.
The Act also specified that they were to be kept fettered (legs shackled and attached to a waist chain) and fed only on bread and water.
After execution the body was to be either sent for dissection of hanged in chains at the court’s discretion.
Execution.
On Sunday the pair were visited by the Ordinary, The Rev. Dr. Horace Cotton and the Rev. Mr. Frere, a non-conformist minister.
In the early hours of Monday the 19th of September 1814 the portable gallows was drawn out by a team of horses and set up by the Debtor’s Door of Newgate. By 7 a.m. a huge crowd of people had turned up to watch this double execution.
Hollins knew that there was only one way out for him but Mitchell was reported as saying “There is no corroborating evidence of him having fired the pistols”.
At 7.30 a.m. the sheriffs and Officers of Justice proceeded from the courts through the tunnel and passageways to the Press Yard. Hollins and Mitchell were brought to the Press Yard at 7.45 a.m. where their fetters were removed by the blacksmith.
The hangman, John Langley, pinioned their arms just above the elbow with a cord running around their body and their wrists in front with another cord, before placing the halter nooses around their necks.
The procession to the gallows formed up and the two appeared on the platform just after 8 a.m. Langley uncoiled the ropes and threw the free ends over the beam and tied them back on themselves, leaving very little slack.
The clergymen continued to pray with them until the signal was given and the bolt drawn by Langley, “launching them into eternity” to use the terminology of the time.
Hollins became still very still after a few moments but Mitchell was “greatly convulsed” for several minutes. The bodies were left hanging for one hour before being taken down and sent for dissection.
It was reported that three women were allowed “the application of the dead man’s hand” to cure them of wems. This was widely believed superstition at this time. A wem was the term for a bodily spot or scar.
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