Sarah Harriet Thomas - Bristol
Sarah Harriet Thomas is known as the last person publicly hanged in the city of Bristol. A young girl dragged up to the scaffold, screaming in absolute fear led even the hardest of hearts to evaluate their attitudes towards public hanging.
We know very little about Sarah Harriet Thomas, but we know that she was employed as a maid to the 61 year old, Miss Jeffries. Miss Jeffries was a women of considerable wealth, however, she was well known to have a violent temperament. She had very little to do with any of her family and friends, and became increasingly isolated from society. She also lived alone apart from the support she had from a female servant.
According to the Sun on the 17th April 1849, the newspaper references a few of Miss Jeffries late employee's testified about their late employer. A witness named Sarah Miller, said that her employer was violent towards her servants and ill treated them. Another witness named, Lucy Chad had left her employment due to Miss Jeffries treatment of her. She claimed that Miss Jeffries had threatened to beat her and raise a stick against her. Furthermore, she also claimed that her employer had threatened to beat her because she did not get up in the morning, when she was called. Lastly, the newspaper references a women called Charlotte Morgan, who had only been able to remain in Miss Jeffries employment, for two nights and a day. But left due to her mistress arguing about Morgan getting up in the morning. These testimonies from these women demonstrate convincingly, the violent and abusive nature of Miss Jeffries. And, the amount of resentment shown towards her by past employees.
On the day of the murder on the 3nd March 1849, according to Sarah Thomas' confession. She claims that Miss Jeffries had called Sarah to her bedroom, and threatened to hit her. The next night, she stayed in the room with Miss Jeffries. After she was sure that her mistress was asleep, she got up and found a rock. She then hit Miss Jeffries three times, according to Sarah, Miss Jeffries woke up between blows and cried out "Christ God". After the murder was committed she robbed the house of Miss Jeffries, clothes, jewels and other valuables. And, then left for her parent's home. Sarah further claimed that she had killed Miss Jeffries dog and shoved the body somewhere in the house.
According to the Sun, they reference witnesses to the murder. One women named Anne Ham said that she heard great screaming coming from Miss Jeffries room. She mentioned this to her landlady Mrs Fry, who knocked on the wall to Miss Jeffries house, in which the screaming stopped. Anne Ham claimed that the screaming she heard was from Sarah Thomas herself. This is because she had heard Sarah crying before, this was because Miss Jeffries had called her a "dirty hussy" and that she was slow in her work. The Sun, clearly sympathetic to Sarah Thomas' case said that the stone was not a normal weapon to murder someone with. And, that it was clearly something picked up in the heat of passion. This testimony, although not referenced in Thomas' confession. Shows that either Sarah was so frightened of what she was doing that she was screaming, or the witnesses' were mistaken and that it was Miss Jeffries crying out for help.
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However, Sarah Thomas' actions were soon discovered. A lady named Miss Miller who has also been mentioned within the Sun's report, claimed that she last saw the victim on the 2nd of March. When she returned the next day, the shutters were closed and the place looked deserted. Miss Miller claimed that it looked as if Miss Jeffries had left to go somewhere. Finally, Miss Jeffries brother who was a retired surgeon applied to the local magistrate, and, with the help of the Police finally gained access to the house. They found his sister's body lying in her bed, with several wounds to the head and a pool of blood on the floor. The stone was lying on the hob, with a clump of grey hairs and blood spattered on the rock. The house had been ransacked with a lot of Miss Jeffries valuables missing.
Suspicion immediately fell on Sarah, as when the Police went to her parents house they immediately found all of Miss Jeffries belongings in Sarah's possession. When she was taken to the Police station, she immediately said that the perpetrator was an ex servant of Miss Jeffries, who had arrived on the morning of the 3rd of March to demand a character reference from her late employer. This servant, she claimed gave her all Miss Jeffries' possessions. However, the Police found that this story was plainly untrue.
When Sarah was tried at the assizes, the evidence was found to be conclusively against her. The Jury found her guilty, but recommended to the Judge that because of her age that she should be shown some leniency. During the trial, she showed very little emotion. But when the Judge placed the black cap on his head she was heard saying "Oh I cannot stand that". When the sentence was passed, Sarah begged the gaoler to intercede on her behalf to the Judge, and that she would not leave until he did so. The gaoler with the help of other officials managed to carry her from the stand. When Sarah had left the room, the Judge told the Jury that he would report their recommendation to the proper authorities.
Whilst in prison, there were attempts by sympathetic members of the public to gain a reprieve from the Home Office against the Death penalty for Sarah Thomas. One of the petitions was signed by over 3,500 women and was given to the local magistrate. However, these petitions were ignored by the state who were too busy with the Stanfield murders perpetrated by James Bloomfield Rush, to fully consider Sarah Thomas' situation. In prison, Sarah was visited by her mother and sisters, in which her mothers were severely distressed. However, her mother seemed indifferent to the plight of her daughter. As a result of this meeting, her mother asked whether she could have the clothes that Sarah had stolen from Miss Jeffries. And, her sisters said that they would attend the execution.
On the 20th April 1849, Sarah's gaoler Mr Gardiner approached her cell and said that she must accompany him to the place of execution. Sarah stamped her foot and said that she would not go. It took six to seven men to remove her from the room, whilst being taken away she told the gaoler to send her love to her father. Sarah managed to walk to the scaffold unaccompanied, but eventually lost her nerve and had to be carried the rest of the way, with her screaming and struggling violently. When Calcroft, the executioner at the time, put the noose around her neck, she exclaimed; ""The Lord have mercy upon me! I hope my mother and none of my family are watching", it was said that Sarah died quickly with a few short convulsions.
The execution gathered a massive crowd, with an equally massive police force to try and keep the crowd under control. This was to ensure that no last incident was to off set the execution. When Sarah was dragged to the scaffold, the governor of the prison overcome by the sheer traumatic event unfolding before him actually fainted. Calcroft, the executioner was also equally affected by the death of Sarah Thomas as he said about the execution; “in my opinion, one of the prettiest and most intellectual girls I have met with.”. At the time, a crime reporter called Mr E Austin said of the case that "Ribald jests were bandied about and after waiting to see the corpse cut down, the crowd dispersed, and the harvest of the taverns in the neighbourhood commenced.”.
This was the last public execution in the city of Bristol, it was said that many of the crowd felt repulsed by what had happened to Sarah, and remembered the execution long after the public had forgotten the case. However, it would take a long time before juvenile prisoners were not automatically sentenced to the death penalty and a fair consideration of their age would be shown as a mitigation factor. However, in the tragic case of Sarah Thomas, whose crime was probably motivated by the psychological and physical abuse of her employer, she found no other way out of her situation but bludgeoning Miss Jeffries to death.
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