THE TERRIBLE EXECUTION OF SARAH THOMAS FOR THE BRUTAL MURDER OF HER MISTRESS

10 a.m. on Friday the 20th of April 1849 saw Bristol's final public hanging on the flat roof of the gatehouse of the New Gaol in Cumberland Road. 

Sarah Harriet Thomas, 19, had been found guilty of killing her elderly employer Miss Elizabeth Jefferies at her home in Trenchard Street in Bristol, where she worked as the house maid.  Between 5 & 6 a.m. on the 3rd of March 1849 Sarah bludgeoned Miss Jefferies to death in her own bed, hitting her on the head three times with a large stone.  She then robbed the house and killed Miss Jefferies’ dog.  Her confession to the foregoing facts was printed in the papers.

Sarah came to trial at the Gloucestershire Assizes on Monday the 2nd of April 1849 in Gloucester Shire Hall, before Mr. Baron Platt.  Throughout her trial she had not appeared to treat the court proceedings seriously, but records state that when the Judge put on the black cap and sentenced her to death she collapsed and broke down completely.  The jury took half an hour to deliver their guilty verdict and also made a recommendation to mercy on the grounds of Sarah’s age.

There seems little doubt that Sarah had suffered ill-treatment at the woman's hands, including being hit and locked in the kitchen all night.  She made he written confession to the governor of the New Gaol on April the 4th, in which she stated that she would not have committed the crime except for the provocations she had suffered, particularly in the two days preceding it and her regret at having committed the act.  The confession was read to her every day in case she wanted to correct it.

A petition signed by some 3,500 local people was got up for a reprieve, but to no avail.

William Calcraft, and George Smith, were to carry out the execution, and even Calcraft was greatly affected by Sarah’s youth and good looks.

At 9.30 a.m. on the fatal Friday, Mr. Gardiner, the prison governor, went to the condemned cell and told Sarah that he hoped she would accompany him quietly to the gallows.  She reportedly stamped her foot and told him she would not.  She seemed frantic and it took six turnkeys to get her out of the cell and into the press room where she was to be pinioned.  She was able to walk unaided to the gatehouse but needed the assistance of two turnkeys to climb the steps up to the roof.

Once on the gallows where she continued to sob, scream and struggle right up to the final moment. She was crying out "I won’t be hanged; take me home!"  Her last words were reported as “The Lord have mercy upon me!  I hope my mother and none of my family are present.” 

She was held on the trap by two warders whilst Calcraft quickly made the preparations and drew the bolt.  It appears that Sarah died after just two or three convulsive struggles.  So great and moving was the awful scene that even the prison governor fainted.

A crowd, estimated at up to 30,000, had congregated to witness the hanging.  Crime reporter E. Austin who attended the execution reported: "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. However, a great many of the crowd felt repulsed by what they had seen and many carried the memory of that grisly day for years afterwards."

Calcraft later said that Sarah was "in my opinion, one of the prettiest and most intellectual girls I have met with."

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