-Col. Toovey Hawley, besides a
detachment sent from Coventry as escort with the prisoners. The last
public execution here under the old laws was that of Philip Matsell, who
was sentenced to be hanged for shooting a watchman named Twyford, on the
night of July 22, 1806. An _alibi_ was set up in defence, and though it
was unsuccessful, circumstances afterwards came to light tending to
prove that though Matsell was a desperado of the worst kind, who had
long kept clear of the punishments he had deserved, in this instance he
suffered for another. There was a disreputable gang with one of whom,
Kate Pedley, Matsell had formed an intimate connection, who had a grudge
against Twyford on account of his interfering and preventing several
robberies they had planned, and it is said that it was his paramour, Kit
Pedley, who really shot Twyford, having dressed herself in Matsell's
clothes while he was in a state of drunkenness. However, he was
convicted and brought here (Aug. 23), from Warwick, sitting on his
coffin in an open cart, to be executed at the bottom of Great Charles
Street. The scaffold was a rough platform about ten feet high, the
gallows rising from the centre thereof, Matsell having to stand upon
some steps while the rope was adjusted round his neck.
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