Summit Gist

The Execution of Rebecca Smith Rebecca Smith was the last British woman to be executed for the infanticide of her own child. She was convicted of killing her infant son Richard, and was publicly hanged at Devizes, Wiltshire, on 23 August, despite two petitions for mercy being sent to the Home Secretary. After her trial she confessed to having poisoned seven of her other children. The execution of Rebecca Smith took place on Saturday forenoon, in front of the Prison, Devizes. It is impossible to give anything like a correct calculation of the number of persons present to witness the awful scene, they were countless. From nine until eleven o’clock people poured into the towns in shoals – on foot, in wagons, boats, and by the latter hour, the prison yard, the banks of the canal, every tree, hedge, and field that could command a view of the drop, appeared crammed. Still the roads were lined with persons thronging to the spot. Some families bought a long their young children and had a...