Hanging a Twelve Year Old, Lancaster 1812 March 27, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
The Cripple’s Death
It says something terrible about Britain’s nineteenth-century legal system. In 1812 a twelve year old was brought to the scaffold for having broken a window. He was barely able to walk, needing crutches: in fact, he was a ‘cripple’: he had been put on a man’s shoulder’s to break the window and had been egged on by adults. When he hobbled up to the scaffold, finally, understanding the horrible fate that awaited him – no simple drop in 1812, but seven or eight minutes of slow suffocation – he began to cry for his mother; who, of course, was unable to help him.
This at least is one version of the hanging of Abraham Charlson (aka Abraham Charlston, and bizarrely Abraham Charlesworth) at Lancaster Castle, 13 June 1812. The purpose of this article is to sift through the legend and get at what really happened.
The Facts
24 March 1812 a group of rioting luddites had attacked and burnt a factory at Westhoughton in Lancashire. 1812 was a difficult year in the mill towns in the north and without wishing to excuse a crime against property (contemporary reports talk of 7000 pounds worth of damage) these were poor people in the process of getting poorer. The state retaliated and rounded up a large number of men and women who had taken part in the act of arson and associated acts. These were tried in early June. Seventeen were sentenced to transportation and nine were sent to the gallows: the Blue Plaque below refers to the crime of arson alone. Here was the British equivalent of decimation. There had been about a hundred rioters. An example was being made.
The Myths
Now just to see how a good story warps history let’s take the ‘facts’ given above about Abraham Charlson one by one.
He was twelve! Wrong. Contemporary reports and legal records are unanimous in claiming that he was sixteen. However, that actually appears doubtful. While preparing this article I went through the Lancashire Parish records and came across only one ‘Abram Charlson’ from West Houghton [Baptism: 8 Jun 1793 St Mary the Virgin, Leigh, Lancashire, England, Abram Charlson – Son of William Charlson & Ellen, Abode: Atherton, Register: Baptisms 1782 – 1797, Page 137 Source: LDS Film 1885648]. He seems to have been, then, eighteen going on nineteen, if my calculations are correct: I hate working out ages. Perhaps his family tried to make him younger to favour commutation of the death penalty?
He could barely walk! Wrong. As we’ll soon see Charlson was very mobile on the night of 24 March 1812. But one of his companions on the gallows James Smith had crutches that fateful evening. My guess is that Smith had to go to the gallows on crutches and that the two got mixed up in local tradition.
He just broke a sodding window! Wrong. At the mill ‘Charlson was also seen armed with a scythe, walking as sentry before the mill, occasionally throwing stones at the windows, and cutting down the window frames with the weapon. There was a cry among the mob, both within and without the building, ‘Let us set fire to it’ upon which Charlson gave up his scythe to another person, and ran to a barn, belonging to a public house, near the mill; brought out some straw, which he took in the building; upon which they put several pieces of cloth taken from the looms, upon it, and having procured light from a neighbouring house, set it on fire, and in a short time it was entirely consumed.’ Just imagine Abraham’s defence lawyer expression as he read this…
He cried for his mother. Very possibly. This is a contemporary account of the hanging: ‘Their conduct, throughout confinement, manifested the greatest indifference and unconcern, as to the awful state in which they were placed. Before being turned off, however, they became penitent, confessed their offences, and with broken and contrite spirits, cried out to Heaven’s Throne to have mercy upon them for their being miserable sinners.’ We perhaps get an echo there of some desperation at the foot of the scaffold. Let’s hope it was quick.
Abraham Says Goodbye
I would prefer, note, to live in a world where Abraham Charlson had not been hung and where twenty years later he was raising kids on a ranch in Australia. But leaving that to the moralists I turn to history. A young man went from eighteen to twelve: he gained crutches (used by a companion) and he was excused of all guilt save that of breaking a window (when he was clearly a ringleader): and this nonsense was in the historical bloodstream within eighty years of the man’s death. If someone ever tells you to trust popular tradition remember that poor twelve year old twisting in the breeze and hit delete.
Beach is always on the look out for cobblers: drbeachcombing AT gmail DOT com
29 Mar 2018: J. Reynolds writes in with this text. Dunn, Natural History of the Child, 1920.
I (Beach) have been unable to find any reference in Archbold’s Criminal Pleadings, but I can’t find the 1876 edition and the different editions are very different. Thanks to J. Reynolds!
