NEWGATE RELIC

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1931, Page 9

NEWGATE RELIC

C"'.' . • . THE BELL COMES HOME, The iron bell which tolled the dismal tidings of a hanging at old Newgate Prison, in London, is on its way from Boston, Massachusetts, back to the land whence it came (says the Daily “Telegraph”). , The bell was the property of the late Mr- G. W. Ritchie, of Providence, U.S.A., etcher and engraver. Mrs, Ritchie is returning at to London, where it will be placed in a museum, a reminder of the days when crowds gatherpd for a hanging and the highest bidder secured the best seat. The “Daily Telegraph” states that the bell will in all probability be presented to the London Museum. The curator of the museum has been in correspondence on the subject with Mrs. Ritchie, who visited the museum when in England last, summer, and promised she would sen’d the bell back. Mr. Ritchie apparently acquired the bell at the sale of the Newgate effects on February 4, 1903, when the prison was dismantled, and many relics passed to purchasers, mostly at small prices. In the catalogue the bell was entered as: “Lot 188. —Old Toll Bell. 3ft. 6in. diameter; 3ft. high.” It bore the following inscription:— “Ye people all who hear me ring “Be faithful to your God and King”— . “Pack and Chapman fecit, 1775.” The bell was sold for £lOO, and A report stated that “there was some spirited bidding for the old toll bell, fixed in its massive timber frame.” It was not until December, 1783, that the first execution took place at Newgate, in the public street before the prison walls. Public executions ceased in 1868. During the long period through which hangings were conducted at Tyburn the bell of St.' Sepulchre’s, across the road from Old Bailey, was' tolled on the morning of the execution, when the cart set out from. Newgate. •>