PALGRAVE HISTORIES OF POLICING, PUNISHMENT AND JUSTICE A History of Capital Punishment in the Australian Colonies, 1788 to 1900 Steven Anderson Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice Series Editor David G. Barrie University of Western Australia Crawley, Australia Since the 1960s, studies of police, punishment and the courts have been an integral and popular part of historical scholarship, and have followed inthehistoricaltrajectoryofamoreexpansivecriminaljusticeapparatus around the world. This international book series aims to examine and debatesomeofthemostpressingissuesandproblemsinthefield,andto stimulate new directions in research. It will showcase the work of both emerging and leading scholars of the social, cultural and institutional histories of police, punishment and the judicial sphere, and welcomes work grounded in various disciplines including criminology, sociology, history, law, legal history and political science. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15080 Steven Anderson A History of Capital Punishment in the Australian Colonies, 1788 to 1900 Steven Anderson The Department of History The University of Adelaide Adelaide, SA, Australia Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice ISBN 978-3-030-53766-1 ISBN 978-3-030-53767-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53767-8 ©The Editor(s) (if applicable) andThe Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2020 This work is subject to copyright. 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Cover illustration: f8 archive/Alamy Stock Photo ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Dedicated to the memory of Glenn Anderson (1954–2011) Contents 1 Introduction:Thinking About Punishment OverTime 1 2 Australia’s HangingYears 19 3 The Ideal and Reality of Execution Procedure 55 4 The Criminal at the Gallows 85 5 The Scaffold Crowd 107 6 The End of Public Executions 139 7 Race and the Reprisal of Public Hangings 169 8 The Push to Abolish Capital Punishment 189 9 Conclusion: Death of a Spectacle 221 vii viii Contents Bibliography 227 Index 257 List of Illustrations Illustration 1.1 The execution of John Knatchbull outside Sydney’s Darlinghurst Gaol on 13 February 1844 (Source ‘WoolloomoolooGaol,ExecutionofJohn Knatchbull’, Government Printing Office, Glass Negative 1–21799, held by State Archives and Records Authority of NSW) 2 Illustration 1.2 The execution of Ned Kelly inside Melbourne Gaol on 11 November 1880 (Source ‘Sketch of Ned Kelly at the Gallows, Melbourne Gaol, 11 November 1888’, copied and digitised from an image appearing in the Australasian Sketcher, 20 November 1880, p. 185, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, record number: 187795) 3 Illustration 2.1 The Executive Council in Victoria discussing the case of Frederick Bailey Deeming in 1892 (Source J. Macfarlane, ‘The Executive Council Considering a Death Sentence, 1892’, print of a wood engraving, Melbourne: David Syme and Co., held by State LibraryVictoria) 43 ix x List of Illustrations Illustration 3.1 The 1880 Memorandum on Execution Procedure (cover letter included) sent to the Australian colonies from the Secretary of State for the Colonies in London, June 1880 (Source ‘Memorandum Upon the Execution of Prisoners by Hanging with a Long Drop, June 1880’, Queensland State Archives, Series ID 12690, Item ID 1139511) 58 Illustration 3.2 The drawings sent by the Colonial Office in England to the Australian colonies in June and December 1880 regarding new execution equipment and the design of the Newgate gallows in London. (Source ‘Memorandum Upon the Execution of Prisoners by Hanging with a Long Drop, June 1880’, Queensland State Archives, Series ID 12690, Item ID 1139511; ‘Circular from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with Attached Plan and Section of the Gallows at Newgate Gaol, 28 December 1880’, Queensland State Archives, Series ID 12690, Item ID 1839168) 59 Illustration 8.1 An 1896 cartoon in Melbourne’sThe Free Lance related to the push to abolish capital punishment in New South Wales (Source The Free Lance, 12 September 1896, p. 9, held by the National Library of Australia) 215