Public Execution of John Horwood from Hanham Mills Hanged at New Gaol Cumberland Road Bristol 13th April 1821 hanged by Calcraft In April 1803 John, youngest child of ex-seaman Thomas Horwood and his Orkney-born wife, was born in their Hanham cottage at Hanham Mills. He was the last of their ten children. Coal-mining was the principal industry in the district at that time and the sons all went to work down the pit. One son, Joseph, was injured in a pit accident when he was 15 and the following year his twin brother James met his death underground when a roof caved in. In view of this John was never very happy about pursuing this line of work but stuck it for two years until an opportunity came up for him to enter the employ of Philip George at his Spelter works in Conham. Up to this point the stocky, rather short, fair-skinned youth had been industrious and chapel-going but around the time of his sixteenth birthday he became involved with a group of young people in the locality, an event which was to bring about his eventual downfall. The chief attraction of this clique was, for John, Eliza Balsum a girl some 18 months older than himself. He became so besotted with her that he abandoned all pretence of working so that he could spend every available moment in her company. He tricked his parents into buying him clothes on the pretext of needing them when seeking employment and turned to petty theft to provide ready cash. On one instance he and Eliza’s brother were apprehended and sentenced to a short spell in prison. Whether Eliza was initially attracted to John Horwood is not clear but certainly by the end of 1820 he was making her life sheer misery by his obsessive behaviour. He hounded her relentlessly, making ‘indelicate and improper’ suggestions to her and even went so far as to threaten her life. Once he vowed he would burn down her parents’ house. His frustration reached a crescendo at Christmastide that year when he waylaid her in a lonely lane in Hanham woods and flung vitriol over her. Luckily she was unhurt although the acid burned the clothes she wore. Understandably, after this terrifying incident she became extremely nervous and when she saw him hanging about her home a few weeks later she ran indoors and her family chased him off. Defeated by the sheer weight of numbers, Horwood fled, shouting back as he did so: ‘The first time I catch her I will mash her bones small as ashes.’ Shortly afterwards Eliza’s friend, Hannah Fry, heard him declare ‘If I catch her with another man I will be the death of her.’ Image Left: Hanham Mills on the River Avon the birthplace of John Horwood (cottages still stand today) At the end of January 1821 Horwood spied Eliza one evening on the hillside near her cottage. He was with his cronies, Joseph and William Fry and Thomas Barnes. Eliza was in the company of Joseph Reece and William Waddy. Horwood’s group was about 36 yards away from Eliza and the two lads when he stooped and picked up a large stone which he flung at her with all his might. It hit her on the right side of her head and she fell into a brook she was crossing, pulling William Waddy down with her. The party carried her home and her mother put her to bed. She was in a great deal of pain and suffering from vomitting attacks. However she was bruised by the incident but otherwise, it seemed, unharmed. Horwood was unrepentant. ‘If she don’t die there when she comes out I’ll be damned if I don’t kill her,’ he announced callously, adding ‘If I was to hear her say I hove the stone I would crack her bloody nose.’ The stone had caused a depressed fracture of Eliza’s skull and she died in the Infirmary on Saturday, 17th February. In the meantime John Horwood had been arrested one hour after the murder by the Sheriffs Yeomen, Officers Bull and Sew. He had tried to escape through his bedroom window but it was too narrow and had then resorted to violence, fighting off his captors on the stairs with a quarryman’s hammer. Sensing defeat was imminent he flung the hammer at Bull but fortunately the blow was minimal and Horwood was overcome and taken away to his victim’s bedside where the deposition was read to him. He showed total indifference to the damage he had done and when asked if he had any questions to put to Eliza he said ‘No’. The dying girl was too upset to even glance in his direction throughout the proceedings. Horwood went on trial for murder, was convicted and sentenced to death at the New Gaol in Cumberland Road. In the days leading up to his death he became grateful for the comfort of religion and said: ‘Lord, thou knowest that I did not mean then to take away her life but merely to punish her: though I confess that I had made up my mind, some time or other, to murder her.’ Image Left: The new Gaol in Cumberland road Bristol John Horwood was hanged above the gatehouse door - this is the only part of the old gaol that remains today Horwood went to the gallows on Friday, 13th April 1821, three days after his eighteenth birthday. He left behind a verse which was printed and sold on the day of execution. It reads: Murder's Skin Horwood's body after the execution was given to a surgeon at Bristol Royal Infirmary to be dissected for the benefit of medical students. The anatomist kept a detailed record of his findings and, after completing his work, had them bound together with a transcript of Horwood's trial. His flayed skin was taken to a tanner, who turned it into leather for the equivalent of £1.50. The surgeon, Richard Smith, spent a further £10 having the book bound and the front cover embossed with the skull and crossbones at each corner. The words Cutis Vera Johannis Horwood ('The Skin of John Horwood') were added in gilt letters. A book bound with a murderer's skin is on public display for the first time For decades the book languished in the infirmary's library before being transferred to the Bristol Record Office, where it has gone on display as an exhibit in the National Archive Awareness Month. The book, bound in Horwood's skin, which resembles tanned pigskin, is beautifully hand-tooled around the edges and bears a picture of a gallows on the front cover. (see image above) 'JOHN HORWOOD IS MY WRETCHED NAME AND HANHAM GAVE ME BIRTH MY PREVIOUS TIME HAS BEEN EMPLOYED IN RIOTING AND MIRTH. ELIZA, OH ELIZA DEAR! THY SPIRIT, OH, IS FLED! AND THY POOR MANGLED BODY LIES NOW NUMBER’D WITH THE DEAD. CURS’D IS THE HAND THAT GAVE THE BLOW AND CURS’D THE FATAL STONE WHICH MADE THY PRECIOUS LIFE BLOOD FLOW FOR IT HAS ME UNDONE '. Horwood enjoyed the distinction of being the first prisoner to be hanged at the new Cumberland Road gaol (the original was burnt down during the Bristol Riots). The moment he was pronounced dead, Horwood’s body was commandeered by Richard Smith, the surgeon who accused him of the crime. Smith dissected the body during a public medical lecture. Smith had Horwood’s body skinned and tanned. After it was given a further chemical treatment in Bedminster, what was left of Horwood was dispatched to a bookbinders in Essex who used it to bind a book, written by Smith, about the Horwood case. The book remains in the city archive and the gruesome relic is made available to the public by appointment. But two days later, and after walking from Kingswood, she reported to the Bristol Infirmary feeling unsteady on her feet. She was treated for a head wound but died within days. The surgeon Richard Smith inspected her body and found an abscess. The fact that this was more likely to have been caused by a dirty bandage applied in the hospital was not considered and Horwood was arrested and charged with her murder. Murder of Eliza Balsum - Hanham Woods South Gloucestershire