A woman named Sarah Ann Hewitt has been killed by her husband Edward Hewitt in this city, under circumstances of a peculiarly horrible and brutal character. The unfortunate victim was 43 years of age and was the daughter of a working man of Gloucester named Chamberlain, now deceased. Eighteen or twenty years ago she was married at St. James Church, Gloucester to a man named John Reed, a boiler-rivetter employed by Messrs. Fielding and Platt, by whom she had four children. Reed was accidentally killed seven years ago in the flue of a cement works at Bath.
Edward Hewitt, who is stated to be a native of Loughborough, appears to have been acquainted with Reed and is said to have lived with Mrs. Reed for some time, during which she had a child. They lived in Wells Court, a row of six houses which are approached by Sherbourne Street by a covered passage. The neighbourhood is a poor one, and the six houses appear to be tenanted by several families. During the winter, Hewitt has been out of work and he and his wife and children have suffered privation.
In fact, only on Saturday last the unfortunate woman is said to have gone to the neighbours to beg bread for her children. A few weeks ago her youngest child died of congestion of the lungs, and the woman went to the Magistrates at the Police Court and obtained relief, stating that her family was starving and her child then lying at home dead was to have a paupers grave. Hewitt, who had been on the tramp in search of work, went to Sharpness on the Monday and gained employment during that week.
He returned to Gloucester on Saturday and gave the deceased a sovereign but demanded that she should give him six shillings back. She got bacon and eggs for his tea, but he objected to this fare and brutally ill-used her. She screamed 'murder' and called to her neighbours to come to her rescue and Mrs. Curtis, wife of a striker who lived next door, went to the door. But Hewitt menaced her and at first she was afraid to go into the house.
At length, she entered and found the deceased ‘squatting on the ground’ near the stairs, crying. Hewitt again tried to strike and kick his wife, but was prevented by Mrs. Curtis. Soon afterwards the violence was renewed. Mrs. Curtis then found the door of the house had been locked, but Hewitt came out and asked her what she did there. He then went from home and Mrs. Curtis made tea and gave it to the deceased. Hewitt was at this time drunk, but the deceased was sober, and did not appear to be provoking her husband.
Between four and five o’clock on Sunday morning, Mrs. Curtis heard the disturbance renewed. Hewitt was then threatening to knock his wife’s eye out if she did not give him the six shillings and she answered that she would not give him the money to go out and spend, and that he did not want it. An hour or two later there was another quarrel respecting the six shillings and the deceased said she had not got the money. Both Hewitt and his wife then went out into the yard for a time.
He left home at about half past eleven on the Sunday morning but at five o’clock he returned and was again using horrible threats to his wife if she did not give him the money. At that time her son Sidney Reed, while standing near the house, saw his mother run to the wash house and put her purse down by the tap. Her husband followed and knocked the woman down and kicked her in the stomach.
He found the purse where she had placed it and said she should have none of the money, adding 'I’m off'. The poor woman returned to her house and the neighbours called to the husband to come and attend her as she was dying fast — he in return used brutal expressions, exclaiming 'let her die; if I had my way I would chuck a bucket of water over her'. The unfortunate woman complained of pain at her heart, she became unconscious and died between seven and eight o’clock.
The Judge summed up, the Jury needed only 15 minutes to reach a verdict of guilty and sentence was passed thus: 'Prisoner at the bar, it seems to me that your murder was as brutal and cruel as any crime come before me; you put your wife to death by cruel, repeated and prolonged violence, now therefore do you yourself prepare to die'.
The prisoner stood unmoved while sentence of death was passed. He was then removed to Gloucester County Prison to await his day of judgement which duly arrived on the morn of Tuesday, 15th June.
Warders direct visitors to the place of execution; already gathered there are Major Knox, Governor, the Doctor, High Sheriff and about eight representatives of the Press. Pointed out was James Berry of Bradford, Yorkshire who has been engaged by the Sheriff as Hangman. He is a thickset young man with a pleasant expression of the eyes, light brown hair, whiskers, moustache and beard. He also has a scar on one cheek.
The apparatus of death stands before us; it is a cross beam supported by two upright struts about six feet high, between which is a platform level with the courtyard. The platform consists of two trap doors, the edges of which rest on a cross bar secured by a bolt; beneath these is a brick-lined pit nine feet deep. Just before eight o’clock the Chapel bell begins to chime and at the appointed time we hear the Chaplain reading the beautiful service of the dead. A door in the corner opens and the Chaplain emerges still reading followed by the condemned man who has been pinioned down to his elbows by Berry in the cell above. He is dressed in his best suit and has grown a beard since his appearance at Magistrates; his face is ghastly pale and he has a dazed look.
Hewitt is walked for the few yards he has to go by three Warders, Berry waits beneath the gallows — if he had looked to the right he could have seen his open grave.
Berry puts a white cap over his head, straps his hands and feet, adjusts and tightens the noose of the rope around his neck, a leather washer being placed against the covered iron ring of it. This only takes a few seconds to do and the unhappy man, who is held by three warders is distinctly heard to moan, 'Oh dear'. Berry slightly stoops down, unscrews a nut and jerks a lever at the side which releases a bolt in the cross bar and the whole platform collapses and falls on its hinges against the padded sides of the pit.
Hewitt immediately disappears from view, launched into eternity. The doctor hurriedly descends the steps into the pit, and nearly all of us advance a few paces fearing some bungle has occurred. The culprit is distinctly seen to be quivering, the doctor stated later it was only muscular contractions. He found the heart was still beating and when he lifted the white hood, he noted that the man's features exhibited traces of extreme agony: the eyes stared from their sockets, and his tongue which he had bitten through, protruded from his mouth.
Berry informs that his man weighed 10 stone 4½ lbs. and he gave him a drop of 6 feet. Before we left the prison the Governor, Major Knox, tells us Hewitt, (who slept well the previous night), had for his breakfast at seven o’clock a mutton chop, pound of bread and tea.
He also informed the Governor that he did not premeditate the murder of the woman, and that drink was not the cause of the crime.
Thus perished Edward Hewitt. The hangman was paid £10 and £4 expenses for his task and we left the prison beneath the black flag that flew high over the prison.
Excerpts from The Gloucester Chronicle 1886
