The hanging of Ashton poisoner Mary Ann Britland.

 

Hangman - James Berry

 

The Yorkshire executioner, James Berry, (1852-1913), is known to have carried out the death sentence on the first woman to have been hanged at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, in August 1886.

Mary Ann Britland, had been sentenced to death for poisoning her husband, daughter, and her best friend and neighbour, called Mary Dixon. Mrs Britland lived on Turner Lane, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. It's believed that the motive for the murders, was that Mrs Britland was involved in a extra-marital affair with Thomas Dixon, the husband of Mary, and that her daughter Elizabeth, had suspected it. Thomas Dixon was arrested but later released because of a lack of evidence.

It was known that Mrs Britland was in the habit of buying poison to kill mice in the home which contained both strychnine and arsenic. An autopsy was carried out on Mary Dixon which found evidence of arsenic and strychnine in her body. Autopsies were also carried out on Thomas and Elizabeth Britland, which found evidence of arsenic in their bodies.

In his book called "My Experiences as an Executioner" published in 1892, James Berry refers to the hanging of Mary Ann Britland. Apparently, the terrified woman had to be dragged to the scaffold at Strangeways Prison kicking and screaming.  The hanging of Mrs Britland, seems to have haunted James Berry throughout his life. He had become an executioner in 1884. In his memoir, Berry said that he could still hear her screams in his head to this very day.

By all accounts, she died instantly. The previous year, 1885, hadn't gone well for the hangman from Heckmondwike, in the West Ridings of Yorkshire. In a botched hanging, Berry decapitated Robert Goodale, at Norwich Prison in November1885, and nearly decapitated, Moses Shrimpton, at Worcester prison, in May 1885.  In February 1885, Berry had failed to execute John Babbacombe Lee, at Exeter, after pulling the leaver on the trap door three times. Lee became known as "The Man They Couldn't Hang." His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. James Berry hung some 130 people between 1884-1891, and later campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty.