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 Hannah Bocking of Litton was a 16-year-old servant girl. In the summer of 1818 she was turned down for a job. The reason was ‘her unamiable temper and disposition’. Another local girl, Jane Grant, was taken on instead.
Hannah hid her jealousy and apparently remained friends with Jane. One day they were out walking past the skeleton of Anthony Lingard in his gibbet. Hannah chose this place to give Jane a poisoned cake. Very soon Jane was dead.
Hannah was arrested and taken to Derby gaol. Six months later she was tried for murder. At first she first tried to involve members of her own family in the crime. Finally she admitted that she had bought some poison ten weeks before giving it to Jane in a cake.
The murder was clearly deliberately planned, which meant that Hannah Bocking had no chance of escaping the death penalty. On 22 March 1819, only four days after her trial, she was publicly executed by the old cart and gallows method.
This is how her death was reported around the country:
‘At the moment, when she was launched into eternity, an involuntary shuddering pervaded the assembled crowd, and although she excited little sympathy, a general feeling of horror was expressed that one so young should have been so guilty, and so insensible.’
Want to know more?
May the Lord have Mercy on Your Soul, Philip Taylor. Derbyshire Heritage Series 1989. ISBN 0-946404-81-X
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Crime & Punishment
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