EXECUTIONER, the official who inflicts capital punishment. In England, it is the province of the sheriff to perform this as well as every other ministerial duty enjoined by the criminal courts, but practically he acts by his servants or officers, and lie only attends to see the law properly carried out. In royal burghs in Scotland, this duty is imposed on the civic magistracy, one of whom attends for the purpose. In times happily bygone, so numerous were the public executions, that almost every county and town had its E., as an acknowledged officer of justice, with a salary for his subsist ence. Yet, we learn that on certain occasions, so odious and so onerous was the duty to be performed, that a special E. was employed. Such was the case at the execution of Charles I. The task of putting this unfortunate monarch to death is well known to have been performed by two men, who, from a dread probably of the vengence of the royalists, had concealed their faces under visors. In consequence of the mystery thus assumed, public curiosity was much excited, and several persons fell under the sus picion of havitig; been concerned in the bloody deed; rumor. even went so far as to decide who was the wielder of the ax, and who held up the head. It cannot be said however, that any certainty was ever arrived at on the subject. See Chansbers's Edin burgh Journal, first series, vol. iv. p. 317.
Like many other offices, that of E. seems to have been at one time hereditary in England. Shakespeare, in Carlolames (act ii. scene 1), makes "Menenius," one of the characters in the play, speak of "hereditary hangmen," In several German states, the office of headsman (q.v.) is said to have been also hereditary; certain families being thus, as it were, condemned to perpetual infamy. The last headsman of the Tower of London died in 1861. The office was latterly a mere sinecure, and has not been filled up. In some parts of England the office was annexed to other posts; for instance, the porter of the city of Canterbury was E. for the co. of Kent, in the time of Henry II. and Henry III., for which lie had an allowance of 208. per annum from the sheriff, who was reimbursed by the exchequer. The sum of thirteenpence-halfpenny was long pop ularly spoken of as " hangman's wages;" such sum, equal to a merle Scots, being the fee at one time paid to the E. when he officiated. In the 17th c., this sum, small as it now appears, was considerably above the wages of a skilled mechanic.
From Gregory Brandon, the London E. in the reign of James I., the name Gregory was employed as a familiar designation for executioners for a considerable period. Brandon had the address to procure a coat-armorial from the college of heralds, and became an esquire by virtue of his office. One of his successors was named Dun, or " Squire Dun," as lie was called. Dun is referred to in Butler's Ghost, published in 1682: For you yourself to act "Squire Dun," Such ignominy ne'er saw the sun.
He was succeeded about the above year by John or Jack Ketch, commemorated by Dryden (Epilogue to the Duke of Guise), and his name has since been synonymous with hangman.—Cunningham's Handbook of London, article Tyburn.
Executioners have, in some instances, come to trouble. John Price, the London E., was executed 31st May, 1718, for murder. In the account of him, it is stated that one day, on returning from Tyburn, lie was arrested for a debt, which he discharged by a small sum in his pocket, along with the proceeds of the clothes of three felons lie had just Bailey Chronicle, i. p. 147. If this work can be credited, the E. was about the same time arrested while accompanying John Meff, a criminal, to Tyburn. This arrest, which is amusingly depicted in an engraving, stayed the execution of Meff; being conducted back to Newgate, his sentence was commuted to transportation for 7 years, hut having returned to England before the period expired, lie was taken and executed. On the 24th May, 1736, the E., on returning from Tyburn, after executing five felons, picked the pocket of a woman of 3s. 6d. (Hone's Every-Bay Book, ii. p. 695),
but what was his punishment is not related. In 1682, Alexander Cockburn, hangman of Edinburgh, was executed for the murder of a bedesman, or privileged mendicant. Early in the 18th c., the E. of Edinburgh was John Dalgliesh, who acted at the execu tion of Wilson the smuggler in 1736, and is alluded to in the Heart of Mid-Lothian. It was lie who also officiated at the execution of the celebrated Maggie Dickson, a woman condemned in 1738 for infanticide, but who came to life again after enduring the sen tence of the law, and lived unmolested for years afterwards, as a hawker of salt in the streets of Edinburgh. It is said of Dalgliesh, that, in whipping a criminal, he made a point of laying on the lash " according to his conscience," which showed him to have been a most considerate executioner. John High, or Reich, accepted the office of Edin burgh E. in 1784, in order to escape punishment for stealing poultry; lie died in 1817. See Traditions of Edinbur,gh, by R. Chambers. The emoluments of the Edinburgh E. at one time comprehended a recompense in kind in the markets of the city—viz., a lock or handful, and a gowpen or double handful, of meal from each sack; hence lie received the designation of lockman. These emoluments were latterly commuted into a regular salary of 12:3. per week, besides a free house, and a special fee of £1 11s. 6d. at each execution; from the exchequer the E. also received a small annual allowance as deem ster (q.v.). The last of the Edinburgh executioners was John Scott, whom it was cus tomary to confine in jail for 8 days previous to an execution, in order to insure his attendance; the expenses incurred by him during one of these periods of seclusion being, as we find, £1 2s. 6d., which sum was discharged by the city. Scott was killed by a malicious assault in 1847. Since this period, Edinburgh has had no regular hang man, but, like all other places in Great Britain, depends on the London E., who is hired for the occasion. This personage, until lately, was the well-known William Calcraft. For au execution at Edinburgh in 1854, Calcraft's fee and expenses amounted to £33 14s.; his assistant received £5 58.; and for taking charge of both, the city criminal offi cers were paid £1 1s. : total expenses for the execution. £40, independently of the cost of erecting the scaffold. In 1815, the magistrates of Glasgow entered into an arrange ment by stamped indenture with Thomas Young. who engaged to act as E. at a recom pense of per week, a free house, with coal and candles, a pair of shoes and stockings once a year, and a fee of a guinea at each execution. At Young's death in 1837, his successor, John Murdoch, was recompensed differently. Be was paid £1 per month, by way of retainer, and the sum of £10 for an execution. After his death, Calcraft offi ciated, lie in turn liaVing been succeeded by Marwood. Besides The usual fees, execu tioners have from early times claimed the clothes of those who suffer, as a perquisite of office. See PERQUISITE.
The most noted E. of Paris was the late M. Sanson, who officiated at the mournful death-scene of Louis XVI., and is said to have possessed acquirements and feelings not to be expected from one of his degrading profession. He was latterly assisted by his son, M. Henri Sanson. See Memoirs of the Sansons (1875). The Parisian E. is familiarly styled "Monsieur de Paris." No professional E. is employed at capital punishments in the United States. There the sentence is executed by the sheriff, with the assistance of an under-jailer; this last official performing the fatal toilet of the criminal, while the sheriff, by a movement affecting the drop, puts him to death in virtue of the sentence and the law of the state. This seems an advance on the practice in England, where, however, it could not be introduCed, for the simple reason that no one fit for the rank of sheriff or magistrate would accept of office with an obligation to perform the duty of E. in prison. The mil itary E. attached to an army is styled provost-marshal (q.v.).