John Horwood
John Horwood, convicted of the wilful murder of Eliza Balsum, Let him be instantly hanged by the neck until he shall be dead on Friday the 13th April instant, and let his body be delivered to Richard Smith, of the City of Bristol, Surgeon, to be dissected and anatomized.
Court order at the trial of John Horwood, 1821.
During the early 1800s surgeons (including those at Bristol Infirmary) were keen to acquire bodies for dissection in the belief that knowledge of human anatomy was essential to the practise of medicine. For many years, the method of obtaining bodies for dissection was poorly regulated, leading to lurid cases of body snatching. During the mid-1700s Parliament had resolved to "add some further terror and peculiar mark of infamy" to death by hanging and it was decreed that executed criminals should have their bodies sent for dissection.
On Friday 13th April 1821, Bristol's New Gaol hosted its first public execution. John Horwood, aged 18, was hanged for the murder of Eliza Balsum, an older girl with whom he had became infatuated. When she had rejected his advances, he had thrown a stone at her, striking her on the head as she crossed a stream. She died a month later after being operated on by surgeon Richard Smith. Horwood's body was given over to Smith at the Bristol Infirmary for his anatomy class. He had Horwood's skin preserved, tanned and then used it to bind a book.
Court order at the trial of John Horwood, 1821.
During the early 1800s surgeons (including those at Bristol Infirmary) were keen to acquire bodies for dissection in the belief that knowledge of human anatomy was essential to the practise of medicine. For many years, the method of obtaining bodies for dissection was poorly regulated, leading to lurid cases of body snatching. During the mid-1700s Parliament had resolved to "add some further terror and peculiar mark of infamy" to death by hanging and it was decreed that executed criminals should have their bodies sent for dissection.
On Friday 13th April 1821, Bristol's New Gaol hosted its first public execution. John Horwood, aged 18, was hanged for the murder of Eliza Balsum, an older girl with whom he had became infatuated. When she had rejected his advances, he had thrown a stone at her, striking her on the head as she crossed a stream. She died a month later after being operated on by surgeon Richard Smith. Horwood's body was given over to Smith at the Bristol Infirmary for his anatomy class. He had Horwood's skin preserved, tanned and then used it to bind a book.