Samuel Bentham in Hamburg - 18 October, 1779
from Letter from Samuel Bentham to Jeremy Bentham, 19 October 1779, page 322:
I saw a woman executed here yesterday for the Murder of 2 young Children. She was beheaded: for hanging here is the Punishment for theft only. […]
The woman was supported by a man on each side, but, as she passed me she seemed to walk very well and were it not that she was the only woman I should not have known by her countenance that she was the criminal. She was dressed in a dark brown or black gown and clean linnen [sic]. She and the Parson and I believe some of the rest sung as they walked along.
Samuel Bentham, Letter from Samuel Bentham to Jeremy Bentham, 19 October 1779. In Timothy L.S. Sprigge (ed.), The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, Vol. 2, 1777–80, volume 2 (London, 2017), p. 322. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1515501759734 accessed: 3 January, 2025
Listeners
Listening to
hide composers| Singing at an execution | performed by The condemned woman, The parson |
Experience Information
| Date/Time | 18 October, 1779 |
| Medium | live |
| Listening Environment | in the company of others, outdoors, in public |