In the Shadow of the Noose: Mad Earl Ferrers: The Last English Nobleman Hanged for Murder by Dan Alexander Randall Page B
Authors: Dan Alexander Randall
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friend, the MP George Montagu. ‘In general he behaved rationally and coolly,’ wrote Walpole, ‘though it was a strange contradiction to see a man trying by his own sense to prove himself out of his senses. It was more shocking to see his two brothers brought to prove the lunacy in their own blood, in order to save their brother's life. Both are almost as ill-looking men as the Earl.’
In a heartfelt address to the Lords, in which Earl Ferrers stated that he was suffering from ‘agony of mind’, he said, ‘I hope your Lordships will, in compassion to my infirmities, be kind enough to recommend me to His Majesty’s clemency.’
A ripple of chatter ran through the courtroom, which was ended with a proclamation for silence. Then, the Lord High Steward, Robert, Lord Henley, addressed the prisoner in his usual verbose, pompous fashion. It is recorded in full below only to show how Henley was swaggering and ostentatiously enjoying the occasion.
‘Laurence Earl Ferrers; His Majesty, from his royal and equal regard to justice, and his steady attention to our constitution, hath commanded this inquiry to be made, upon the blood of a very ordinary subject, against your Lordship, a peer of this realm: your Lordship hath been arraigned; hath pleaded, and put yourself on your peers; and they have unanimously found your Lordship guilty of the felony and murder charged in the indictment.
‘It is usual, my Lord, for courts of justice, before they pronounce the dreadful sentence pronounced by the law, to open to the prisoner the nature of the crime of which he is convicted; not in order to aggravate or afflict, but to awaken the mind to a due attention to, and consideration of, the unhappy situation into which he hath brought himself. My Lord, the crime of which your Lordship is found guilty, murder, is incapable of aggravation; and it is impossible, but that, during your Lordship’s long confinement, you must have reflected upon it, represented to your mind in the deepest shades, and with all its train of dismal and detestable consequences.
‘As your Lordship hath received no benefit, so you can derive no consolation from that refuge you seemed almost ashamed to take, under a pretended insanity; since it hath appeared to us all, from your cross-examination of the King’s witnesses, that you recollected the minutest circumstances of facts and conversations, to which you and the witnesses only could be privy, with the exactness of a memory more than ordinary sound; it is therefore as unnecessary as it would be painful to me, to dwell longer on a subject so black and dreadful.
‘It is with much more satisfaction, that I can remind your Lordship, that though, from the present tribunal, before which you now stand, you can receive nothing but strict and equal justice; yet you are soon to appear before an Almighty Judge, whose unfathomable wisdom is able, by means incomprehensible to our narrow capacities, to reconcile justice with mercy; but your Lordship’s education must have informed you, and you are now to remember, such beneficence is only to be obtained by deep contrition, sound, unfeigned, and substantial repentance.
‘Confined strictly, as your Lordship must be, for the very short remainder of your life, you will be still, if you please, entitled to converse and communicate with the ablest divines of the Protestant church, to whose pious care and consolation, in fervent prayer and devotion, I most cordially recommend your Lordship.
‘Nothing remains for me, but to pronounce the dreadful sentence of the law; and the judgment of the law is, and this high court doth award, that you, Laurence Earl Ferrers, return to the prison of the Tower, from whence you came; from thence you must be led to the place of execution, on Monday next, being the 21st day of this instant April; and when you come there, you must be hanged by the neck till you are dead, and your body must be dissected and anatomized.
‘And God Almighty be
In a heartfelt address to the Lords, in which Earl Ferrers stated that he was suffering from ‘agony of mind’, he said, ‘I hope your Lordships will, in compassion to my infirmities, be kind enough to recommend me to His Majesty’s clemency.’
A ripple of chatter ran through the courtroom, which was ended with a proclamation for silence. Then, the Lord High Steward, Robert, Lord Henley, addressed the prisoner in his usual verbose, pompous fashion. It is recorded in full below only to show how Henley was swaggering and ostentatiously enjoying the occasion.
‘Laurence Earl Ferrers; His Majesty, from his royal and equal regard to justice, and his steady attention to our constitution, hath commanded this inquiry to be made, upon the blood of a very ordinary subject, against your Lordship, a peer of this realm: your Lordship hath been arraigned; hath pleaded, and put yourself on your peers; and they have unanimously found your Lordship guilty of the felony and murder charged in the indictment.
‘It is usual, my Lord, for courts of justice, before they pronounce the dreadful sentence pronounced by the law, to open to the prisoner the nature of the crime of which he is convicted; not in order to aggravate or afflict, but to awaken the mind to a due attention to, and consideration of, the unhappy situation into which he hath brought himself. My Lord, the crime of which your Lordship is found guilty, murder, is incapable of aggravation; and it is impossible, but that, during your Lordship’s long confinement, you must have reflected upon it, represented to your mind in the deepest shades, and with all its train of dismal and detestable consequences.
‘As your Lordship hath received no benefit, so you can derive no consolation from that refuge you seemed almost ashamed to take, under a pretended insanity; since it hath appeared to us all, from your cross-examination of the King’s witnesses, that you recollected the minutest circumstances of facts and conversations, to which you and the witnesses only could be privy, with the exactness of a memory more than ordinary sound; it is therefore as unnecessary as it would be painful to me, to dwell longer on a subject so black and dreadful.
‘It is with much more satisfaction, that I can remind your Lordship, that though, from the present tribunal, before which you now stand, you can receive nothing but strict and equal justice; yet you are soon to appear before an Almighty Judge, whose unfathomable wisdom is able, by means incomprehensible to our narrow capacities, to reconcile justice with mercy; but your Lordship’s education must have informed you, and you are now to remember, such beneficence is only to be obtained by deep contrition, sound, unfeigned, and substantial repentance.
‘Confined strictly, as your Lordship must be, for the very short remainder of your life, you will be still, if you please, entitled to converse and communicate with the ablest divines of the Protestant church, to whose pious care and consolation, in fervent prayer and devotion, I most cordially recommend your Lordship.
‘Nothing remains for me, but to pronounce the dreadful sentence of the law; and the judgment of the law is, and this high court doth award, that you, Laurence Earl Ferrers, return to the prison of the Tower, from whence you came; from thence you must be led to the place of execution, on Monday next, being the 21st day of this instant April; and when you come there, you must be hanged by the neck till you are dead, and your body must be dissected and anatomized.
‘And God Almighty be
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