A Hundred Years Ago
"THE SPECTATOR," Aram 12TH, 1834.
The Governor of Newgate reported to the Gaol Committee at Guildhall last week, that the services of Joseph Osman, the junior hangman, might be dispensed with. This occasioned great alarm to that functionary ; and he presented a petition to the Court of Aldermen, setting forth the distress which a dismissal would bring upon himself and family, and the continued necessity for his services. He reminds the Court that he has held his office for four years :
"That his character he has maintained most excellent throughout having always been- sober, honest, clean, and faithfully attentive to the punctual discharge of the duties of his office ; that he was never arranged at the bar of Justice in the whole course of his life ; that he had the honour to be appointed to the office he fills by the worshipful Court itself ; and that so far from his services being no longer required, that it is impossible for one individual to do the thing at the time of the execution ; and that the casual attendance of an assistant from time to time, particularly when a great deal of business is in hand, would be attended with as much expense to the city of London as the continuance of your petitioner in the afore- said office."
He states, also, truly enough, that if turned out of his present occupation,
"Vulgar prejudice will prevent his being employed, on account of the unpleasant nature of his present duties ; that if he does get employed, if must be in dome very low capacity, where people would always be reminding him of his former work, and holding him up to ridicule ; although he never offended against propriety in performing his duties, which, as in duty bound, he will always be most anxious and willing to perform towards the honourable Court." It was finally determined that the petitioner should be retained ; -partly on account of his excellent qualifications for "lending a hand," and partly to prevent the necessity, in case of a strike, of the Sheriff being the hangman himself.
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