Note (return) — Minor Queries.
Reading edition
Has Execution by Hanging been survived?—I have heard vague and indiscriminate tales of persons who, as criminals, have undergone infliction of the punishment of hanging without total extinction of life; but I have always been disposed to look upon such accounts as mere fables, till lately, in turning over some newspapers of the year 1740, I found a case mentioned, under such circumstances that, if it were untrue, its refutation might have been easily accomplished. By The Craftsman of Saturday, Sept 27, 1740, it appears one William Dewell had been concerned in the violation, robbery, and murder of a young woman in a barn at Acton (which place has so recently been the scene of another horrible crime). The Craftsman of Saturday, Nov. 29, 1740, states that Dewell, having undergone execution, and being brought to Surgeons Hall to be anatomised, symptoms of life appeared, and he quite recovered.[5] This strikes me as a most unaccountable story; but perhaps similar ones may have been met with in the reading of some of your correspondents.