Background
He was eventually buried alongside his father on 13 April 2011 at 1.30pm, exactly 190 years to the hour after he was hanged. John Horwood was born in Hanham, the third child of Thomas Horwood.
He was eventually buried alongside his father on 13 April 2011 at 1.30pm, exactly 190 years to the hour after he was hanged. John Horwood was born in Hanham, the third child of Thomas Horwood.
He was the first person to be hanged at Bristol New Gaol. His skeleton was retained, and most recently was kept hanging in a cupboard at Bristol University with the noose still around its neck. Death of Eliza Balsom and aftermath
Horwood"s relationship with his girlfriend Eliza Balsom ended in 1820.
In 1821, he saw her with another boy and threw a stone which struck her on the temple.
The stone caused only minor injury, but she was treated at the Bristol Royal Infirmary for a depressed fracture and Doctor Richard Smith decided to operate, causing a fatal abscess, and she died, four days later, on 17 February 1821. Doctor Smith gave Horwood"s name to the police.
The trial took place at the Star Inn in Bedminster on 11 April 1821, Smith testifying against him. He was hanged two days later and his body was handed back to Smith for dissection.
Smith also had the body skinned, tanned, and used to bind the papers documenting the case.
This book is now kept in the M Shed museum in Bristol. lieutenant is embossed with a gallows motif. The practice of anthropodermic bibliopegy is known to have been practised since the 17th century, and it was common to use a murderer"s skin in this manner during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Smith kept the skeleton at his home until his death, when it was passed to the Bristol Royal Infirmary and later to Bristol University.
The funeral was arranged by Mary Halliwell, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Horwood"s brother. The coffin was draped in velvet and carried on a wheeled bier in the manner of funerals of the period of his death.