Letter

Letter from the convicted and condemned prisoner Esther Hibner to the Reverend Doctor Cotton. The letter requests an interview with the Governor of Newgate Gaol and Dr Cotton. Below the letter is an annotation by Reverend Cotton, 'She was executed for murder 13 April 1829. She was a second Mother Brownrigge', both women having been convicted of cruelty and murder of female parish apprentices in their care.
Esther Hibner was found guilty of the murder of a 10 year old female apprentice. A 'pauper', the child has been placed in her care, along with other apprentices by the local parishes, to learn the trade of fabricating tambour-work. The apprentices were subject to ill-treatment, including beatings and starvation by Hibner and her daughter. The murdered victim had died as a result of an abcess on the lung and sores on her feet that had caused her toes to mortify. At trial Hibner showed no remorse for her crimes. Once committed to the condemned cell in Newgate she swore at Mr Wontner, the governor of the jail, that she would not be hanged, and became furious when not allowed to have a mutton chop for her dinner. On Sunday she had a last interview with her daughter and subsequently went into the yard, where she was found her bleeding from a neck wound she had inflicted with a knife. From this time her behaviour was so violent that it was found necessary to apply the strait-waistcoat to prevent her from tearing the bandages off the wound. She confessed, soon after her attempt at suicide, to Mr Wontner that it was not her intention to kill herself, but merely to wound herself severely, thinking thereby that she would be allowed to live a few days longer. The Reverend Cotton offered his spiritual advice and assistance to Hibner but she refused them, saying that she knew enough of the Bible herself, and wanted no interpreter. Cotton persevered until a late hour, but all his efforts proved useless.
A little before eight o'clock on Monday morning, the 13th of April, Hibner was led from the condemned cell to the press-room. 'She exhibited a dreadful appearance. Her dress, a black gown, over which was a white bed-gown, and the white cap on her head, contributed, together with the sallowness of her complexion, to give her a most unearthly aspect. The sad procession then set forward, the miserable woman being carried by two men, as she absolutely refused to walk. On her arrival at the scaffold she was assailed with a loud volley of yells from the people, particularly from the females, of which the crowd was in a great measure composed. She did not make a single struggle, and appeared to die almost instantaneously.'