John Horwood

John Horwood (1803 – 13 April 1821) was a miner's son convicted of murder in Bristol, England, and executed in 1821. He was the first person to be hanged at Bristol New Gaol. Life John Horwood was born in Hanham, the fifth son of Thomas and Phoebe Horwood, one of six boys and four girls in the family. Raised in a mining community before the Mines Act introduced a minimum age of ten for children working in mines, John worked in local pits as a child. He refused to continue working in the mines after a series of accidents, including the death of one of his brothers along with three other workers. He subsequently worked with his father at a local spelter, most likely the Hanham Spelter Works, but was laid off due to his bad behavior, including mischief and vandalism, in 1819 when he was only 16. Around town, John Horwood was most known as a mischievous and destructive boy, who harassed and pulled pranks on his neighbors. He subsequently came to notoriety following the death of a local girl, Eliza Balsom. John was accused of throwing a stone which hit her head, leading to her death. He stood trial and was found guilty of murder for this act, and was hanged at Bristol New Gaol on 13 April 1821, just 3 days after his 18th birthday. Various papers on the circumstances, Eliza's illness, the case against John and medical matters were collected together and bound by Dr Richard Smith, who had treated Eliza at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and acquired John's body for dissection and public presentation at the Infirmary. These papers are held in a single volume, the Horwood Book in the Bristol Archives. A subsequent review of the papers and examination of Eliza's skull was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in 1869, raising questions about medical procedures and the validity of the trial for murder. More recent historical research has been conducted by a distant relative of John Horwood, also questioning the legitimacy of the charge of murder.