Tale of Carrickfergus ploughman who became a Dublin executioner

The unusual tale of a Carrickfergus ploughman who became an executioner has been shared by a Dublin museum.
By Helena McManus
Published 25th Nov 2020, 16:46 BST
Updated 30th Nov 2020, 15:16 BST
The newspaper tells of the local ploughman assisting with a whipping in Market Place, an event which sparked his career change to that of an executioner. Picture: Philip Magowan / PressEyeThe newspaper tells of the local ploughman assisting with a whipping in Market Place, an event which sparked his career change to that of an executioner. Picture: Philip Magowan / PressEye
The newspaper tells of the local ploughman assisting with a whipping in Market Place, an event which sparked his career change to that of an executioner. Picture: Philip Magowan / PressEye

Tom Kellett took over the role of hangman at Kilmainham Gaol in 1829, with his wife even dressing occasionally in men's clothing so that she could help him carry out his grisly duties.

The anecdote was shared by the former prison, now a major museum, on its Facebook and Twitter pages earlier this week.

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It was based on an excerpt from Saunders's News-Letter, one of Dublin’s most established newspapers in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Front facade of the Gaol where public executions took place - approximately 140 public hangings from 1796 to 1868. The beams of the scaffold would have been located above the upper middle window, in the areas highlighted in red. Photograph by PM Photography, courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Dublin.Front facade of the Gaol where public executions took place - approximately 140 public hangings from 1796 to 1868. The beams of the scaffold would have been located above the upper middle window, in the areas highlighted in red. Photograph by PM Photography, courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Dublin.
Front facade of the Gaol where public executions took place - approximately 140 public hangings from 1796 to 1868. The beams of the scaffold would have been located above the upper middle window, in the areas highlighted in red. Photograph by PM Photography, courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Dublin.

The extract outlines how Kellett had been a ploughman employed by the gaoler of Carrickfergus.

"On an emergency, when a man was to be whipped in the Market Place, he was taken from the plough to the cat-o'-nine-tails, and from that time his occupation has undergone a complete change," the newspaper stated.

He was afterwards employed as a hangman on the north-west circuit, and executed 13 of those found guilty of the infamous burning of Wildgoose Lodge in 1816.

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The more unusual part of the story, however, involved Kellett's young wife, who was around 16 years old when they married.

Three years into the marriage the hangman brought his wife, whom the newspaper does not name, with him to an execution in Omagh.

"He there initiated her in the mysteries of his art, and having attired her in man's apparel, she acted as executioner on the occasion," the News-Letter continued.

"He finds this arrangement extremely convenient, for he can attend to execution at one place, while his wife is attending another in a different part of the country."

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In a post on on their Facebook page, Kilmainham Gaol Museum said that Kellett's wife may not have been Ireland's first, or only, female executioner.

"In his book, 'Irish Popular Superstitions', Sir William Wilde (father of Oscar) recorded the history of 'Lady Betty' who is said to have been Roscommon Gaol's woman executioner in the 18th century," the post read.

Meanwhile, Carrick's own historic gaol cells were to get a new lease of life as part of as part of a £2 million heritage initiative announced earlier this year.

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