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This article recounts the final public execution in England – the death of Michael Barrett on the gallows outside Newgate Prison on May 26, 1868 – along with the historical context, the controversy over his guilt, and the consequences that led to the complete end of public executions in England. The content is for educational and historical documentation purposes only, based on archival records, contemporary journalism, and historical research. It does not aim to shock gratuitously or glorify violence.
Michael Barrett: The Last Public Hanging in English History
Throughout history and across the centuries, many executions were performed in public. Henry VIII would hang, draw and quarter many of his enemies to send a clear message to the people of England not to commit serious offenses such as treason. Public executions continued well into the 19th century, as inside towns and cities gallows would be regularly erected to take the life of a condemned criminal. But the final public execution in England saw Michael Barrett go to the gallows at Newgate Prison, on a bleak morning in May 1868, before a massive crowd. He became the last person in England to die before the public eye. His story is not merely the story of a death; it is a story of a society in transition, of political chaos, of innocent victims, and of a verdict that remains controversial to this day.
First, to understand the execution of Michael Barrett, we must return to the event that sparked the entire affair: the Clerkenwell Prison Explosion on December 13, 1867.
This was one of the most horrific bombings on English soil in the 19th century. The backdrop was the Irish independence movement, particularly the Fenian organization (Irish Republican Brotherhood). A prominent Fenian named Richard O’Sullivan Burke was imprisoned at Clerkenwell Prison in north London. His associates planned to rescue him by blowing up the rear wall of the prison, which faced a densely populated street. The plan was to place a large barrel of gunpowder against the wall, detonate it to create a breach, and extract Burke in the ensuing chaos. However, catastrophe struck.
The explosion was far more powerful than intended. Instead of merely destroying a section of the wall, it leveled nearly an entire row of houses opposite. The result: twelve innocent civilians – including women and children – were killed, and dozens more were seriously injured. Houses collapsed onto sleeping residents. The scene of devastation was so horrifying that it immediately sparked a wave of intense outrage across England. Public opinion, already somewhat resentful toward the Irish due to ongoing political tensions, now turned fiercely hostile. The Irish were branded “terrorists” in the newspapers, and the British government came under enormous pressure to find the perpetrators and punish them severely.
Second, caught in this wave of public manhunt and retribution, Michael Barrett – an Irishman born in County Fermanagh – was arrested, put on trial, and sentenced to death, despite the fact that his actual level of involvement in the Clerkenwell bombing remains highly questionable to this day.
Barrett was a member of the Fenian movement, but evidence suggests he was not the person who directly placed the explosives, nor was he present at the scene when the explosion occurred. During the trial in April and May 1868, the key testimony against Barrett came from a man named Patrick Mullany – also a Fenian, but granted immunity in exchange for becoming a prosecution witness. Mullany claimed that Barrett had participated in the conspiracy, but his testimony was widely considered unreliable, as it came from a turncoat saving his own skin.
Moreover, there was no physical evidence directly linking Barrett to the gunpowder barrel. There was even a claim that Barrett was in Scotland at the time of the explosion. However, public fury was too intense, and the British government needed a scapegoat – a head to “pay” for the twelve innocent lives. Barrett became that scapegoat. He was convicted of murder, although until his final moments, he maintained his innocence. Many historians since have argued that Barrett was either a minor participant or entirely innocent, but he became a sacrificial victim for a crime committed by others.
Third, the execution of Michael Barrett took place at 8:00 a.m. on May 26, 1868, outside the gates of Newgate Prison, and the very spectacle of this event – the drunken, chaotic, inhumane behavior of the crowd – brought an end to public executions in England.
In the days leading up to the execution, news spread throughout London. Thousands of people poured into the area surrounding Newgate Prison from the night before, bringing beer, folding chairs, and even their children to “save a good spot.” The scene resembled a festival far more than an execution. The crowd was estimated to number in the tens of thousands, crammed in front of the prison gates, climbing onto rooftops, lampposts, and trees for a better view.
When Barrett was led out to the gallows, he wore a black suit, his hands bound, standing on the trapdoor. The hangman, William Calcraft – a famous and fearsome figure of the time – placed the noose around Barrett’s neck. In his final moments, Barrett exchanged words with a Catholic priest and once again declared his innocence. Then the trapdoor opened. Barrett fell.
But it was not a clean death. Calcraft had a notorious reputation as an incompetent executioner: he miscalculated the rope length. Instead of breaking Barrett’s neck, the drop was only enough to cause slow strangulation. Barrett writhed and struggled for several minutes, his body convulsing in full view of tens of thousands of spectators. Rather than recoiling in horror, a portion of the crowd shouted and cheered. Some laughed and threw objects. The scene was so chaotic, drunken, and disrespectful that many newspapers published angry editorials.
Immediately after the execution, social reformers and members of Parliament – who had long campaigned to end public executions – seized the opportunity to argue that public hangings did not deter crime but instead turned death into entertainment, incited violence, and debased the crowd. Just a few months later, in August 1868, Parliament passed the Execution Act (also known as the Capital Punishment Amendment Act), which required that all death sentences be carried out within prison walls, away from public view. A small window could be opened for a limited number of authorized witnesses (judges, doctors, permitted journalists), but the general crowd was excluded. Michael Barrett, a man who may have been innocent, thus became the last person to die before the public on English soil.
Michael Barrett is more than a name in a history book; he is a symbol of the transition from one brutal era to another – more sophisticated, but no less cold. He may have been a victim of a justice system swayed by public frenzy. He died for a crime in which his degree of participation remains disputed. And his death – marked by the hangman’s incompetence and the crowd’s savagery – indirectly convinced England that executions had to disappear behind the closed gates of prisons. Since 1868, no one has been publicly executed in England.
Until capital punishment was formally abolished in 1965 (and fully in 1998), all executions took place inside prisons such as Pentonville or Wandsworth, witnessed by only a handful of people. But Barrett’s mark remains: an Irishman, possibly innocent, hanged before a crowd, closing the centuries-long chapter of brutal public executions. His remains lie somewhere within the former grounds of Newgate Prison, long since demolished, and on that land now stands the Old Bailey – the Central Criminal Court of London – where justice is administered, but no longer with public spectacle.
Primary sources:
“The Last Public Execution in England” – The Times, London, May 27, 1868.
“The Newgate Calendar and Executioner’s Records” – Newgate Prison archives.
“The Fenian Bombing of Clerkenwell Prison” – The National Archives, UK.
“Hanging in Judgment: Religion and the Death Penalty in England” – Harry Potter (1993).
Trial testimony of Michael Barrett – Old Bailey Court Records, April-May 1868.
Historical studies by L. Perry Curtis Jr. on 19th-century Irish violence.