The street now called 'Icen Way' was not so named in years gone by . It. started as 'Gaol-Lane,' from the gaol at the corner of High East-street ; then a section was known as 'Bell street' taking this name from the Bell Inn: which stood just above the present gasworks. Here the condemned were allowed to halt and take their last earth refreshment. The final section up to the fatal mound was 'Gallows Hill' . in the same book the statement that "some scores died every week of small pox " in the gaol. This, I think, must be an exaggeration, as there is no indication of a corresponding number of burials in our Burial Register. Eighteen only are there entered as " prisoners " at that time. Yet possibly friends who could afford it removed the dead to their own churchyards, all over the country, and a much larger number could thus be accounted for. The last execution at Dorchester was of David Jennings who had murdered a night watchman. Jennings was 21 years old when he was executed in 1941. A portrait of the judge who pronounced the sentence of death on Mary Channing at Dorchester: the Honourable Robert Price

Death by hanging was in practice death by slow strangulation; not until the early years of the 19 th century was the longer drop allowed. Goodhue, Thomas W. (2002), Curious Bones: Mary Anning and the Birth of Paleontology (Great Scientists), Morgan Reynolds, ISBN 978-1-883846-93-0 By the mid 19 th century the long drop had been in use for nearly fifty years and the gallows had been arranged at the entrance to the prison in North Square and later moved inside the prison to a spot with views overlooking the meadows by the river.

First ichthyosaur

Addley, E. (16 December 2019). "Hopes rise for statue of pioneering fossil hunter Mary Anning". The Guardian . Retrieved 13 October 2020. One of the last public executions at the prison entrance was that of Martha Brown, which was witnessed by a young Thomas Hardy and is said to have haunted him all his life. ( See Elizabeth Martha Clarke – “a most kind and inoffensive woman.” Published 24 th December 2009 in Real Lives category.) Pierce, Patricia (2006), Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the Primeval Monsters, Sutton Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7509-4039-9 Out of the gloom that gathers round the history of the Dorchester gallows in past centuries, two or three figures, or groups of figures, stand out distinctly, and whilst on the subject it seems a fitting opportunity to recall. them. One and the latest has been already named, the unfortunate Mary Channing, but 18 years old, burnt in the Amphitheatre in Amazingly the wedding party lasted for two days with the full knowledge of the Brooks, but apparently the total ignorance of the Channings. Only weeks earlier their son had told them he had relinquished all thought of marrying Mary, but after the wedding he changed his mind. By now though, a fateful dye had been cast. When the marriage was barely three months old Mary began an affair with yet another man, a visitor to Dorchester recorded only as Mr Naile, upon which she lavished her accustomed costly entertainment. She even persuaded Thomas to let Mr Naile take his place in their bed. That he did so most likely occasioned the illegitimate conception that added the drop of gall to Mary’s cup of tragedy.

Anholt, Laurence (2006), Stone Girl Bone Girl: The Story of Mary Anning, Frances Lincoln Publishers, ISBN 978-1-84507-700-6Lee, Benjamin (25 August 2020). "Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan fall in love in first Ammonite trailer". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 26 August 2020. Planetary Names". in Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). 1991. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: others ( link) As to the fate of her son, this seems to have been lost to history. Did he die in infancy? Was he perhaps brought up in a workhouse or even adopted by his grandparents or another family? Did he stay in Britain or emigrate to seek his fortune overseas? We may never know.