Henry Gilbert

Gilbert, Henry

Thirty year old Henry Gilbert was an agricultural labourer sentenced to death by Mr Justice Hawkins at Cambridge Assizes on 6th November for the murder of his illegitimate child. Gilbert lived with a woman called Colbert at Wailweston, near Huntingdon, and evidence showed that he had been repeatedly cruel to the child and at various times had kicked and beaten it. The child died as a result of being struck about the head as it lay in bed. Gilbert, who admitted the crime but claimed he never intended to commit murder, was recommended for mercy by the jury but later hanged by William Marwood on the 25th November 1878 at Huntingdon.