Age: unknown
Sex: male
Crime: murder
Date Of Execution: 29 Mar 1774
Execution Place: Gallows Lane, Presteigne
Method: hanging
Executioner: unknown
Source: http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/radnor.html
Monday, 28 (or Tuesday, 29) March 1774
Thomas Owen on 8 December 1773 in the parish of Llansantffraid-in-Elvel assaulted Elinor Price (otherwise Elinor Thomas) with a 2lb stone with which he struck her on the back of the head that she died instantly (WALES 4/526/7). He was ordered to be hanged on Tuesday 29 March and his body afterwards to be hanged in chains on Evenjobb Hill, New Radnor.
Quarter Sessions 12.4.74: "Paid £3.3.- to Thomas Onions for erecting gallows. Paid £4.19.6 to Francis West for work as smith in gaol and making iron for hanging in chains..."
Hereford Journal, Thursday 31 March 1774: A letter from Presteigne dated 30 March "Thomas Owen was yesterday executed at the gallows here, where he confessed the fact and seemed more desirous to die than to live. his body was afterwards hung in chains upon a gibbet erected on the most conspicuous part of Evenjob Hill in the view of new Radnor and all the adjacent roads and villages, as an example to deter villains from perpetrating so heinous a crime," Monday is more likely execution day and Tuesday for the hanging in chains.
