Broughton, Spence – Highwayman was hanged for 36 years

Spence Broughton (1746-1792)

SPENCE Broughton who was born in Horbling was a highwayman

The son of farmer John Broughton and his wife Anne, he took up farming too, married and had three children.

He developed a gambling habit and left his wife for the cock-fighting scenes of Sheffield, Grantham and Derby.

This led him to a life of crime and he was executed for robbing the Sheffield and Rotherham mail.

After his execution he gained notoriety because his body was gibbeted at the scene of the crime on Attercliffe Common between Sheffield and Rotherham, where it hung for 36 years.

The robbery took place on 29 January or 9 February 1791 (sources differ) at Ickles, on the Rotherham edge of Attercliffe Common. Broughton and his accomplice John Oxley escaped towards Mansfield.

On their way they went through the contents of the post bag and found that the only item of value was a French bill of exchange worth £123, they disposed of the rest of the contents in a brook, and parted; Oxley proceeding to London to cash the bill.

Broughton and Oxley were arrested, along with John Shaw, in London in October 1791 following further robberies at Cambridge and Aylesbury. Broughton was sent to Newgate Prison, but at trial Shaw gave evidence that Broughton was the ring-leader—Oxley escaped from Clerkenwell leaving Broughton to stand trial alone.

Mr. Justice Buller, sentenced him to death by hanging “and afterwards to be hung in chains on the Common, within three miles of Sheffield, where the robbery was committed.”

The trial took only 90 minutes. Spence Broughton was executed at Tyburn near York on 14 April 1792. At his execution he is reported to have professed his innocence, “saying that he was a murdered man; that, though he came down with the intent to rob the mail, he was six miles from the place at the time of the robbery”, though he admitted receiving part of the proceeds. On 16 April Broughton’s body was taken to Attercliffe Common to be hung in a gibbet.

George Drabble, the keeper of a pub called the Arrow that was located near the site, reported that crowds started to gather on the common the day before.

The gibbet is reported to have attracted 40,000 visitors to the Common on the first day alone. Broughton’s body remained hanging in the gibbet on Attercliffe Common for nearly 36 years.

It was finally removed in 1827 when Henry Sorby, who had bought the land it stood on, had it cut down because he was tired of trespassers on his land. For more info see: http://simonjohnnewton.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/the-legacy-of-spence-broughton/