As Calcraft and Evans took hold of the noose around the neck of Mary Ann, she was lifted slightly and the noose was untied from around her neck, she was then lowered onto the wooden planks of the gallows. Calcraft slipped the blood stained white hood from her head, Mary Ann’s face was swollen and contorted with her eyes slightly opened, her right eye was slightly protruding from its orbit, her nose and mouth had been bleeding, her mouth was agape and her lips were swollen, congealed blood being deposited to the insides of the white hood. Calcraft then untied the leather restraints from her hands, arms and ankles. Factual recorded evidence suggests that Calcraft must have been totally unmoved by such sights, which by all accounts is probably true because he rolled Mary Ann over and removed the straps from her corpse as though he was untying his boot laces! After removing the leather straps he took the items and noose and placed them back into his canvas holdall. Shortly before 2 o’clock that afternoon Margaret Stott and her daughter were escorted to the bleak and barren convict’s burial area near to the Western Wall of the prison close to the Prison Kitchen. Her soul was already doomed in the eyes of the church and law, her burial place no more than a piece of earth unfit for habitation and certainly nothing of serenity. Several officials from the prison were already in attendance at the internment place, ready for the burial. However Calcraft and Evans would have gazed upon the burial scene as they made their way to the Governor’s office. Once there they had their expenses and legal documents signed by Deputy Governor James Young. Later Calcraft and Evans made their way to the prison cookhouse, a free meal being the order of the day. Meanwhile at the convict’s burial site, there would be no ceremony, no religious statements, quite simply Mary Ann’s coffin was lowered by ropes into the burial hole and then quicklime was shovelled onto the coffin. Margaret Stott threw a token of affection onto the coffin as trusted (red-band) prisoners shovelled on the remaining earth. After a few words spoken by Margaret Stott, the mother and daughter hugged each other, a fleeting glimpse followed as both women where then escorted from the prison to catch the train back to South Hetton colliery Durham. Later that afternoon a dispute at the Coroners Inquest would arise as to where the noose had vanished to? That dispute can now be put to rest as I have with research established conclusively that Calcraft took it back to London with him, later giving it to Evans (April 1873), who displayed it within his home and from there it was apparently sold to a private individual back in the early 1900’s. Another fact I can clear up is that Mary Ann’s shoes were placed within the coffin along with her black and white checked shawl. ©. All Text 2000-2010 & 2025.
