Posted on 05/05/2022 8:28:14 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1760, Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers became the last member of the House of Lords to hang.
A violent-tempered man — madness was said to run in the family, and this was in fact the Earl’s defense at this trial — Ferrers’ nastiness ran his wife right out of the house. Consider this was the 18th century, he must have been some kind of intolerable.
Though it was directed at another member of the household, this anecdote from the Newgate Calendar may prove illustrative of the sort of fellow we’re dealing with:
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Ferrers sounds like the kind of guy that would be a bad guy in a movie that no one would believe existed; but he did.
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