Jarrow Slake, gibbet

William Jobling was a miner, hanged in 1832 for the murder of Nicholas Fairles, colliery owner and magistrate. After the hanging Jobling's body was carried through the streets in a cart to be displayed on a gibbet at Jarrow Slake. He was one of the last people to be gibetted in England. Jobling and his companion Ralph Armstrong were on strike when they begged the magistrate for money on 11 June 1832. When Fairles refused Armstrong attacked him with a stick and then fled, leaving Jobling to take the blame for Fairles' death. The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne has a woodcut print dating to the 1830s depicting the murder. The text above the picture reads: "the body of the unfortunate Jobling hangs in a very conspicuous place in Jarrow Slake. Great crowds continue to visit the spot, and at high water several boats appraoch the spot on which the body is suspended. The sight from the road is most appalling. A collection is making at the turnpike gate for the widow and children of the unfortunate man; but it is much to be desired that the contributions for this object were placed in the hands of some respectable person who would see to its being properly applied. Jobling, it will be remembered, was executed for the murder of Mr Fairles, a magistrate. Was his case so much worse than that of Cooke, that ministers should revoke the gibbeting sentence for the latter, and enforce it on the former? Or is gibbeting supposed to be more effective in Durham than it is in Leciester?".