Editing Jack Ketch

{{short description|English executioner (died 1686)}}
{{For|the racehorse|Jack Ketch (horse)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Jack Ketch
| image         = Monmouth's Execution.gif
| alt           =
| caption       = James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth's execution, on [[Tower Hill]], by Jack Ketch, on 15 July 1685, on a playing card.
| birth_name    = John Ketch
| birth_date    = <!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} or {{Birth-date and age|birth date†}} for living people supply only the year unless the exact date is already widely published, as per WP:DOB -->
| birth_place   =
| death_date    = November 1686
| death_place   =
| years_active  = c.1663&ndash;1686
}}
'''John Ketch''' (died November 1686) was an infamous English [[executioner]] employed by King [[Charles II of England|Charles II]].<ref name="Kronenwetter2001" /> He became famous through the way he performed his duties during the tumults of the 1680s, when he was often mentioned in [[broadsheet]] accounts that circulated throughout the [[Kingdom of England]]. He is thought to have been appointed in 1663.

He executed the death sentences against [[William Russell, Lord Russell]], in [[Lincoln's Inn Fields]] on 21 July 1683, and [[James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth]], on 15 July 1685, after the [[Monmouth Rebellion]]. Ketch's notoriety stems from "barbarity at the execution of Lord Russell, the Duke of Monmouth, and other political offenders".<ref name="Green2005">{{cite book|last=Green|first=Jonathon|title=Cassell's dictionary of slang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC&pg=PA782|year=2005|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.|isbn=978-0-304-36636-1|page=782}}</ref>

Because of his botched executions, the name "Jack Ketch" is used as a proverbial name for death, [[Satan]] and executioners.<ref name="Kronenwetter2001">{{cite book|last=Kronenwetter|first=Michael|title=Capital punishment: a reference handbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SOiuzOv061EC&pg=PA172|year=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-432-9|page=172}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://lists.washlaw.edu/pipermail/deathpenalty/2006-February/004222.html|title=[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide|last=Halperin|first=Rick|date=12 February 2006|access-date=23 August 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720044514/http://lists.washlaw.edu/pipermail/deathpenalty/2006-February/004222.html|archive-date=20 July 2011}}</ref><ref name="Grose2008">{{cite book|last=Grose|first=Captain|title=1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9We0UI-TXUC&pg=178|access-date=23 August 2010|date=September 2008|publisher=BiblioBazaar, LLC|isbn=978-0-559-13810-2|page=178}}</ref>

== Appointment ==
Ketch took office in 1663, succeeding the late [[Edward Dun]], to whom he had been apprenticed. He is first mentioned in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey for 14 January 1676,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?div=t16760114-7 |title=Killing > murder, 14th January 1676 (t16760114-7)|work=Old Bailey Proceedings Online|access-date=9 October 2011}}</ref> although no printed notice of the new hangman occurred until 2&nbsp;December 1678, when a broadside appeared called ''The Plotters Ballad, being Jack Ketch's incomparable Receipt for the Cure of Traytorous Recusants and Wholesome Physick for a Popish Contagion.''{{#tag:ref|"On the top of the sheet is a woodcut, in which is represented Edward Coleman [q. v.] drawn in a sledge to the place of execution, exclaiming, 'I am sick of a traytorous disease,' while Jack Ketch, with a hatchet in one hand and a rope in the other, is saying, 'Here's your cure, sir.' "<ref name="KetchDNB"/>|group="Note"}}

In 1679, there appears from another pamphlet purporting to be written by Ketch himself, and entitled ''The Man of Destiny's Hard Fortune'', that the hangman was confined for a time in the Marshalsea prison, "whereby his hopeful harvest was like to have been blasted."<ref name="KetchDNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Ketch, John|volume= 31|pages=71–2}}</ref>

A short entry in the autobiography of [[Anthony à Wood]] for 31 August 1681 describes how [[Stephen College]] was hanged in the Castle Yard, Oxford, "and when he had hanged about half an hour, was cut down by Catch or Ketch, and quartered under the gallows, his entrails were burnt in a fire made by the gallows."<ref name="KetchDNB" />{{#tag:ref|"[Aug.] 31. Wednesday at 11. Stephen College, born at Watford in Hertfordshire, nephew to Edmund College of St. Peter's in the Bayly, suffered death by hanging in the castle yard Oxon, and when he had hanged about half an hour was cut down by Catch or Ketch, and quartered, under the gallows, his entrails were burnt in a fire made by the gallows. He spoke and prayed more than half an hour, his body was, after quartering, put into a coffin, and the same day was conveyed to London, and buried privately the Thursday following at night in St. Gregory's church near St. Paul's."<ref name="Wood1813">{{cite book|last=Wood|first=Anthony à|title=Athenae Oxonienses: An exact history of all the writers and bishops who have had their education in the University of Oxford. To which are added the Fasti, or Annals of the said University|url=https://archive.org/details/b30456903_0002|access-date=23 August 2010|year=1813|publisher=Rivington|page=[https://archive.org/details/b30456903_0002/page/92 92]}}</ref>|group="Note"}}

== Lord Russell's execution ==
<blockquote>
On that occasion, Ketch wielded the instrument of death either with such sadistically nuanced skill or with such lack of simple dexterity &ndash; nobody could tell which &ndash; that the victim suffered horrifically under blow after blow, each excruciating but not in itself lethal. Even among the bloodthirsty throngs that habitually attended English beheadings, the gory and agonizing display had created such outrage that Ketch felt moved to write and publish a pamphlet titled ''Apologie'', in which he excused his performance with the claim that Lord Russell had failed to "dispose himself as was most suitable" and that he was therefore distracted while taking aim on his neck.<ref name="Fiorillo2010">{{cite book|last=Fiorillo|first=Juré|title=Great Bastards of History: True and Riveting Accounts of the Most Famous Illegitimate Children Who Went on to Achieve Greatness|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQ8amBTgny8C&pg=PA82|access-date=23 August 2010|date=2010-01-01|publisher=Fair Winds|isbn=978-1-59233-401-8|page=82}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Ketch was paid by Russell beforehand, as it was customary for those sentenced to death by beheading (which in those days was "reserved for ... aristocrats")<ref>{{cite book |last=Misra |first=Amalendu |date=2022 |title=On Beheading |location=Cham, Switzerland |publisher=Springer Nature |page=144 |isbn=978-3-030-96142-8}}</ref> "to tip the public executioner in advance. It was hoped this would encourage him to do a swift and efficient job, hopefully despatching the victim in one clean blow."<ref name="Lord">{{cite book |last=Lord |first=Monty |author-link=Monty Lord |date=2023 |title=Bizarre Laws & Curious Customs of the UK: Vol. I |location=Preston, Lancashire |publisher=Young Legal Eagles |page=92 |isbn=978-1-7397488-3-8}}</ref> In spite of this, Ketch allegedly "did such a bad job that, after the axe hit the side of Russell's head, Russell looked up at him and said, 'You dog, did I give you ten [[guinea (coin)|guineas]] to use me so inhumanely?'"<ref name="Lord"/> However, in the pamphlet purportedly authored by him, Ketch "repudiated the charge"<ref name="Lee">{{cite book |last=Lee |first=Sidney |author-link=Sidney Lee |date=1892 |title=Dictionary of National Biography: Vol. XXXI |location=London |publisher=Smith, Elder, & Co. |page=71}}</ref> that Russell had paid him twenty guineas the night before the execution (although he stated it was "true I receav'd 10. Guenies"<ref>{{cite web |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A47287.0001.001/1:1?rgn=div1;view=fulltext |title=The apologie of John Ketch, Esq., the executioner of London, in vindication of himself as to the execution of the late Lord Russel, on July 21, 1683 |last=Ketch |first=John |website=University of Michigan Library |access-date=21 August 2024}}</ref> from him on the [[scaffold (execution site)|scaffold]]), that Russell had insulted him, or that he had struck Russell's shoulder rather than his head. Although biographer [[Sidney Lee]] believed that the pamphlet was "probably written by Ketch himself",<ref name="Lee"/> author Stephen Wade describes the provenance of ''The Apology of John Ketch Esq.'' as "questionable",<ref name="Wade">{{cite book |last=Wade |first=Stephen |date=2009 |title=Britain's Most Notorious Hangmen |location=Barnsley |publisher=Pen & Sword Books |page=27 |isbn=978-1-84563-082-9}}</ref> since we have "no accurate notion of who wrote"<ref name="Wade"/> it. He argues that "it may well have been what we would now call a '[[ghost writer]]' out to make a few [[groat (English coin)|groats]] by fabricating a biography of a notorious public figure."<ref name="Wade"/>

== James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth's execution ==
<blockquote>He [the duke] would not make use of a cap or other circumstance, but lying down, bid the fellow to do his office better than to the late Lord Russell, and gave him gold; but the wretch made five chops before he had his head off; which so incensed the people, that had he not been guarded and got away, they would have torn him to pieces.<ref name="EvelynBray1889">{{cite book|last1=Evelyn|first1=John|last2=Bray|first2=William|title=The diary of John Evelyn, Esq., F. R. S.: from 1641 to 1705-6 : with memoir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hXQqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA481|year=1889|publisher=F. Warne|page=481}}</ref></blockquote>

== Later life and death ==<!-- needs better name -->
In January 1686, Ketch was committed to Bridewell Prison for "affronting" a sheriff. His assistant, [[Paskah Rose]], formerly a butcher, took his place. However, on 28 May, following his conviction for robbery, Rose himself was hanged at [[Tyburn, London|Tyburn]], and Ketch was reinstated. Ketch died in November 1686.<ref name="KetchDNB"/> Ketch's "wife is reported to have said, “That any bungler might put a man to death, but that her husband only knew how to make a Gentleman die sweetly.”"<ref>{{cite book |last=Woodfall Ebsworth |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth |date=1883 |title=The Roxburghe Ballads: Volume IV |location=Hertford |publisher=The Ballad Society |page=86}}</ref>

== Fiction ==
In 1836, a fictitious autobiography of Ketch, with illustrations from designs by Meadows entitled ''The autobiography of Jack Ketch'', was published.<ref name = "KetchDNB"/><ref name="Whitehead1835">{{cite book|last=Whitehead|first=Charles|title=The autobiography of Jack Ketch|url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyja00whitgoog|access-date=23 August 2010|year=1835|publisher=Carey, Lea & Blanchard}}</ref> Another book entitled ''Life of Jack Ketch with Cuts of his own Execution'' was furnished by Tom Hood for the Duke of Devonshire's library at Chatsworth.<ref name = "KetchDNB"/>

Jack Ketch is one of the characters in [[Giovanni Piccini]] (d. 1835) ''The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of [[Punch and Judy]]'' as dictated to [[John Payne Collier]], in 1828.{{sfn|Banham|1995|p=888}} He is mentioned in the [[Charles Dickens]] novels ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', ''[[Dombey and Son]]'', ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''<ref name="Dickens1837">{{cite book|last=Dickens|first=Charles|title=The Pickwick Papers|year=1837|publisher=Premier Classics|page=119|isbn=978-0-307-29175-2}}</ref> and ''[[David Copperfield (novel)|David Copperfield]]'' and in the [[Cyril M. Kornbluth|C. M. Kornbluth]] science fiction story "[[The Marching Morons]]" (1951). More recently, Jack Ketch plays a role in [[Neal Stephenson]]'s 2003 and 2004 volumes ''[[Quicksilver (novel)|Quicksilver]]'' and  ''[[The System of the World (novel)|The System of the World]]'', the first and last volumes, respectively, in his ''[[The Baroque Cycle]]'' series (though the last volume is set in 1714, well after the death of the historical Jack Ketch.) Ketch makes a brief appearance in issue #10 of [[Bill Willingham]]'s comic book series [[Fables (comics)|''Fables'']] and in the first book of [[Ben Aaronovitch]] Rivers of London series.

He is mentioned briefly in the 1951 movie of ''A Christmas Carol'' with [[Alistair Sim]], when Mr. Jorkin warns the directors of the Amalgamated Mercantile Society to watch out for Scrooge and Marley, as "They'd skin Jack Ketch alive and he'd never know they'd done it."

The long-running radio program [[Suspense (radio drama)|Suspense]] aired an episode titled "Jack Ketch" starring British actor Charles Laughton on September 22, 1952.

== Notes ==
'''Footnotes'''
{{Reflist|group="Note"}}

'''Citations'''
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
*{{cite book |last=Banham |first=Martin |year=1995 |title=The Cambridge guide to theatre |edition=2, illustrated, revised, reprint |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-43437-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto0000banh/page/888 888] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto0000banh/page/888 }}
*{{cite book|last=Piccini |first=Giovanni |orig-year=1860 |year=1976 |editor-first=John Payne |editor-last=Collier |title=The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Punch and Judy |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd |page=53 |isbn=0-7100-8199-5}}

== External links ==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Ketch, John|volume=15|page=761}}
* [http://everything2.com/title/Jack+Ketch Jack Ketch], [[Everything2]]

{{s-start}}
{{succession box
| before = [[Edward Dun]]
| title  = British office of hangman
| years  = 1663–1686
| after  = [[Paskah Rose]]
}}
{{end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ketch, Jack}}
[[Category:English executioners]]
[[Category:1686 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]