Alexander Green (–1879) was an Australian executioner. He arrived in the colony of New South Wales in 1824 as a convict and was granted a Certificate of Freedom in 1831. During the period 1826 to late 1833 Green was employed as a flagellator, or scourger, at Sydney, Port Stephens and the Hunter Valley, inflicting floggings on those who had received a sentence of corporal punishment. In February 1834 he was appointed as the colony's public executioner, beginning a career of twenty-one years during which Green carried out about 250 hangings. During most of his employment as the New South Wales hangman, judicial executions were able to be viewed by the public. His last execution in February 1855 was the first private hanging after the enactment of legislation to abolish public executions in New South Wales. Towards the end of his career Green's behaviour became increasingly erratic due to drunkenness and mental instability. He was declared to be insane in April 1855 and committed to a lunatic asylum. Alexander Green died at the Parramatta Asylum on 31 August 1879.

Biography

Early life

Alexander Green was born in about 1802.Convict Indents (Countess of Harcourt), NSW State Archives: Series: NRS 12188; Item: [4/4009A]; Microfiche: 654. Records about Green's place of birth vary, though his early convict records indicate he was born in Holland.

In early 1824 Green was charged with stealing textile fabric from the shop of James Sayer; he was convicted on 16 January 1824 at the Shrewsbury General Quarter Sessions (in Shropshire, in the West Midlands of England), and sentenced to transportation for life. In early February he was placed aboard the prison hulk Justitia, moored on the River Thames.Pamela Harrison (2017), page 182.

Transportation to Australia

Green was transported to New South Wales with 170 other convicts aboard the Countess of Harcourt. The vessel departed from England on 23 March 1824 and arrived at Sydney Cove on 12 July. On his arrival in Sydney the convict indents describe Green in the following terms: Alexander Green, born in Holland and aged 22 years; occupation, "tumbler" (acrobat); tall, with light blue eyes, very fair hair and a pale, slightly pitted, complexion.

Green was initially assigned to William Hutchison, part-owner of a flour-mill at Waterloo. In May 1825 correspondence was received from the authorities in England informing the Colonial Secretary in Sydney that Green's life sentence had been commuted to transportation for seven years.Copies of Letters Sent Within the Colony (1814-1827), Colonial Secretary's Papers (1788-1856): Series: NRS 937; Fiche Numbers: Reels 6004-6016. During 1825 Hutchinson sold his interest in the Waterloo flour-mill and Green's assignment was transferred in August 1825 to the Rev. Samuel Marsden at Parramatta.Pamela Harrison (2017), page 184.

Scourger

In early 1826 Green was brought back to Sydney and housed at the Hyde Park Barracks, where he was employed as "a probationer flagellator", also known as a scourger or flogger, whose job was to inflict floggings on those who had received a judicial sentence of corporal punishment. At about that time Robert Dawson, the manager of the Australian Agricultural Company (A.A.Co.), wrote to the Colonial Secretary requesting the services of a flagellator to be attached to the police at Port Stephens. The company was commencing operations in the area, making use of a large contingent of convicts. Green volunteered for the position and he was sent by boat from Sydney to Port Stephens.

In April 1827 Green was appointed as an Honorary Constable at Port Stephens, but two months later he was dismissed from the position after he assisted another constable named John Maher in perpetrating an assault. Maher was also dismissed for the assault and an additional charge of drunkenness.Government Notice, Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 16 April 1827, page 1.Government Notice, Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 27 June 1827, page 1.

In the Census of November 1828 Green was recorded as living at Port Stephens and working with the A.A.Co. as a labourer.State Records Authority of New South Wales, 1828 Census: Alphabetical Return; Series Number: NRS 1272; Reel: 2554. At some time during the following year he was returned to Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney where, in November 1829, he was promoted from probationary to third-class scourger. In April 1830 he received another promotion, to second-class scourger.Pamela Harrison (2017), page 185.

On 26 January 1831 Green was granted a Certificate of Freedom after having served his seven-year sentence. By 1831 Green's hair had turned white and he had a large scar across his nose and cheek, as well as scars on the fingers of his right hand.Certificates of Freedom (1827-1867), State Records Authority of New South Wales: Series Number: NRS 12210; Archive Roll: 987.Pamela Harrison (2017), page 186.

Green continued to be employed as a scourger at the Hyde Park Barracks until the end of August 1832, when he was replaced by John McDonough. Green then found employment as a scourger at the 'Merton' estate (near Denman in the Hunter Valley), a parcel of land granted to William Ogilvie. Early in 1833 Green was hospitalised, but resumed working as a scourger at 'Merton' by early March.Pamela Harrison (2017), pages 186-187. In October 1833 Green submitted an application to resign from his position at 'Merton', but he was informed by the local Bench of Magistrates that he was to remain until a successor arrived. In early December 1833 Ogilvie informed the Colonial Secretary, Alexander Macleay, that Green had absconded from 'Merton'. In January 1834 Green, by then living in King Street in Sydney, submitted his version of events to the Colonial Secretary. He claimed he had resigned "through actual fear of losing his life" after a man had "used most violent and opprobrious language" to him. Out of a fear for his life, Green had the man brought before the Bench of Magistrates, but afterwards others spoke to him in a similarly threatening manner, such that he was afraid to "venture out to look after... cattle". Green's petition was ignored until early August, when it was sent to the Merton Bench for comment. Ogilvie responded in late October 1834, disputing Green's version of events.

Executioner

Sydney Gaol

On 17 January 1834 the New South Wales Sheriff, Thomas Macquoid, wrote to the Colonial Secretary nominating Alexander Green as the replacement for Thomas Hughes, who had been the colony's public executioner since 1811.Rachel Franks (2022), page 348.Pamela Harrison (2017), page 188. Mcquoid explained that Hughes had "for some time been unable to perform his duty in a proper manner from the gradual decay of his sight".State Archives of New South Wales, Colonial Secretary, NRS 905, [4/2202.3], 33/1673; quoted in Pamela Harrison (2017), page 188. Green's appointment was approved and he commenced in the position in February 1834 on a salary of one shilling and sixpence per day. Green's assistant in his new role was Thomas Worrall, who had been working as Thomas Hughes' assistant since 1822. Worrall was a transported convict serving a life sentence.Pamela Harrison (2017), page 190.

Green's appointment as executioner was acknowledged in several of the colonial newspapers. The Australian announced: "A new Jack Ketch is at present taking his degrees and what is more surprising, he is a freed man. – So much for taste".A new Jack Ketch..., The Australian (Sydney), 14 February 1834, page 2. The Sydney Monitor newspaper reported that Hughes "has been allowed to retire from his arduous duties, on a pension, after holding the situation for many years", adding that his successor, Green, "is well-known in the Colony, having officiated as scourger at almost every Government station".Hughes (the finisher of the law)..., Sydney Monitor, 21 February 1834, page 2.

Green's base of operations during his first seven years as the colony's executioner was the Sydney Gaol (also known as the County Gaol), constructed in 1800, on the corner of George and Essex streets in The Rocks area of Sydney.Ray & Richard Beckett (1980), pages 27-28.Execution, The Australian (Sydney), 30 September 1829, page 4. Green's first assignment as public executioner was probably the hanging of three prisoners in "the felons' yard" of Sydney Gaol on 6 March 1834. The condemned men were William Johnson, William Elliott and Edward Gill (or Gills).Execution, Sydney Herald, 10 March 1834, page 3; Execution, Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 8 March 1834, page 2; the reports do not name the hangman. The scaffold was located at the rear of the gaol; members of the public were granted access to the gaol-yard to witness hangings and the structure was also visible to the public from a nearby hill outside the gaol walls.Sydney Gaol, Dictionary of Sydney website, State Library of New South Wales; accessed 13 August 2023.

One early morning in August 1834, in a section of The Domain overlooking Sydney Cove, Green was caught by a police constable in a dalliance with a married woman named Bridget Horrigan. The woman was charged with deserting her home and "entertaining an inveterate love for a gentleman connected with the finishing department of the law", as a result of which she was sentenced to two months' hard labour at the Parramatta Female Factory.Police Incidents: Bridget Horrigan..., Sydney Herald, 1 September 1834, page 4.Ray & Richard Beckett (1980), pages 101-102.

In September 1834 Green was sent to the Norfolk Island penal settlement for the execution of thirteen mutineers, convicted after the rebellion that occurred on the island on 15 January 1834. The brig Governor Phillip departed for Norfolk Island on 10 September, with Green and two clerics on board, an Anglican and a Catholic. The priests were to provide spiritual solace to the men before the hangman performed his job. Seven of the mutineers were hanged on 22 September and the remaining six were executed the following day.Ray & Richard Beckett (1980), pages 107-110.Shipping Intelligence, Sydney Herald, 11 September 1834, page 2.

On 8 April 1836 Green was brought before the Police Court "for using his usual threatening language" towards a widowed laundress named Ester Howell. Only two days previously the hangman had been bound to keep the peace in regard to his harassment of the woman. Green's previous recognisances were forfeited and he was jailed for the offence. The journalist who reported the case commented on Green's physical appearance: "The man Green is well fitted for this office, judging from his countenance, for if ever the whole evil passions of man could be concentrated into one face, he is the man who may rejoice in it", adding: "What a skull for a phrenologist!".Yesterday the common Hangman..., Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 9 April 1836, page 3.On Friday last, Alexander Green..., Sydney Herald, 11 April 1836, page 2.Ray & Richard Beckett (1980), pages 102-103.