EXECUTION OF THIRKETTLE, PYE & REYNOLDS

On Saturday, at twelve o'clock, the three unhappy men who were left for execution at our last Assizes, suffered on 
Castle Hill according to their sentence.  They appeared to die very penitent, and continued in earnest and audible 
prayer with the Chaplain to the fatal moment of the platform's fall.  They had previously attended the chapel service, 
and received the holy sacrament composedly, and to all outward appearance with the disposition which that sacred 
ordinance requires.  They had requested permission of the Chaplain to take leave of their fellow-prisoners, for 
the purpose of warning them against these practices which had led them to their untimely end; and this they did 
in the most earnest, solemn, and impressive manner.   They all explicitly attributed their fall to the sin of 
Sabbath breaking as the primary cause of all their crimes - as leading them step by step from the duty to their 
God to evil company and evil practices, till they arrived at those atrocious offences which terminated in their 
disgraceful death.  Their exhortation went home to the bosom and conviction of the hardened criminal, and 
melted him into tears that would put to shame the cold apologist for the violation of God's sacred day.  
Thirkettle and Pye were most earnest in these appeals.  Reynolds seemed almost exhausted, and reiterated 
their warning in less audible voice.  But when certain prisoners came before him whom he well knew, and who
 had been connected with the gang over which he had too long presided, he gathered up all his energies, seized 
their hands, and with a tone and manner that will not easily be forgotten, exclaimed, Beware!  Take warning!  
I pray take warning by my unhappy fate!  Go out no more!  Go out no more!  And we would say to all and every 
one of his atrocious gang (whose names we understand are well known), "Beware! Go out no more."

Gilpin Reynolds was born at Corpusty, aged 24, and has left a pregnant wife and one child.  He was respectably 
connected by his mother's side.  She appears to have always been a woman of piety and good character; and she 
named this son after a Methodist preacher of some celebrity, on whose ministry she attended.  As long as he 
continued under her control he frequented some place of public worship; but from the time he withdrew himself 
from her restraints he dated his entrance upon the road to ruin.  Unhappily for himself, he followed bad advice 
and still worse example in another quarter; he proceeded from one degree of wickedness to another till he 
steeped himself in the blackest crimes.  For some time after his condemnation he denied that he was guilty 
of the crime for which he was doomed to suffer, and declared that if God should give him strength he would 
proclaim his innocence on the scaffold.  God did give him strength, but it was to confess his guilt, to 
proclaim the justice of his sentence, and to cry for mercy through the merits of his Saviour.  Even whilst 
he asserted his innocence he acknowledged that he deserved his sentence for many other offences.  He was 
thankful for spiritual comfort and instruction.  He began to pray for a softened heart and for the grace 
of repentance.  And his hope of life forsook him his protestations of innocence were silenced.  On the 
Thursday before his execution he wrote a letter to his friends, in which he neither confessed nor denied 
his guilt, but on Friday afternoon he added to his letter these lines - "Friday afternoon wrote these 
few lines by request of my mother and my uncle.  I could not say what I wanted to say when I saw them; 
this is to state that I am justly punished for what I deserve, and that there was no one else with me when 
I committed depredation for which I am to suffer."  The next day, when he appeared to be in the fittest 
state of mind, he was urged strongly to confess - and he then acknowledged the justice of the sentence, 
and said that after he passed Wm. Eke's house he went home to his own cottage to procure the requisite 
materials, and proceeded immediately to Mr Hase's premises, and set fire to the stack.  From this time 
he seemed more composed, said he had thrown off a great burden from his mind, and uttered not a sentiment 
afterwards inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity.  He has left behind him accomplices, if not so 
daring, yet guilty as himself.  Surely these men must now see that no eye is wanted to detect them but 
the eye of God.  Reynolds had proceeded in a long course of crime without detection - but at length a 
watchful providence brought so many circumstances together, that through singly weak they surrounded 
him like a net, from which he could not escape.