Todo
Add more complete accounts.
Note
The murder took place on the road between Hilsea and Portsmouth, roughly at Halfway Houses (later Landport). I know I’ve read at least one account that describes all the marines in the district being drawn up on the Common to watch the hanging.
In 1768 Samuel James Lewis, proprietor of the well-known inn and coaching house the Battle of Minden at Hilsea, was robbed and murdered along the road between Hilsea and Portsmouth, near Halfway Houses (the area later known as Landport). His assailant, Sergeant Williams of the Royal Marines, shot Lewis from his horse and robbed him of his watch. Williams was convicted of the crime at Winchester, on the evidence of the watch and the testimony of his accomplice and fellow marine, Sergeant Grant. Sentenced to hang on Southsea Common, all the marines in the district were drawn up to watch his execution (pour encourager les autres). Afterward, his body was gibbeted but later removed in secret by his comrades, likely for burial. Fifty years later, during fortification work around Portsmouth, bones that were widely believed to be those of Williams were discovered in a shallow grave.
In 1772 Sergeant Williams is still hanging in chains. This might contradict the story of his body being secretly buried by his comrades - would his comrades wait four years?
Tangent
(this needs to be tidied up, it’s a theory that’s been proven wrong)
I’ve long been interested in the lost Felton obelisk, which was traditionally believed to stand over the remains of the post John Felton was gibbetted on. There’s no evidence that this lump of wood was actually Felton’s gibbet; it could just have easily been Williams’. (Or a random post, for that matter.) The mention of the skull being found near the bathing machines while repairing the stockading of the glacis suggests the remains were found near the King’s Bastion, which is a skip and a jump from the traditional location of Felton’s gibbet.
On top of that, John Pory, writing just a week after Felton was hanged, says Felton “…was hanged up in chaines two mile on this side Portsmouth, and so was seen on Monday morning by one that came from Portsmouth, some butts length from the road…” - if Pory’s report is accurate, I think Williams’ gibbet might be the best candidate for that mystery post.
On the other hand, we’ve got this from Memorials in Portsmouth: ‘A report from the Court Books for the Manors of Portsea and Copnor, dated 1782, alleges that “Felton’s Gibbet having been washed away or carried away, Ye Lords of Portsea and certain persons of the Borough met to replace it at the boundary’, and fifteen years probably isn’t enough time for the two gibbets to be confused.
In fact, the 1765 engraving “A south-east view of Portsmouth” shows Felton’s Gibbet, and so nixes this whole theory - it’s less than 40 years from Felton’s execution, and crucially it’s before Williams’.
Quote
“BATTLE OF MINDEN.”
A well-known inn and coaching house at Hilsea which has long since disappeared. It used to boast a signboard painted by Sir Robert Kerporter. About the middle of the 18th Century it gained unenviable notoriety, its proprietor, Samuel James Lewis, being robbed and murdered by a sergeant of the Royal Marines, named Williams, who was tried at Winchester, convicted, and hanged on Southsea Common in 1768. His gibbeted body was taken down and buried secretly by his comrades, the mystery of its disappearance being solved 20 years later, when the remains were found during some excavations on the fortifications.
— Hampshire Telegraph, Friday 13 February, 1925 (source)
Note
The above text also appears verbatim in Portsmouth in the Past, William G Gates, 1926
Quote
in 1794 Robert Ker Porter painted Christ allaying the Storm for the Roman Catholic chapel at Portsea, Portsmouth
Note
It seems likely he would have painted the pub sign in the same visit (1794). It was certainly after the murder, because he wasn’t really active as a painter until 1790.
Quote
July 28, 1768. Sergeant Williams hung on Southsea Common for the murder of Samuel Lewis, landlord of the Battle of Minden at Hilsea.
— Slight, Henry and Julian (1828) Chronicles of Portsmouth. Lupton Relfe, 13, Cornhill, London (source)
Quote
Sergeant Williams, Royal Marines, hanged on Southsea Common, for the murder of Samuel James Lewis, landlord of the Battle of Minden public house at Hilsea.
— Annals of Portsmouth, William H. Saunders, 1880 (source)
Quote
The stockading of the glacis of Southsea is undergoing a repair, and on Wednesday last a human scull and some other bones were dug up near the bathing machines: they lay scarcely two inches below the surface, and are supposed to be the bones of one Williams, a sergeant of the marines, who was convicted on the evidence of an accomplice, and also a sergeant of the marines, named Grant, about the year 1758, of the murder of a man of property near the Battle of Minden public-house, at Hilsea. Williams was tried at Winchester, and it being clearly proved that he, in company with Grant, shot the man dead off his horse and plundered him, and his watch having been traced to Williams, opened the whole affair, and he was accordingly sentenced to be hung and gibbetted at the bathing machines, Southsea Common, which was accordingly executed; but some time after the body was taken down in the night from the gibbet, supposed by the Marines, who much respected him before his crime, and privately buried him in some adjacent spot, which render it more than probable that those bones were Williams’s.
— Hampshire Chronicle, Monday 09 December, 1816 (source)
Note
“sentenced to be hung and gibbetted at the bathing machines” is a hell of a phrase. Pure blood and candyfloss.
Quote
1816 […]
—June. Board of Ordnance grant permission for the erection of bathing-rooms on Portsmouth beach. […]
—Saturday, November 9. The bathing-rooms at Southsea levelled to the ground by violence of the sea. […]
The stockading of the Glacis of Southsea being under repair a human skull and other bones dug up near the bathing machines. They lay scarcely two inches below the surface and supposed to be the bones of one Williams, a serjeant of marines, who was executed in the year 1768, for the murder of a man of some consideration and property, near the public-house called the Battle of Minden, near Hilsea. Williams was tried at Winchester, and convicted upon the evidence of an accomplice, Serjeant Grant, also of the marines. Williams, it appeared shot the man off his horse and plundered him of his watch which led to the discovery of his crime. He was sentenced to be gibbeted which accordingly took place near the bathing machines but a short time afterwards the body was clandestinely taken down from the gibbet, and, it was conjectured, buried by the marines of the division, with whom Williams was a favourite before he committed the crime for which he suffered.
— Slight, Henry and Julian (1828) Chronicles of Portsmouth. Lupton Relfe, 13, Cornhill, London (source)